As the people you love grow older, finding ways to take care of them that don’t compromise your life gets more and more difficult. But the fact remains that there will come a time where you can’t handle all the care alone, and many elderly people find it damaging to their health to get uprooted from their homes into a nursing care facility.
So what can you do?
Well, we’re here to offer a solution: CDPAP. But what is CDPAP, and how can it help you?
Funny you should ask. It’s time to dive into CDPAP and how it can help bring you or a loved one the care you need!
But enough preamble, right? Let’s get started!
What Is CDPAP?
CDPAP (or the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program) is a special state program run out of New York that allows you to bring personal assistants in to take care of elderly people from their homes. The program is covered in full under Medicaid, so you won’t have to cough up extra cash for it.
To clear up any confusion, sometimes the services that CDPAP provides are referred to as CDPAS (or Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services). However, the two terms are near interchangeable and you won’t have to worry too much about distinguishing them from each other.
As a result, one of the eligibility requirements for CDPAP is having Medicaid, though some companies provide alternate plans if you don’t have it. Another eligibility requirement is that home care is required for a person to survive (so you can’t use it as a butler service).
Finally, you have to find someone to direct the care. That will tend to be whoever needs the care unless they are not of a stable mind to do so. If that’s the case, they need to appoint someone to be their director.
Once a caregiver gets brought on to the process, the director is responsible for training and supervising them to make sure everything they are doing is up to snuff.
Benefits of CDPAP
So besides avoiding extra costs thanks to Medicaid, another benefit of CDPAP is that it allows you to select a caregiver that the person feels comfortable with and won’t upset their daily routine. Since getting qualified to be a caregiver under CDPAP requires no official medical licenses, any family member or friend can do it sans a few exceptions.
These exceptions include spouses, parents being caregivers for children under 21, etc (any situation where the two parties are legally responsible for the other).
CDPAP also allows the customer to receive medical care from the comfort of their own home rather than a hospital or other facility. This can help keep a person at ease and give their families the peace of mind that they are comfortable and well.
There is also the added bonus to CDPAP that pays the caregiver. This helps potential caregivers who would otherwise have to back out due to financial need.
The program pays a solid wage, with $15 an hour in NYC, $13 an hour in Long Island or Westchester, and $11.80 an hour in all other counties. They’ll even throw in health and union benefits if the caregiver meets those respective requirements, as well as paid time off.
On top of that, caregivers who work under CDPAP don’t need any special training or licenses to perform tasks like giving medications. As a result, the limits that apply to regular people involving controlled substances and dosages go down more so the caregiver can provide the full range of medical treatment. CDPAP “employees” can also operate specialized medical equipment, change out tubes, and give oxygen without trouble.
CDPAP vs. Normal Home Care
CDPAP has several advantages over trying to hire an outside attendant to perform home care. For starters, the turnover rate for home care providers is staggering (there was a median 82% turnover rate in 2019), which means you’ll likely have to go through the hiring process constantly. Keeping the same caregiver also reduces the chance that you expose the patient to someone with a contagious disease.
CDPAP attendants also tend to spend more time with patients (due to the personal connection) and will identify health problems or changes faster than the more irregular home care attendant. As a result, you’ll reduce the number of hospital trips and medical bills you’ll have to face since the problems will get caught before they progress too far.
In many cases, normal home care providers also have bigger medical restrictions that CDPAP people have. Thus, they will lack the ability to provide the care you may need.
Finally, CDPAP providers are often allowed to live in the same house as the patient. The only condition is that the patient’s condition is severe enough that the CDPAP provider living at the same house is justified. One example would be if the patient’s mental faculties are not strong enough to let them live day-to-day independently.
Going Through the Application Process
To apply for CDPAP, you’ll need your doctor to fill out a special form that attests to your need for home care. After that, you may have to undergo other assessments to confirm what the form says. You will also need your doctor to fill out a PCP Transfer form if moving to CDPAP means you would be switching from a pre-existing health program.
It’s also important to note that CDPAP will assign different plans based on the patient’s condition. These plans can require additional forms to pop up.
After that, you’ll need to select the caregiver you want. They will then have to meet the requirements set by the program to get approved.
Bringing the Family Together
And there you have it! Now that you know the answers to questions like “What is CDPAP?” and “What benefits does it have?”, you’re ready to get out there and help apply it to yourself or a loved one today!
But what if you still have more questions about CDPAP or want to start applying for it today? In that case, give us a shout and find out how we can help!