Getting Started – With CDPAP
Imagine the relief knowing you are being cared for by a close friend, neighbor, or family member of your choice. Experience the freedom of self-directing your home health care through the CDPAP by hiring and managing whom you want to work for you.
CDPAP allows you to self-direct your caretakers.
If you qualify for Medicaid Long Term Care and require home care, personal care, or skilled nursing services, under New York State’s Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) – you can self-direct your caretakers. The program includes senior care and child care. Spouse and parent are the only exclusions for the caregiver/consumer relationship
Take care. Into your own hands.
New York State’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP)
empowers Medicaid-eligible patients to hire, monitor, and terminate their own home caregivers. Instead of an outside vendor or agency managing their care, CDPAP gives elderly, disabled, or ill individuals independence and control. Personal Assistants must be over the age of 18*.
Excludes assigned representative. Other restrictions may apply.
Hire those who care about you.
Even if you’re eligible for professional homecare under Medicaid, you might not like bringing someone you’ve never met into your home. CDPAP helps you turn homecare into a joy by allowing you to hire trusted loved ones to provide you with compassionate care. Your chosen assistants can be siblings, children, friends, relatives, previously hired aides, or trusted neighbors.
Hire a caregiver you trust.
Homecare agencies are prone to frequent turnover, and patients have (in some cases) even experienced abuse, neglect and betrayal. Medicaid’s CDPAP program aims to erase risk and worry by promising newfound peace of mind. Choose someone you fully trust, and gain the stability and emotional comfort you need for total wellness.
Live healthier and happier.
By appointing a loyal friend through CDPAP, you reclaim financial independence for the both of you. More importantly, your clinical outlook improves dramatically. When you’re familiar with your aide, everyone communicates more effectively, medical complications are caught earlier, hospital trips are minimized, and health tragedies are avoided.
1. What is CDPAP?
2. Who Qualifies for CDPAP?
- Finding
- Interviewing
- Hiring
- Training
- Supervising
- Terminating
This direction concerns the parent of an adult child (21 years of age or older) that may qualify as an adult child’s CDPAP assistant if the following conditions apply:
- As long as the caregiver is not also the Medicaid recipient’s “designated representative.”
- In situations where the parent lives with the child/consumer, the relative must live with the consumer because the amount of home care services the Medicaid recipient requires makes the presence of the relative necessary.
- Tracheostomy care, including suctioning
- Oxygen administration
- Medication administration
- Medicine injections
3. CDPAP Regulations in NY State
Responsibilities for the state of New York under the NYSDOH are as follows:
“(i) processing the weekly payroll for the Personal Assistants; (ii) coordinating annual leave, health insurance, and other benefit programs for the Personal Assistants; (iii) providing periodic nursing supervision; (iv) providing assistance with recruiting, training, service coverage, and personnel management; (v) creating an advisory committee that includes the Consumer, family members, medical professionals, and other advocates to oversee the quality of services being provided; and (vi) providing continuing education and training opportunities for Personal Assistants.”
You must have Medicaid and be eligible for home health services to take part in CDPAP. Learn more details about the rules and regulations of New York’s CDPAP
4. How a CDPAP Caregiver Gets Paid
Wages for the personal assistant are paid by the state and benefits, including health care and paid time off, are also provided. Learn more about CDPAP payments.
5. CDPAP application process.
NYC and most counties need the person who will direct their care to complete a CDPAP application that demonstrates the consumer’s ability to arrange and manage their own care. Another excellent resource is the NYC Medicaid program’s post on with helpful hints on completing the CDPAP application. Under Managed Long Term Care, there is a MLTC plan that also determines the eligibility for CDPAP. Click here to apply or learn more about the CDPAP application process.
The Benefits of CDPAP and Why People Choose Freedom Care
- CDPAP allows people to choose their own schedule, to choose the tasks the aide performs and of course to choose the aide of their choice. If you have a family member or friend who wants to take care of you then why have some stranger do the job who may not be able to conform to your needs. Agencies have all sorts of rules that limit when or what a home health aide can do while taking care of somebody, CDPAP eliminates all of it. It puts you in control and gives you the ability to really maintain your independence on a level that is hard to do with a traditional home care agency. A traditional home care agency throws in their two cents into every decision. With CDPAP and Freedom Care, you make all the decisions.
- Signing up for CDPAP is a matter of filing the right forms with the consumer’s medicaid insurance and insurance companies are infamous for being mazes of incomprehensible bureaucracy. At Freedom Care we are experts and we are contracted with 90% of the insurance companies in New York State, so no switching unless you want to. We constantly perfecting the process unique to your insurance, and have an entire department dedicated to going to our client’s houses and helping them with paperwork right in their living room. Signing up for this program requires an expert and someone to hold your hand. At Freedom Care we know what we are doing and we do it right. When you call Freedom Care we take the time to explain the program and to make sure you are with us every step of the way, from sign up to using the program.
- Once you are on the program, we are still here for you. From changing your schedule to changing your caregiver you will need someone you can reach when you have to. Every active case at Freedom Care is given a dedicated service coordinator who will learn your name and your story and stay on top of your program.Perhaps the most telling part of the Freedom Care experience is simply that you can get through to someone who will listen. We pick up the phone and we have no automated system. You hit a person, and if you miss, you are called back immediately. There is no other company in healthcare that has a customer service experience like Freedom Care.
- Caregivers especially, love Freedom Care. Recently there was a client who had to change out of Freedomcare for insurance purposes. The caregiver called Freedomcare every day trying to get us to convince the patient to stay. Of course we listened to the patient and they left us with regret, but we were incredibly flattered that we had had such an impact on the aide. The caregiver had been a home health aide with this patient for years through an agency, and they eventually switched to CDPAP with Freedom Care while retaining the aide. So she continued working with her client of many years, but directly for the client instead of through an agency.When she wasn’t with Freedom Care she filled out a weekly paper time sheet and struggled to get it in on time. There was no allowance for a shift that ended on a weekend, the timesheet had to be in by Tuesday.She often had to drop it off at a designated location nowhere near her home or risk have a paycheck delayed. Even when she got it in on time, the company would lose or misread her time sheet, leading to misunderstanding after misunderstanding that she would struggle to resolve with people who wouldn’t pick up the phone.Freedom Care has no paper time sheets. We use a simple application on your phone that allows you to clock in and clock out at the start and end of your shift. We automatically generate your time sheet for you and send you a check, that’s it. You never have to come to our office unless you want to, we will even travel to your home to do the initial paperwork. You can choose between direct deposit, a debit card, or paper check and if you ever have a question, we pick up the phone!
Medicaid knows your loved ones care. We care too.
Apply with FreedomCare today.
FreedomCare Proudly Services
ALL 62 COUNTIES
of New York State.
We are the only CDPAP to have in person coverage in EVERY NY COUNTY.
recommend us to their friends.
GET STARTED WITH CDPAP
What is CDPAP?
1. Choose their own caregiver
2. Pick their schedule
3. Decide what type of assistance they receive
To find out if you qualify, or if you have any questions, just give us a call!
1. What is CDPAP?
2. Who Qualifies for CDPAP?
In order to qualify for CDPAP, you must be “self-directing.” To be self-directed, you must be capable of making safe choices about your activities of daily living (ADLs), understand the effects your choices have, and assume responsibility for outcomes. If you are unable to, you may also designate someone who is able and willing as your “self-directing other” (SDO), who will be in charge of managing your home health care.
Responsibilities of you or the SDO include:
- Finding
- Interviewing
- Hiring
- Training
- Supervising
- Terminating
As of April 1, 2016, caregivers of Medicaid recipients that are not “legally responsible” for a Medicaid consumer’s care and support may qualify for payment by becoming a Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) assistant.
This direction concerns the parent of an adult child (21 years of age or older) that may qualify as an adult child’s CDPAP assistant if the following conditions apply:
- As long as the caregiver is not also the Medicaid recipient’s “designated representative.”
- In situations where the parent lives with the child/consumer, the relative must live with the consumer because the amount of home care services the Medicaid recipient requires makes the presence of the relative necessary.
Beyond the help a personal care aide can perform, CDPAP assistants are able to provide “skilled” care activities that would otherwise need to be performed by a nurse. Such tasks include:
- Tracheostomy care, including suctioning
- Oxygen administration
- Medication administration
- Insulin injections
3. CDPAP Regulations in NY State
In New York State, all counties and all Managed Long Term Care and Managed Care plans are now required to offer this CDPAP program and give “eligible individuals” the option to join. Individuals considered eligible are those that qualify for services provided by a home health company, a long-term home health care waiver program, personal care (home attendant), or AIDS home care program.
Responsibilities for the state of New York under the NYSDOH are as follows:
“(i) processing the weekly payroll for the Personal Assistants; (ii) coordinating annual leave, health insurance, and other benefit programs for the Personal Assistants; (iii) providing periodic nursing supervision; (iv) providing assistance with recruiting, training, service coverage, and personnel management; (v) creating an advisory committee that includes the Consumer, family members, medical professionals, and other advocates to oversee the quality of services being provided; and (vi) providing continuing education and training opportunities for Personal Assistants.”
You must have Medicaid and be eligible for home health services to take part in CDPAP. Learn more details about the rules and regulations of New York’s CDPAP
4. How a CDPAP Caregiver Gets Paid
Under the CDPAP program, a patient has the freedom to select and train their personal caregiver, which can even be a family member. Caregivers under this program are considered independent consultants and receive payment via a “fiscal intermediary,” which is an entity contracted to provide services under the county guidelines or managed care plan.
Wages for the personal assistant are paid by the state and benefits, including health care and paid time off, are also provided. Learn more about CDPAP payments.
5. CDPAP application process.
To find out if you qualify, you must contact your county department of health or department of social services and human services (DSS) office, and complete the application process. Regulations for Medicaid are always changing and you may qualify for Medicaid coverage and not even know it.
NYC and most counties need the person who will direct their care to complete a CDPAP application that demonstrates the consumer’s ability to arrange and manage their own care. Another excellent resource is the NYC Medicaid program’s post on with helpful hints on completing the CDPAP application. Under Managed Long Term Care, there is a MLTC plan that also determines the eligibility for CDPAP. Click here to apply or learn more about the CDPAP application process.
The Benefits of CDPAP and Why People Choose Freedom Care
- CDPAP allows people to choose their own schedule, to choose the tasks the aide performs and of course to choose the aide of their choice. If you have a family member or friend who wants to take care of you then why have some stranger do the job who may not be able to conform to your needs. Agencies have all sorts of rules that limit when or what a home health aide can do while taking care of somebody, CDPAP eliminates all of it. It puts you in control and gives you the ability to really maintain your independence on a level that is hard to do with a traditional home care agency. A traditional home care agency throws in their two cents into every decision. With CDPAP and Freedom Care, you make all the decisions.
- Signing up for CDPAP is a matter of filing the right forms with the consumer’s medicaid insurance and insurance companies are infamous for being mazes of incomprehensible bureaucracy. At Freedom Care we are experts and we are contracted with 90% of the insurance companies in New York State, so no switching unless you want to. We are constantly perfecting the process unique to your insurance, and have an entire department dedicated to going to our client’s houses and helping them with paperwork right in their living room. Signing up for this program requires an expert and someone to hold your hand. At Freedom Care we know what we are doing and we do it right. When you call Freedom Care we take the time to explain the program and to make sure you are with us every step of the way, from sign up to using the program.
- Once you are on the program, we are still here for you. From changing your schedule to changing your caregiver you will need someone you can reach when you have to. Every active case at Freedom Care is given a dedicated service coordinator who will learn your name and your story and stay on top of your program.Perhaps the most telling part of the Freedom Care experience is simply that you can get through to someone who will listen. We pick up the phone and we have no automated system. You hit a person, and if you miss, you are called back immediately. There is no other company in healthcare that has a customer service experience like Freedom Care.
- Caregivers especially, love Freedom Care. Recently there was a client who had to change out of Freedomcare for insurance purposes. The caregiver called Freedomcare every day trying to get us to convince the patient to stay. Of course we listened to the patient and they left us with regret, but we were incredibly flattered that we had had such an impact on the aide. The caregiver had been a home health aide with this patient for years through an agency, and they eventually switched to CDPAP with Freedom Care while retaining the aide. So she continued working with her client of many years, but directly for the client instead of through an agency.When she wasn’t with Freedom Care she filled out a weekly paper time sheet and struggled to get it in on time. There was no allowance for a shift that ended on a weekend, the timesheet had to be in by Tuesday.She often had to drop it off at a designated location nowhere near her home or risk have a paycheck delayed. Even when she got it in on time, the company would lose or misread her time sheet, leading to misunderstanding after misunderstanding that she would struggle to resolve with people who wouldn’t pick up the phone.Freedom Care has no paper time sheets. We use a simple application on your phone that allows you to clock in and clock out at the start and end of your shift. We automatically generate your time sheet for you and send you a check, that’s it. You never have to come to our office unless you want to, we will even travel to your home to do the initial paperwork. You can choose between direct deposit, a debit card, or paper check and if you ever have a question, we pick up the phone!