Home Care 101
What is Home Care?
New York State has a range of Medicaid home care service programs, each oriented toward slightly different needs and sometimes to different populations.
1) Medicaid Personal Care services and Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) services
2) Consumer Directed Personal Assistant Program (CDPAP)
3) Private Duty Nursing or LPN services
4) Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Waiver programs. This includes Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Waiver, Nursing Home Transition & Diversion (NHTD) Waiver, Children's Waiver, and Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) Waiver.
5) Hospice Care
What is CDPAP?
The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) is a statewide Medicaid program that provides an alternative way of receiving home care services, where the consumer has more control over who provides their care and how it is provided.
Rather than assigning a home care vendor or agency that controls hiring, training, and scheduling of aides, the "consumer" or the family member, friend or guardian directing his/her care performs all these functions. In addition, there are a number of differences between CDPAP and traditional home care.
CDPAP caregivers may Perform "SKILLED" TASKS - unlike regular personal care aides
Another special benefit of CDPAP is that CDPAP caregivers may perform "skilled" care that otherwise may only be performed by a nurse - suctioning tracheostomies, insulin injections, administration of oxygen or medications where the consumer cannot self-administer.
Unlike traditional Personal Care, parents of an adult child may be paid as a CDPAP personal assistant. Also, adults may work as the personal assistant for their parent.
A CDPAP aide (called a "personal assistant" or "PA") is not an employee of a home care agency, but is instead an independent contractor, co-employed by the consumer and by a "fiscal intermediary" or "FI." It is the fiscal intermediary that pays the aide wages and benefits, based on the plan of care developed by the county or managed care plan.