What Home Help covers
Personal care and daily living assistance for Medicaid beneficiaries living in the community, administered through MDHHS. It is the most common entry point into paid caregiving in Michigan and the program most families encounter first.
- Bathing, grooming, and dressing
- Toileting and incontinence care
- Transferring and mobility assistance
- Eating and meal preparation
- Medication assistance
- Light housekeeping and laundry connected to personal care
- Shopping for essentials
The program covers hands-on assistance rather than companionship. That distinction matters at assessment: sitting with someone is not a covered activity, helping them transfer out of bed is.
Who can be the paid provider
This is the part most families do not know exists. Under Home Help the beneficiary chooses their own provider, and that provider can be a family member. Adult children, siblings, and other relatives are commonly approved. Spousal rules are more restrictive and worth asking about specifically rather than assuming.
The provider is paid directly for the authorized hours. For families already delivering this care unpaid, the program converts existing work into compensated work without changing who does it or how it is done.
Home Help eligibility
- 1Active Michigan Medicaid. Home Help is a Medicaid benefit, so enrollment is a prerequisite rather than something that happens alongside the application.
- 2Assessed need for hands-on assistance with activities of daily living. An MDHHS adult services worker completes this assessment in the home.
- 3A qualified provider, which can be a family member, a friend, or an agency. The beneficiary makes that choice.
How to apply
- Confirm active Michigan Medicaid enrollment for the person needing care
- Request a Home Help assessment through the local MDHHS office
- An adult services worker conducts an in-home assessment of daily living needs
- Authorized hours are determined from that assessment
- The provider is enrolled and payment begins
We help families through this at no cost, including preparing for the assessment so that it reflects the actual situation rather than an optimistic version of it.
How the assessment determines hours
The worker scores the level of assistance needed across each activity of daily living. More assistance produces more authorized hours, and hours drive payment. It is a mechanical process and it rewards accuracy.
Several practical points are worth carrying into the visit.
- Describe a typical day rather than the best day of the month
- Mention overnight needs, which get overlooked constantly and carry real weight
- Distinguish between supervision and hands-on help, because they score differently
- Note anything that varies: some conditions fluctuate and the assessment should capture the range
- Say what would happen if the caregiver were unavailable for a week
Reassessment
Authorizations are not permanent and are not intended to be. If the situation deteriorates, request a reassessment rather than absorbing the additional work unpaid. This happens more than it should: a family gets an authorization set at a level that was accurate two years ago, the condition progresses, and nobody thinks to revisit it because the paperwork feels settled.
Where Home Help stops and MI Choice begins
If care needs approach nursing facility level, MI Choice generally authorizes more hours and a substantially wider service package, including respite, home modifications, and residential placement. Home Help is the lighter touch program and does not extend that far.
Describe the care need on the first call and we will tell you which program your situation actually lands in. Applying to the wrong one costs weeks.
Why applications get delayed
Home Help is not a complicated program, but applications stall for a predictable handful of reasons and most of them are avoidable.
- Medicaid is not active. The benefit sits on top of Medicaid enrollment, so an incomplete or lapsed Medicaid case blocks everything downstream
- The assessment appointment is missed. Rescheduling can add weeks depending on caseload in your county
- Contact details are out of date. Correspondence goes out by post and unopened mail is the most common single cause of delay
- Provider enrollment paperwork is incomplete. The care can be authorized while the provider is still not set up to be paid
We track these on behalf of the families we work with, because the gap between authorized and actually being paid is where most of the frustration lives.
Changing provider
The beneficiary chooses the provider and can change that choice. If a family caregiver becomes unable to continue, or if an agency arrangement is not working, the authorization does not have to be rebuilt from scratch. The provider record changes while the assessed hours stay in place.
This also runs the other way. Households currently using an agency who would rather have a relative provide the care can usually make that switch, and the hours already authorized carry across.
Home Help questions
Michigan Medicaid beneficiaries who need hands-on assistance with activities of daily living, as determined by an MDHHS in-home assessment.
Yes. The beneficiary chooses their provider and that provider can be a relative. Adult children and siblings are commonly approved. Spousal rules are more restrictive, so ask specifically if that applies to you.
It depends entirely on the assessment. More assessed need produces more authorized hours. This is why describing a typical day accurately, including overnight needs, matters so much.
Typically a few weeks from application to authorization, depending on assessment scheduling in your county.
Yes. Request a reassessment when the situation changes. Authorizations reflect need at a point in time and are meant to be revisited.
Medicaid enrollment has to come first because Home Help is a Medicaid benefit. If income and assets fall within the limits, an application is a realistic path and we can point you toward it.