There are close to 44.4 million adult caregivers or 21% of the U.S. adult population who provide unpaid care to seniors and adults with disabilities, according to a 2004 study by the National Alliance for Caregiving. The average time that family members or family caregivers provide is about 21 hours of home care a week and the length of time spent providing home care is 4.3 years. If you need help finding good, quality care go to WorkingCaregiver.com.
Some family members find themselves cutting back to part-time on their jobs or quit their jobs in order to take care of one or both of their parents. Invariably, I get emails from these caregivers who assume there is a government program that will pay them to provide this care. Only recently have we become aware of some programs that will pay family members. These programs are not publicized and the public is largely unaware of them or how to receive them. I found this information on the National Care Planning Council site. Read the entire article here.
First thing to know is that Money Follows the Person—MFP (Self-Direction in Care). Some state Medicaid programs have been experimenting with the idea of providing a budget to elderly Medicaid recipients. This money can be used to hire family or friends to provide home care in Texas. Many of these programs are very limited, and family members are on a waiting list for them. The amount of money may not always be enough to compensate a family member to provide full-time care in lieu of a job outside the home.
The good news is that the government is quickly changing and there is a new initiative providing income for family caregivers giving older adults home care. It’s call The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 allocated $1.4 billion which is the largest demonstration grant in Medicaid history to a program called “Money Follows the Person.” This program is designed to transition individuals receiving Medicaid and who are living in institutions, back into the community. In 2007, 31 states received their portion of the grant money pie to begin demonstration programs offering more choice in care besides an institution.
These state programs offer a concept called “self-direction” which allows a budget to be established by Medicaid for the care recipient. Self-direction allows the care recipient to spend this money hiring any caregiver of choice and this typically includes friends and family.
Unfortunately, this is not a widespread benefit for elderly Medicaid recipients and in addition only applies to bringing elderly people out of institutions and back into the community to receive home care. Over the next five years, only 34,395 elderly care recipients nationwide are expected to be transitioned to community-based care through this program. Even though this represents a fraction of the elderly, who over the next five years are expected to receive Medicaid services in institutions, there is still a possibility for the family to apply for one of these programs and to have the government pay for their care services.
Family members seeking information go to your local Area Agency for the Aging located in your communities. Email Carol@WorkingCaregiver.com.
