Cumulus Chosen for Large Veteran Directed Care Program

Aging Ahead has chosen Cumulus to optimize outcomes for its large, multi-county Veteran Directed Care (VDC) program, a partnership with the St. Louis VA Health Care System. As Missouri’s largest Area Agency on Aging, Aging Ahead has overseen its broadly successful VDC program in the greater St. Louis region since 2014.

Cumulus will streamline the VDC process, which is initiated with a referral from the VA Medical Center. Cumulus will be utilized to manage critical aspects to the VDC service model, including assignments to Aging Ahead Options Consultants and their resulting home visits, assessments, care and budget planning. In addition, Cumulus will assist staff with enrollment, automating interactions with Financial Management Services (FMS), and general ongoing veteran support. Monthly, quarterly and annual reporting will be facilitated through Cumulus, as will oversight, monitoring and measures.

“Our Veterans Directed Care Program provides an essential service to those who have served in our nation’s military - the opportunity to receive the Home and Community Based Services they need and remain at home. As this large and successful program continues to grow, we need an easy-to-use collaboration platform to optimize outcomes and free our teams from manual tasks. We already rely on Cumulus for other initiatives, so we knew this would be a perfect fit for VDC.”

–Lisa Knoll, Aging Ahead CEO

The VDC program provides VA approved veterans with opportunities to self-direct their Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) and continue living independently at home. With support from Options Consultants, eligible veterans manage their own flexible budgets, decide what mix of goods and services best meet their needs, and hire and supervise their own workers.

“Our team is thrilled that Cumulus has been chosen by Aging Ahead for this vital program. We’ve worked closely with Aging Ahead since the inception of Cumulus. It is a testament to our successful partnership that this expansion to their large and crucial VDC program is the next step we take together.”

–John Byer, Cumulus CEO

To be successful, a VDC program requires oversight and management of multiple steps, reviews, approvals, and recurring engagement among multidisciplinary teams. Traditionally, these have been accomplished manually by VDC Aging and Disability Network Agencies using email, spreadsheets, phone calls and other fragmented approaches.

As the need for the program expands nationwide, the Cumulus VDC solution offers VDC providers an easy-to-use, quickly deployed platform that automates VDC workflows, connects key stakeholders, includes pre-configured forms and assessments, and facilities effective oversight and monitoring.

Aging Ahead

Aging Ahead has been providing supportive services in St. Louis, St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties since 1973. Adults 60 and older count on Aging Ahead to provide nutritious meals, connection to resources and supportive services like Meals on Wheels, Community Centers, Caregiving Services, Community Options Consulting and Case Management.

Cumulus

Cumulus is the flexible collaboration hub that enables organizations, partners, and provider networks to securely share information, automate workflows among teams, assess clients, streamline social care referrals, and improve outcomes for the people they serve - even when organizations are using different IT systems. Inspired at its inception through work with Aging Ahead, Missouri’s largest Area Agency on Aging, Cumulus enables collaborations like multidisciplinary teams, grant initiatives, Community Care Hubs, ADRCs, elder justice collaboratives, and emergency response coordination.