To All in the Special Education Community,
Like all of you, we are worried for all of our exceptional children who will not be in school because of this virus. We are also very concerned about professionals and districts who suddenly find themselves without billable hours for speech therapy.
Many teachers and SLPs have reached out to us here at Gemiini for our web-based platform that they can use to select fully customized video modeling sessions to assign to children at home. Video modeling in general and Gemiini specifically is evidence-based, if you would like to review the evidence and science behind Gemiini, please click here: https://gemiini.org/evidence#/get-started
Therapists and teachers then support families through phone or video conferencing via parent education, which is now being covered by insurance. Gemiini is the way therapists can continue their billable hours while still abiding social distancing protocols.
To help alleviate some of the strain of this situation, we have made Gemiini available through districts immediately without the need to prepay for the service. The Gemiini team is working overtime to develop protocols for fast signups, with no cost to therapists, districts, or students. We do ask that districts submit a claim to Medicaid for reimbursement of the cost of a subscription to Gemiini. If the claim is denied, then you still have access to Gemiini free of cost for three months or beyond if the crisis persists.
We hope to have this new onboarding process in place in the next few days. Therapists will need to register for Gemiini and complete an online, 4-hour training on how to use the program. The process for therapists to register for their free subscription will be as follows:
- The person requesting the subscription must be a licensed SLP, BCBA, or teacher. Gemiini will require your credentials or licensing numbers.
- The professional must take our Gemiini certification training course (approximately 4 hours of video instruction on how to use the site) prior to activating student accounts. There is no fee for Gemiini certification during this crisis. Professionals who wish to be proactive may start the certification now.
- Professionals may create a Gemiini account without adding a payment card by registering as a therapist when prompted.
- Professionals' emails will act as coupons for up to 30 clients to start Gemiini at no cost. They can receive more coupons if needed, they need only email us with a specific request. Please contact Gemiini to learn more about how to onboard your students at no upfront cost.
- For those professionals who work with government or private insurance, we ask you to agree to bill insurance for Gemiini at our normal cost of $98 per month per child. Gemiini will provide needed documentation. We understand there is a risk the claim may be rejected; we will not hold you, your district, or students responsible for payment. We simply hope that if we lead by doing the right thing, insurers will step up as well. If denied, you agree to let us consult you in an appeal process.
- Gemiini will make exceptions for students currently not covered by any insurance and we will work with each district so that this is not an impediment to implementation. Gemiini has always had a commitment to parents regardless of financial situation and over 60% of our members are on some sort of scholarship through Gemiini.
- An instructional video on how to onboard clients will be sent out by mid-week. Please contact us through the website if you are ready now to onboard clients.
Here are some helpful links to get you started with Gemiini:
The Gemiini Academy training course takes about 4 hours to complete and can be found here:
https://academy.gemiini.org/p/certification-for-professionals
Please see this link to the Gemiini Distance Learning webpage:
https://gemiini.org/solutions/schools
Our thoughts are with our special needs community in this time of crisis. We look forward to working with each of you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions.
Laura Kasbar
CEO Gemiini Systems