Can You Get Paid to Care for a Parent in PA? (2026)

Someone asks me this almost every week, usually in a lowered voice, as though it might be a shameful question: "Is there any way I could get paid for taking care of my mom?"

It isn't shameful. You have probably reduced your hours, or left a job, or spent your savings. You are doing work that would otherwise cost the state far more than it costs you. The question is fair, and the answer in Pennsylvania is yes — for some families, under specific conditions.

I spent years assessing whether Pennsylvania families qualified for Medicaid-funded care. I sat at the kitchen tables. So let me tell you what is actually true, including the parts most articles leave out.

The short version

• Pennsylvania pays family caregivers through Community HealthChoices, using an option called Services My Way
• Three tests apply — income, assets, and a clinical need for nursing-facility level care
• Adult children can generally be paid; spouses are treated differently
• You will almost certainly be paid for fewer hours than you actually provide

The short answer

Pennsylvania's main program for this is Community HealthChoices, usually called CHC. It is Medicaid managed long-term care for adults 21 and older who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, or who need a nursing facility level of care but want to stay home.

Within CHC there is an option called participant-directed services — in Pennsylvania it's known as Services My Way. Instead of an agency sending a caregiver, the participant chooses their own. And that person can be a family member.

That's the mechanism. Now the conditions.

Who actually qualifies

Three tests, and all three must be met by the person receiving care — not by you.

Income. Roughly $2,982 per month in 2026. This is your parent's income, not your household's.

Assets. Countable assets under about $8,000. A primary home is generally not counted, but savings, investments, and second properties are.

Level of care. A clinical determination that they need nursing-facility level care — typically meaning they need hands-on help with at least three activities of daily living: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, eating, or continence care.

That third one surprises people most. Needing company, reminders, or someone to check in is usually not enough. The standard is built around whether your parent would otherwise require a nursing home.

Who can be paid, and who can't

Adult children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces and nephews, and family friends can generally be paid. Spouses are treated differently, and the rules around spousal caregivers are more restrictive.

⚠ Do not try to engineer eligibility

There is no way around the limits by moving money, transferring the house, or adjusting who lives where. Medicaid applies a five-year look-back at asset transfers, and attempting to engineer eligibility usually ends worse than simply not qualifying. If your parent's finances are complicated, that is a conversation for an elder law attorney, not the internet.

What it pays

Rates vary by program, by managed care organization, and by service. It is generally comparable to what an agency caregiver earns — not a salary, and not compensation for everything you actually do.

Here is the part people find hardest: you will almost certainly be paid for fewer hours than you provide. The approved plan covers a set number of hours per week based on assessed need. The rest of it — the nights, the worrying, the hospital sits — remains unpaid, because it always was.

I would rather you hear that from me now than discover it in month three.

How the money actually moves

Under Services My Way, your parent is the employer. A Financial Management Services organization handles payroll, tax withholding, and your W-2. In Pennsylvania that's Tempus Unlimited.

So the flow is: Medicaid → the managed care plan → the financial management service → you.

Notice who isn't in that chain: an agency. Under this model, no home care agency is paid, including mine. I am telling you about a program I do not profit from, which is precisely why you can trust what I'm saying about it.

How to apply

1. Confirm the medical side. Contact the Pennsylvania Independent Enrollment Broker at 1-877-550-4227. They handle CHC enrollment and can start the level-of-care assessment.

2. Apply for Medicaid if your parent isn't already enrolled, through COMPASS at compass.state.pa.us or your county assistance office.

3. Choose a managed care plan. In Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, Bucks, and Philadelphia counties, the three CHC plans are AmeriHealth Caritas, Keystone First, and PA Health & Wellness.

4. Ask specifically for participant-directed services. This matters. If you don't ask, the default is an agency-directed plan, and nobody is obligated to mention the alternative.

5. Complete enrollment with the financial management service. Background clearances, tax paperwork, and onboarding — you are becoming an employee, formally.

Expect 30 to 90 days, sometimes longer. Start before you are desperate.

If you don't qualify — and many families won't

In a county where the median household income is around $114,000 and most older adults own their homes, plenty of families discover their parent has $40,000 in savings and doesn't meet the asset test. Or needs supervision rather than hands-on help, and doesn't meet the clinical test.

If that's you, here is what's left, and none of it is nothing:

• Veterans benefits. Aid & Attendance can pay toward in-home care, and it is badly under-claimed because the application is opaque
• Long-term care insurance. Check the file cabinet — people buy these in their fifties and forget them
• The OBRA waiver, for adults under 60 with physical disabilities, which uses the same participant-directed model
• Your local Area Agency on Aging, which administers non-Medicaid programs including some respite funding
• Paying privately for less than you think you need — a few hours twice a week changes the whole picture

I've written all of this out in detail: How to Pay for Home Care in Pennsylvania When You Don't Qualify for Medicaid.

What I'd tell you if you called me

Three things.

First, apply early. The clock runs 30 to 90 days and it starts when you apply, not when the crisis comes.

Second, being paid doesn't make it sustainable. The caregivers who last are not the ones getting paid — they're the ones getting relieved sometimes. If you become your parent's paid caregiver, plan from day one for who covers you when you're sick, when you travel, and when you're simply at the end of yourself.

Third, if you become a paid caregiver, get trained. You will be doing transfers, personal care, and medication reminders on someone you love, usually with no preparation at all. That's how caregivers get hurt and how people get dropped. Pennsylvania requires training for agency caregivers for a reason — it's just as true when the caregiver is family. Our training and workshops are here.

A note on why I wrote this

Gilgal is a licensed home care agency and registry. I don't get paid when a family uses Services My Way. I wrote this because families ask me the question every week and get either silence or a sales pitch, and both are worse than the truth.

Where to start

Not sure whether you qualify?

Fifteen minutes, no obligation, nothing to sign. Tell me what's happening and I'll tell you honestly what your options are — including the ones that don't involve us.

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This reflects Pennsylvania program rules as of 2026. Income and asset limits change annually, and eligibility decisions are made by the Commonwealth, not by us. Nothing here is legal or financial advice; for complex situations, consult an elder law attorney.