How to get paid as a family caregiver in Michigan
CARE PAYS.
Michigan Home Help can pay an eligible adult relative or friend who is at least 18 when the person receiving care has Medicaid Fee for Service and needs physical help with at least one daily activity. Those are the public starting gates, not a guarantee of approval.
Michigan money snapshot, verified August 25, 2026
- Published Home Help wage: $17.13 per authorized hour, effective January 1, 2026.
- Hours: Set individually after assessment; no published maximum means no guaranteed number.
- Spouse rule: Home Help says no.
- MI Choice capacity: Current MDHHS materials still describe waiting-list placement and removal notices; this page makes no statewide wait-time promise.
- First call, non-spouse Home Help case: The Adult Services unit in the county where the person receiving care lives.
- First call, spouse or long-term-care case: The regional MI Choice waiver agency; if the route is unclear, call MI Options at 800-803-7174 for options counseling.
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Put your facts in the right lane
| Route | Recipient gate | Caregiver relationship | Payment layer | Capacity or geography | First move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Help | Medicaid Fee for Service plus physical assistance with at least one activity of daily living. | Eligible adult relative or friend; not a spouse, a parent paid for a minor child, or a person receiving Home Help. | $17.13 individual-caregiver hourly wage; only authorized hours are payable. | This page makes no entitlement or no-waitlist claim; MDHHS issues a written decision within 45 days. | Refer the client to the county MDHHS Adult Services unit. |
| MI Choice | Age 65+, or age 18+ with a disability, plus Medicaid financial eligibility and nursing-facility level of care. | A qualified relative or legal guardian can furnish an authorized service; spouse payment is limited to extraordinary-care Community Living Supports through an agency, and excludes homemaking. | A statewide caregiver wage was not established by the reviewed official sources; ask the waiver agency what payment arrangement applies. | Waiting-list status was verified August 25, 2026. | Contact the waiver agency serving the person’s area. |
| MI Coordinated Health (MICH) | Age 21+ with full Medicaid and Medicare; Expanded Community Living Supports also requires the waiver’s nursing-facility level-of-care determination. | A qualified family member can provide Expanded Community Living Supports; a spouse has the extraordinary-care, agency, and no-self-direction limits. | No caregiver wage is stated here; the health plan must confirm the approved service and arrangement. | Only the counties on the current 2026 eligibility page. | An enrolled member asks their care coordinator to assess the service and proposed caregiver. |
| VA family caregiver program | The Veteran must meet VA’s disability-rating, discharge, continuous-care, and VA-health-care gates. | Caregiver age 18+ who is a qualifying relative, including a spouse, or a qualifying full-time co-resident. | An eligible Primary Family Caregiver may receive a monthly stipend; this page states no flat amount. | Federal VA route; VA makes the individual eligibility decision. | Veteran and caregiver submit VA Form 10-10CG together. |
| Veteran-Directed Care | Enrolled Veteran who is eligible for community care, meets clinical criteria, and has the service locally available. | The Veteran or representative may hire a family member or neighbor under the approved spending plan. | Service budget, not a published Michigan hourly wage. | Availability and services vary by location. | Ask the Veteran’s VA social worker about local availability. |
Not your spouse, and the Home Help gates fit? Test Home Help. Caring for your spouse? Do not spend time enrolling them as a Home Help caregiver; test the narrower MI Choice, MICH, or VA branch that matches the person’s coverage.
Home Help pays for hands-on work, not a relationship label
Home Help may authorize physical help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, eating, mobility, toileting, and transferring, then related household activities and listed complex-care tasks. The Adult Services Worker decides what goes into the plan.
Prompting or reminding by itself is not payable Home Help work. Medical-appointment transportation is also excluded. But do not throw away every travel minute: authorized travel time for shopping or laundry can be paid when it is checked and submitted on the service verification.
Seven actions, two separate approvals
The client’s eligibility decision and the caregiver’s payment readiness are different tracks. Do not wait for one track to finish before gathering everything for the other, but do not mistake early caregiver enrollment for permission to bill.
Client eligibility and application
- Confirm coverage and hands-on need. Home Help starts with Medicaid Fee for Service and physical help with at least one daily activity. If the person lacks Medicaid, apply through MI Bridges or a local MDHHS office.
- Make the referral. The client or another person can contact the county MDHHS office by phone, mail, fax, or in person.
- Sign the adult-services application. Return Form DHS-390; the client or legal guardian signs it.
- Get medical need certified on an accepted form. Since May 1, 2026, an approved CHAMPS-enrolled Medicaid professional with an eligible license can complete MDHHS-6200 or DHS-54A. A Veterans Health Administration provider can instead complete VA Form 10-10M. Those are alternatives, not three forms to collect.
- Complete the home assessment and read the decision. An Adult Services Worker assesses the client at home, then MDHHS sends a written approval or denial within 45 days. A client who disagrees can request a hearing.
Caregiver enrollment and payment readiness
- Start caregiver enrollment, then finish authorization. MDHHS’s individual-caregiver path starts with MiLogin and CHAMPS, then sends the caregiver to the local office for final authorization; this work can begin while the client’s track is moving. The caregiver must be approved in CHAMPS and have a seven-digit provider ID before payment. After the CHAMPS application, the proposed caregiver and client meet with the Adult Services Worker before that caregiver is authorized for the client. For help, call 800-979-4662 or email providersupport@michigan.gov.
- Satisfy screening, document visits, and submit the payable work. A mandatory criminal-history exclusion bars the caregiver. An individual caregiver with a permissive exclusion can be accepted only after the client signs Form MSA-119 following the worker’s explanation. Use electronic visit verification unless an official exemption applies, then submit the applicable service verification.
The 45-day client decision is not a paycheck date. Provider approval, the provider ID, the client-specific authorization, completed work, and service verification still control payment readiness.
Home Help and MI Choice answer different care questions
A qualified professional conducts the MI Choice level-of-care evaluation and enters the findings into Michigan’s Medicaid system, called CHAMPS; CHAMPS applies the algorithm and makes the determination. The evaluator does not make that final determination alone.
Waiting-list status: verified August 25, 2026. The live MDHHS page still describes screening for waiting-list placement and required removal notices. When demand exceeds capacity, the approved waiver uses four priority categories and then inquiry date within a category, while allowing individual readiness to affect actual enrollment order.
Already have Medicare and Medicaid? Check MICH
Health-plan enrollment is not enough for the family-pay service. Someone seeking Expanded Community Living Supports through the home- and community-based waiver must undergo Michigan’s nursing-facility level-of-care determination. The MICH plan conducts and records that process.
A family member can provide Expanded Community Living Supports after meeting the same provider standards as an unrelated provider. A spouse or other legally responsible adult is limited to an extraordinary-care, best-interest arrangement through a supervising home-care agency, not self-direction. An enrolled member starts with the MICH care coordinator, who assesses needs and coordinates referred services.
If the person receiving care is a Veteran
An eligible Primary Family Caregiver may receive a monthly stipend. The Veteran and caregiver apply together using VA Form 10-10CG, online, by mail, or in person.
Veteran-Directed Care is separate. The enrolled Veteran must qualify for community care, meet clinical criteria, and have the service available locally. The Veteran or representative receives a service budget and may hire a family member or neighbor under the approved plan. Ask the VA social worker whether it operates locally.
What can stop or delay payment
| Failure point | What it means | Recovery move |
|---|---|---|
| DHS-390 is missing | The signed adult-services application is part of the client track. | Ask the Adult Services Worker to confirm receipt. |
| Medical certification is missing or on the wrong form | The accepted forms are MDHHS-6200, DHS-54A, or qualifying VA Form 10-10M under their provider rules. | Send the correct form to the correct medical professional and track the signature date. |
| Criminal-history screening returns an exclusion | Mandatory exclusions bar the caregiver; a client may accept an individual caregiver’s permissive exclusion through MSA-119. | Ask the Adult Services Worker which exclusion applies before abandoning or advancing the caregiver. |
| CHAMPS or client-specific authorization is incomplete | A caregiver needs CHAMPS approval, a provider ID, and the client meeting before payment readiness. | Call Home Help Provider Support at 800-979-4662. |
Visit records still matter when EVV does not
Electronic visit verification, or EVV, records visit details for Medicaid personal care. Home Help individual caregivers use EVV unless an official exemption applies. Services are exempt when the client lives with the caregiver, lives in a qualifying congregate setting, or receives Home Help and Behavioral Health services from the same caregiver during the same visit. Check the exemption with the Adult Services Worker rather than self-declaring it.
Exempt does not mean undocumented. Every individual caregiver continues using CHAMPS Electronic Service Verification (ESV) or Paper Service Verification (PSV) as applicable. Agencies, including EVV-exempt agencies, continue the MSA-1904 Home Help Agency Invoice. Payment is generated only after the applicable service verification is submitted.
For individual caregivers, MDHHS issues a W-2 on the client’s behalf and handles applicable Social Security and Medicare tax withholding under the handbook’s relationship-specific rules. That is payroll administration, not household-specific tax advice.
Michigan caregiver payment questions
Can Home Help pay for care from before the application was ready?
Do not count on it. Home Help cannot pay for a date before the approved medical professional signs the accepted medical-needs form. The caregiver also must have CHAMPS approval and a provider ID, and the provided services must be verified before a check is generated. Those rules do not establish a broad retroactive-pay promise for dates after certification; ask the Adult Services Worker about the exact authorized start date.
How do I confirm Medicaid Fee-for-Service coverage?
Use myHealthPortal to view the person’s current health-plan information. If the coverage label is unclear, call Michigan’s Medicaid Beneficiary Help Line at 800-642-3195 and ask whether the person’s coverage satisfies the Home Help Fee-for-Service gate. A mihealth card by itself is not the Home Help eligibility decision.
Can a legal guardian also be the paid caregiver?
Do not assume the signature role and paid-worker role are the same. A legal guardian signs the client’s required Home Help documents. If that guardian has a permissive criminal-history exclusion, the guardian cannot become the Home Help caregiver because they cannot sign Form MSA-119 for themselves. MI Choice separately allows a qualified legal guardian to furnish an authorized waiver service when service-specific requirements are met. Ask the administering program to clear both roles before work begins.
Can a parent be paid to care for an adult child?
Home Help’s stated parent exclusion is a parent caring for a minor child. Its public rule otherwise allows an eligible adult family member or friend age 18 or older, so a parent of an adult child can be tested under the remaining client and caregiver rules.
What should a spouse do while MI Choice has no slot, or MICH is unavailable in the county?
Do not wait without a second call. Ask the MI Choice agency to confirm waiting-list status, then call MI Options at 800-803-7174 for counseling and referrals to other long-term-services-and-supports doors. MICH remains limited to its listed 2026 counties. None of those calls guarantees a paid-spouse arrangement.
Can I keep another job or take more than one paid-care role?
This page does not grant or deny that permission, and it does not establish that the same scheduled time can be reported to two payers. Before accepting another paid-care role, give the complete proposed schedule and program names to every administrator involved: Home Help Provider Support at 800-979-4662; the local MI Choice waiver agency; the member’s MICH care coordinator; or the Veteran’s VA social worker. Ask each administrator to confirm how its authorization and service-verification rules apply before reporting hours.
Could caregiver pay change my SSI, SNAP, Medicaid, or housing assistance?
This article does not calculate or predict those effects. Before the first caregiver payment, take the expected gross pay and the current benefit notice to the administrator responsible for each benefit: the Social Security Administration contact on the SSI notice; the MDHHS specialist identified through the caregiver’s MI Bridges case or local office for SNAP or Michigan Medicaid; and the housing authority or benefit administrator named on the housing-assistance notice. Ask each one for the reporting method, reporting deadline, and treatment of these wages for that specific case. One program’s answer does not decide another program’s benefit.
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You choose the state, relationship, and coverage, then submit your name, email, and ZIP code. That records private-beta interest and early access for HomeCare’s future state ranking. It does not return an immediate Michigan route, agency, or rate winner.
Start the clock before another month becomes unpaid care
Home Help cannot pay for a date before medical need is properly certified. It cannot pay an individual caregiver before CHAMPS approval and a provider ID. It cannot generate the check before the applicable service verification is submitted.
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