Paying family caregivers: self-direction in medicaid personal care.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

As people age, many require help with personal care-often provided by family members or friends or direct care workers. Over the last three decades, driven by the disability rights movement, direct care worker shortages, and caregiver burden, self-direction has emerged as a Medicaid option that allows individuals to hire and pay their own caregivers, including family members.

Methods

We use 2021 TMSIS Medicaid claims data linked to Medicare Master Beneficiary Summary File to identify dually eligible beneficiaries 65+ receiving personal care. We describe the demographic characteristics of self-direction users compared to non-self-direction users and present the percentage of self-direction users across states.

Results

We find that over half of dually eligi

SUBMITTER: Kuang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12605748 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature