Lifespan Funding with Amelia
Transcript of a staff meeting where Amelia explains the Lifespan voucher program for unpaid caregivers: the voucher is $1,000 per family (split if multiple children), must be used within 90 days of issuance (extensions possible), and reimburses non-therapy respite services (e.g., in-home care, camps, classes, recreation). The group discusses application flow (simple online form, phone follow-up by 'Barb'), which agencies are registered (Brave Warrior and Ohana), invoicing expectations (voucher email must be presented; invoices should list caregiver, care recipient, dates/hours or package span), and coordination with DDA and other funding sources (Ben’s Fund, mileage). Operational next steps include adding info to the clinic website, helping families apply, and clarifying contract renewal and invoicing details with Barb.
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You're going to have to okay it on your computers, though. Somebody needs to on the ohana.
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I think you have to accept that you're recording. Hi, Amelia, thanks for coming.
Thank you. So Life, the Lifespan voucher, it's a formal voucher for unpaid caregivers who support a family member, friend or neighbor who has a special need or condition. The voucher is used to pay for services or programs that allow caregivers to have respite or short breaks. So for example, like in home services, recreation day or overnight camps, day services, education, classes, retreats, 24 hour care. So basically anything that any service that the parent is not taking care of the child, it's the person. It doesn't cover therapies because therapies are covered by medical insurance. But something like qri, it's the person that's doing the session, that's doing the session with the child, not the parent. So that covers. And Barb from Lifespan, she said basically any program that you guys make for kids, where you guys are the ones, you know, in charge of the children, that could be a lifespan, they can use the voucher for that. And then the voucher is for $1,000. Yes.
So Amelia, to clarify, something like that could look like if we eventually did a plan, play, group or something.
Yeah.
Where they came and kids.
Yes. And there's. There's only two agencies in the valley that are registered with Lifespan. Any agency can register with them, but I guess it's something that not a lot of people know. Brave Warrior uses it a lot for the respite program. And then now Ohana is also registered. So if the therapist or whoever, if you guys did like a group, a reading group or, you know, whatever, something that's not therapy, but outside of that, it can cover from this. And then so it's a thousand dollar for family. So if, for example, if there's two kids that have, you know, disabilities in the family, it's $1,000, but they're split between both of the children. So it would be 500 and 500. And then they have 90 days to use this voucher from the time that they get it, that's the date that it starts, and they have to use it within that 90 days. Sometimes they do give extensions. So if it expires, I do this a lot. It expires a lot. And they didn't use all the money. And then I called Barb and she's like, yeah, I'll give an extension. So just FYI, she's pretty nice about giving extensions, but try to have the family use it within the 90 days. And it does not matter how much the program costs. Like she says, they're basically going to pay for whatever the program. If it's $100 a session for QRI or if it's $1,000, they have in one place where they pay $1,000 for one night over respite, and it's a $1,000 one night. So it just depends on how much you want to charge and how much it costs for that service. And then how do you get the respite voucher? So basically, it's basically for anyone, for any child that has a special need, that or developmental delay that does not have dda, they, they have all these rules, but technically if they don't have dda, they qualify because they'll say like, for any person that takes care of the child 40 hours or more. Well, obviously parents, you know, the child is with their parents most of the time, so. And obviously, yeah, go ahead.
They don't have to have a diagnosis.
Anyone who has a developmental delay and it has, it's very. So whenever you're doing the application, it's very, very simple. It only takes like five minutes to do. You click on this link and I did write down the link in the form and the phone number to call Barb if you guys have any questions. But the first section is about the parents just asking, name, phone number, address, ethnicity. And then the second piece of it is asking about the child and it asks like, what is the child? Does the child have a diagnosis? And it's very broad. In one box it's like autism, down syndrome, developmental delay, intellectual disability. It's like 10 different diagnoses in one box. So you just check the box. They don't need to know, you don't, you don't need to prove, you don't need proof of like Social Security, income, the diagnosis, stuff like that. But if you are someone who needs care because your child has one of those underlying, then they qualify. So it says here, like, to qualify for the voucher, you must be an unpaid caregiver, provide 40 or more hours of care, live in Washington state, not be able to afford respite. And so basically all they're saying is like. And then I wrote down on the second page where it says how to apply for a voucher. That's the link where you go in and you apply. And it's also in The Ohana website. And then.
On a website.
What was that?
How to apply is in our Ohana website.
I added some information on it on our wellness pages. So that. And the Ben sponge too, because, yeah, I just did that like a week.
Or so ago and I haven't seen where it's at, but it's really nice to have it somewhere where it's very easy to just click on the button and just go. Because it's so, so easy to fill out. Like I said, it only takes like just a few minutes. Not a lot of questions, not a lot of verifying things, which is nice. So the next thing that I talked about was. So parents will fill out the form and then they will get a call from Barb and basically they're going to ask them those three questions. Do they still want lifespan? Yes. Do they have dda? No. Which agency will they be using? And they'll just say Ohana. And that's basically it. They'll tell them that they. They will get the voucher and then they will get the voucher in their email and they need to present Ohana with that email, like forward to Ohana. And I don't know who's going to be in charge of that. Or. Or it could be.
It would be me because I have in the contract how to get paid. And I. I'm assuming that I'm giving them the voucher information. One thing to know is that because of their cycle, our contract ends this at the end of this month and then I have to renew it. And I don't know what the renewing process is. Hopefully it's easier than getting it set up. So anything, any we can do between now and the end of the month would be great just to get it going. You know, if you guys know people that would be good to do this with.
Hopefully it won't take long to renew this, but I don't have processes yet.
I don't know much about that, but I think it's just like you letting them know that you want to renew. And I think they just renew it. I think it's. The renewal process is easy. And then I think Barb.
Mary emailed Barb a couple weeks ago to check on that and I think she'll just send a new contract to sign. Okay.
Yes.
I don't know much about dda.
What is it?
What?
Yeah, what is it? What families would be utilizing.
Okay, so DDA is. I think a lot of you guys know who my son and my daughter is. So someone. Someone that has a Disability and I can send you guys the application so you guys can know which. Which disabilities go under. Which. For example, a person who has autism, they have to be four years or older because before they're four, they're in the Birth to three program. So DDA is for someone who has a disability and they're going to need care. They're going to need some care. So anyone that, for example, like my daughter, she qualified for dda, but someone like my son who's more high functioning, he might or he might not because he does. He doesn't have bathroom issues now, but because he had bathroom issues, they were saying that he probably did qualify even though he's high functioning. And then it depends on how much needs they have. It depends how many hours they have. So there's two different programs within the DDA for children with disabilities. One of them is the personal care. So someone will come to my house and take care of my daughter while I take a break. They can do things like cook for her. They can even do things like clean clean, like help her with homework or giving her a shower. You know, anything like that. So it's the in home personal care, but then there's also the out in the community hours and the out in the community hours. It covers places like Alethea and it covers places like every program from the Brave Warrior DDA covers, does not cover services that insurance covers, but they cover other services. Any service that you give to the child that is that the parent is not taking care of the child is covered by dda, but again, they cover anything that's not covered by insurance. So there's those two programs. And then when the child turns 18, right now, they don't pay the parents to take care of the child, but when the child turns 18, the parent can get paid to be the caregiver. And then once the child turns 18, there's other services like residential living. So they'll help them get settled into like living, whether that means they live on their own or they live with other people. And then they'll have caregivers come in and watch over them and like, you know, do they need caregivers 24 hours a day? Do they just need a caregiver to just come and help them cook and clean and give them medicine and that kind of stuff? And then the other program within the dda, there's so many programs. The other program is job coaching. So they'll help them get jobs and they'll go to the job and help them and make sure and they do the whole transition program. So there's different programs based on their age, but it's for people that have disabilities. And it depends, like, the more needs they have, the more services they get. I really do encourage anyone that has a child with disability getting dda, because if you have a child with disability, you're most likely going to need it. And those who don't have dda, there's lifespan, and then there's another thing called millage, which is kind of like lifespan, but it's for people who don't have dda.
Is lifespan just for children or adults?
It's also for adults. It's also for adults. Like if someone has Parkinson's or. And when you go and fill out the application, it has so many, you know, diet, like, the diagnosis and conditions, and there's so many in there that. Yeah, it covers elderly as well. And then the other part, for the billing in the back, I put, like, a little bit sample of kind of how I keep track of patients whenever they're. Or participants, whenever. Like, you know, you can keep track however you want, but this is kind of a nice way to know, like, when the session date was, how much it was used, and then if it was invoiced. And then, like, an important thing is to know when they started, like, when they got the voucher. That's the start date. So that, you know, three months from that date, that's when it's. When it expires. So that's why it's three months after. And then also that same person that got the voucher a year later. Like, if they. If they applied, you know, today, a year from now, even if they get the voucher three months from now, a year from now, they can apply again, and they will get another $1,000. And then another thing, Mary. You can charge a, what they call, like, administration fee. So the administration fee you can charge. It's not per percentage. I thought it was per percentage, but it's not percentage. You can charge a $100 fee because you're the one handling the whole thing. So, like, a Participant will get $1,000 voucher while they have the voucher. You invoice for another $100 for the. For the administrative fee, but you have to charge those $100 while they still have the voucher. And you can charge that per voucher. If the family has two kids, then it would be $50 for one child and $50 for the other, because it's $100 per voucher. And the voucher will Be split between the two kids. If it's two kids in the back of the page, I did add it. The website and then the phone number. And in the second page, that's where you have the application. But in the last one, Barbit's pretty good about letting you know where per, where people are in the list. Like if there's, you know, 10 people that applied for ohana and you're like, well, it's been months and I don't know where they're at, you could just call her and she'll tell you, oh, for Ohana, there's this person, this person, this person, and this is where they're at. The next set of vouchers that they're going to give. So they give vouchers every once in a while. The next set of vouchers will be given in September. So if a lot of people apply right now, they'll be getting those vouchers in September. And I'm not supposed to say this to the families, but I'm telling you guys as an agency, they're about to get this really huge. She's like, really huge. Grants. Yeah. And once they get that grant, it'll move all the people that are signed up pretty quickly. And it's supposed to cover like a bunch, like a lot of things.
Hey, Amelia.
This might be more of a Barb question, but I'm just looking at the contract and the invoicing and, and it says each, each invoice must include the following. So the name of the caregiver, the name of the, the person receiving respite, the person receiving the care. But then it says the dates of service and hours served. So if they're buying a package of laser, that's a little tricky because would that mean. I'm just thinking of like how that's going to work, you know, because if you're buying a package, the sessions are going to be spread over time. But maybe that's a Barb question for that.
Because I know for like social program is 250 and it's like an eight week thing. You just kind of calculate like if it's 10 sessions, 10 hours, $1,000.
Yeah, maybe I just put the date span. I'll ask Barb how to Harvard how to do it.
You can. She actually likes that better. She likes being invoiced like, like a thousand dollar package as opposed to like a thousand, a hundred dollars individually.
One thing to process for her.
Yeah, it's a lot easier.
Okay, so if it's therapy, the voucher with it 100 days, 98. And then they. But they buy the package. Your old assessments have to be within that 90 days. Or is this when they buy the packages within 90 days?
I did ask that question and you can ask her again just to double check. But when you buy the package, you're buying the whole package. So then it's okay if they're, if it goes over because it's already. You're invoicing that day, you just can't invoice the day after. Yeah.
And so this might be something to clarify with Barb, but it sounds like there's maybe two ways that we can do it. Then we can either say like invoice, this was the charge of the QRI package. It'll span probably from this month to this month. Although it might also be easier to just be like, this is the date that they did the invoice and this is the start of services. And I don't. It sounds like she might not mind either way. Like when the end data service is.
Yeah, and I like the example that I showed. It has like the date, the session dates that are going to be and then how much. Yeah, and then how much total. And that kind of, that's kind of nice because then she, she can see what days and how much. And something to keep parents, Parents need to keep in mind is that if they're using it, I mean, they can use Lifespan however they want, but since Ohana's only going to take care of what Ohana is using and break Warrior what they're using over there. So if the parent is using it in both places, they need to keep track themselves of how much they're using here and how much they're using over there. Because obviously you guys are not going to know that information and they're not going to know this information unless you. Unless every once in a while you check with Barb and Barb will be able to say they're using it here and here. But if the parent chooses to use it in both, then they have to keep track of, you know, like, I'm using 500 here and I'm using 500 there.
And they have this voucher. Is it just like a piece of paper with a number on it that we're referencing when we invoice?
It's just a paper that they get in the email that. In email and it says like LifeSpan voucher, Orlando, Oregon got awarded. This is the start date, this is the end date, and that's it.
Okay. So they just would have something that they print off and bring to us.
They can print it off and bring it or just forward you the email. I think it's just a way for you guys to know, okay, I can now start invoicing because obviously you're not going to start services without knowing that they're. That they got it.
Yeah. It looks like we have to include the voucher with the invoicing.
So could they use. Could they pay for SSP with this?
Yeah. And really the Barton too? It sounds like. It sounds like we could do the reading.
I was just thinking that too, Nicola. I could do that.
Yeah.
So were those three were able to tell parents qri, Barton or ssp?
Yeah.
Do we have a price for the part?
We do not have a price for the Barton.
We.
I've been thinking that Mary and Nicola and I should talk and figure something out or how we were going to do that, but just haven't had the time.
So I think it'd be nice for parents to have a little paper that says, you know, there's this lifespan, like there's this services, this is how much it costs and like what the service is. And then like, if you need help paying for that, there's the voucher and then the link where they can go. Yeah. That way they can see, oh, this is what I want and I can just go here and.
Yeah.
Well, for now we can tell them to go to the website too. If it's up on the website, we can get something in clinic, but we.
Can also share now on the website.
Yeah. And the sooner you do it, the better because right now there's people on the list. It's been a couple months that they've been on the list because they're waiting for the next round of vouchers, which will be in September.
So, Amelia, they don't actually have to know how they're going to use the voucher, right when they apply?
No, no, they, they.
Okay, they can decide that later. Like, I'm going to do a little. With ohana and do a little Brave warrior.
Yeah, they. If. Yeah, I would just.
So they just need to apply and get. We just need to. If we think there's anybody that would benefit, get them applying. It sounds like.
Doesn't the application ask, like, where, like what. Where they're going to use it? I thought that was one of the questions.
Yeah, it is.
Yes.
Like the agency.
Oh, just the agency. Like, if they're like, oh, we're going to use it for Ohana.
So they do need to list an agency they just don't need to know, like, what specific service they're going to use it for.
And I'm more than happy to, you know, if. If there's parents who don't know how to fill it out and you just give me like their name and their phone number and give me that list, I come in every Thursday, I can get that list. And maybe like a time that they would like for me to call them or something, I'm more than happy to call them because it doesn't take a very long time. I mean, I can sit there for half an hour and like at 4 or 5 right away and explain to them what it is.
And just so you guys all know, if you guys want to direct them to our website, it's under the Wellness tab and that lists all the different wellness services that we offer. And that's where I added the information on Ben's Fund and Lifespan on the bottom. And I included Amelia's email address if they have any questions or like need help with the application. But that's where you can like share the link. And we do plan on sending out an email to our current clients to let them know of this resource. And I'll probably just include. I mean, I can include the application link, but also a link to our website with that information.
So. Question from Mary. Because, like when we've used Benson, for instance, to pay for the QRI in the past, when they've gotten $1,000, we. My recollection is that they just used $1,000 for the QRI and then we kind of give them that discount of the. The $200 off the package. Are we doing that same thing for Lifespan?
Yeah, we'll just do the same pricing.
I think we created, like when Ben's fund, we created a specific one priced at that rate so that we could use it for that purpose. So we would just use that same.
QRI package because that's going to impact, like if we need to like write up something and give to the family. Right. Like our regular pricing would be 1200. But if we were giving them like need help from Lifespan, DDA or Ben's Fund, we would say the QRI actually costs thousand dollars if you're utilizing these services. Yeah, yeah.
Just discounted prices for that program or whatever. So I was just looking where Haley put it. So when you go wellness, if you click on like Fast Track Laser, the lifespan's at the very bottom of the. Of everything on there. It might be nice.
Just the main wellness page is what I'm Talking about where it lists everything, because I did include it on. Oh, it's on qri.
Yeah.
So if they just check on that. Yep. Yeah, I see it. Okay.
That's where it lists. It's a little easier to find there.
Yeah. So if they just click on Wellness versus the. The programs underneath it that. I forgot we had that overview page.
Yeah. I was having issues with the text, like, the font. I couldn't get the font to work out.
Thanks for doing that. Well, this is really, really exciting to be able to help my kids.
Christy has a question. We have one minute left.
Okay.
Adhd, sensory processing, behavior issues.
Do you think.
Are those considered in the disability realm and their definition, do you know a lot in those categories?
I think I saw the behavior one in there.
Okay.
And the other thing I think I did.
Developmental disability.
Yeah, developmental is a big one. If they have developmental delay. Yeah, because usually they do.
Which we can also show to some degree. Like, if we do anything, like the real. Or we're showing, like, their. Their benchmarks, many of our kids have some level of delay.
Okay.
And I have a kid who I'm thinking of for the Barton. Am I okay to talk to them? Are we prepared to have someone like Nikolai do that?
Still needs training.
Oh, you still need.
Okay, so I should not offer that?
No, not yet.
Well, they can still apply for the voucher. They don't have to say which program. We'll have it figured out by then.
Yeah, sounds good.
Yeah. And I. If the families need help, I think them sending me an email to the Ohana or leaving their phone number and name for me to call them, I think that would be good. That way I can.
Okay.
I guess you could say Nicola, like it's a program we're working on, and by the time you've already approved. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Thanks, K. Oh, good.
Great.
Thank you.
Hope you guys have a good afternoon. I'll come in.
Amelia. I'm gonna meet with Amelia briefly. I think, Mary, since you started this meeting, I might need to just create a new link and so that Amelia and I can meet, so.
Okay.
So are you just gonna email it to her?
Yeah, I'll. I'll talk with the support staff to make sure we get it figured out. So I'll chat with you soon. Amelia.
All right.
Okay.
Amelia, you're amazing.
Thank you.
Thank you. Bye. Okay, talk to you soon.
