First Step for Iowa Care Providers to Utilize Medicaid Home and Community Based Service Option
Essential Learning and Iowa Respite and Crisis Care Coalition (IRCCC) have partnered to offer specialized on-line training packages to providers that care for people that are disabled in their homes. Iowa has been tapped by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as the first state in the country to add home and community based service options to its Medicaid state plan. Now professionals in Iowa can be reimbursed by Medicaid to provide in-home services to help individuals live in their homes as long as possible rather than institutions. This project will offer targeted training required by the state for providers to receive reimbursement and will support Iowa care providers in their challenging work.
On the IRCCC e-learning page, www.cequick.com/irccc, specialized training packages and an e-learning certification on a variety of topics are available for providers. Course packages include:
* Adult DD Waiver
* Adult SMI Waiver
* AIDS/HIV Waiver
* Brain Injury Waiver
* Child DD Waiver
* Child Mental Health Waiver
* Ill and Handicapped Waiver
* Older Adults DD Waiver
* Seniors Waiver
Course packages are discounted for IRCCC members and offer continuing education credit from the American Psychological Association, Association of Social Work Boards, National Association of Social Workers, National Board of Certified Counselors, American Nurses Credentialing Center. Also non-profit organizations that provide in-home respite services can take advantage of an affordable customized learning management system that tracks and reports on trainings taken by employees.
Essential Learning is the largest provider of e-learning services in the behavioral health and human services industry and IRCCC is an individual membership organization dedicated to increasing access and public awareness regarding respite and crisis care services that benefits the community. IRCCC will serve as the conduit for providers in Iowa to provide the specialized training packages.
“We are very excited to be working with IRCCC to train care providers and to provide this training easily on-line,” said Sue Erskine, CEO of Essential Learning. “We will be watching closely to see the impact of the trainings in helping providers enter the in-home care workforce, especially since Iowa is the first state CMS has approved for care providers to be paid through Medicaid,” Erskine further added.
“Iowa is a primarily rural state with the third oldest population in the nation. Finding qualified professionals to provide care in local communities is incredibly challenging,” said Doug Cunningham, Executive Director of IRCCC. “On-line learning provides a viable opportunity to train local community members to become Medicaid providers and gives us the ability to offer a universal and comprehensive training system for the entire State of Iowa. We view this partnership as a first step in expanding and maintaining a stronger and more educated network of individual providers of home care,” Cunningham further stated.
On the IRCCC e-learning page the Cultural Diversity course is available at no cost to help in-home providers get started with on-line learning. To access this free course, go to www.cequick.com/irccc and follow these easy steps:
* Go to the Accreditation dropdown in the left hand column and choose either the “ANCC” or “Generic Certificate”
* In the Subject dropdown, select "Cultural Diversity" and then click "Next"
* Fill-out a short registration form to create your login and password
* Log in to complete the course materials
* Take your test. As soon as you pass the test (with a score of 80% or higher) you can print your CE certificate
Essential Learning was founded in 2002 and is based in San Diego, California. The company contracts with more than 300 organizations in more than 40 states. For more information, visit www.essentiallearning.com.