Michigan's Home Help Program pays family caregivers $17.13 an hour in 2026, with no waitlist. It is a Medicaid state-plan personal care benefit, an entitlement administered by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) that pays an adult child, sibling, or friend to help a Medicaid-eligible adult with the activities of daily living at home.

Home Help is often the first program families find when they look into paid caregiving in Michigan, and it is often confused with the MI Choice Waiver, a larger waiver program that is capped and carries regional waitlists. This guide explains what Home Help covers, who qualifies, who can be hired (and who cannot), what it pays, and how to apply.

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What Home Help Is

Home Help is a Medicaid state-plan personal care benefit administered by MDHHS Adult Services. Under federal law it is a state-plan personal care service authorized by Section 1905(a)(24) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396d(a)(24)). It is not a 1915(c) waiver, and that distinction drives everything below.

Two structural features matter most:

  • It is an entitlement, not a waiver. Every Medicaid-eligible adult who meets the functional criteria is served. There is no cap and no waitlist. This is the single biggest difference from MI Choice, which has limited capacity and regional waitlists.
  • Coverage is narrower than MI Choice. Home Help covers personal care with the activities of daily living and selected instrumental activities. It does not cover home modifications, adult day programs, respite facilities, home-delivered meals, medical equipment, or skilled nursing. If you need that broader set of services, MI Choice is the program.

For many Michigan families, Home Help is the right fit on its own. For others, it is a bridge while an MI Choice application works through the system. To see how it fits alongside the state's other pay, respite, and support options, start with the Michigan caregiver pillar guide.

Who Qualifies

Home Help has two eligibility gates: Medicaid status and functional need.

Medicaid Status

The applicant must already be eligible for Michigan Medicaid. Most Home Help recipients are on one of these pathways:

  • Aged, Blind, or Disabled (ABD) Medicaid (the typical pathway for seniors 65 and older)
  • Nursing Home Medicaid (for a resident transitioning back home)
  • MI Choice Waiver (Home Help can wrap around MI Choice in limited cases; usually you pick one)
  • Dual eligibility (people with both Medicare and Medicaid)

If you are not yet on Medicaid, you apply for Medicaid and Home Help together.

Functional Need

A MDHHS Adult Services Worker conducts a face-to-face home visit and completes the Home Help Comprehensive Assessment (form MDHHS-5534). To be eligible, the applicant must require hands-on assistance with at least one Activity of Daily Living (ADL). The worker reassesses the case periodically, generally every six months.

The assessment scores the applicant's need for help with:

  • Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, transferring, eating, and mobility within the home.
  • Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs): meal preparation, light housekeeping, laundry, and shopping.

Based on the assessment, the worker authorizes a weekly budget of service hours. Authorized hours track assessed need, from a few hours a week for someone who needs help with a couple of ADLs up to substantial daily support. Higher hour needs usually steer families toward MI Choice instead.

What Home Help Covers

Home Help is about the tasks of daily life, not medical procedures.

Covered:

  • Bathing and personal hygiene
  • Dressing and grooming
  • Toileting and continence care
  • Eating and feeding assistance
  • Transferring (bed to chair, chair to toilet)
  • Mobility assistance inside the home
  • Meal preparation
  • Medication reminders (not administration of prescriptions, which is a skilled nursing task)
  • Light housekeeping related to the applicant's living area
  • Laundry
  • Shopping for essentials
  • Some companionship as part of other tasks

Not covered:

  • Skilled nursing (wound care, injections, tube feeding), which Medicaid home health or private duty nursing covers instead
  • Physical, occupational, or speech therapy
  • Home modifications, ramps, and grab bars, which MI Choice covers
  • Adult day programs, which MI Choice or private pay covers
  • Respite at a facility, which MI Choice covers
  • Transportation (except incidental to a task such as shopping)
  • Companionship-only services without personal care

Who Can Be Hired as a Home Help Caregiver

Home Help lets the participant choose their own caregiver from a wide pool, within firm eligibility rules.

Can be hired (must be 18 or older, pass a criminal background check, and enroll in CHAMPS):

  • Adult children
  • Adult grandchildren
  • Adult siblings
  • Aunts and uncles
  • Nieces and nephews
  • Cousins
  • Friends and neighbors
  • Professional independent caregivers
  • Home care agency workers (where the agency is CHAMPS-enrolled)

Cannot be hired under Home Help:

  • Spouses. This is a hard rule in Home Help: a spouse cannot be the paid Home Help provider. Paid spousal caregiving through Michigan Medicaid is limited and handled outside Home Help; ask your MDHHS caseworker or MI Choice waiver agency what is available in your case.
  • Parents being paid to care for their own minor child.
  • Anyone who fails a criminal background check under MDHHS rules.
  • Anyone under 18.

Planning turns on the spouse rule. A family where a spouse will be the primary paid caregiver cannot use Home Help and should ask MDHHS about MI Choice and other long-term-care options. A family where an adult daughter will be the paid caregiver can use Home Help immediately, with no waitlist.

What the Michigan Home Help Program Pays in 2026

The 2026 Home Help individual caregiver rate is $17.13 per hour, up from $15.88, effective January 1, 2026. It is Michigan's $13.73 per hour minimum wage plus a $3.40 pass-through built into the Home Help rate structure.

The rate applies to independent (individual) caregivers the participant hires directly. Agency-based Home Help is reimbursed on a different rate schedule set by MDHHS.

Caregivers are paid through CHAMPS (the Community Health Automated Medicaid Processing System), which handles:

  • Enrollment as a Medicaid provider
  • Direct deposit of payments
  • W-2 wage reporting and employer tax withholding
  • Time-sheet submission and visit verification

Once enrolled, caregivers submit their hours through the MI Time phone or web tool, which also handles Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) under the 21st Century Cures Act, and MDHHS pays them directly. The participant does not write checks.

A note on taxes: Home Help wages are W-2 income, and caregivers are employees. Some caregivers who live in the same home as the person they care for may be able to exclude these wages from federal income tax under IRS Notice 2014-7, which treats them as difficulty-of-care payments. The rules are specific, so ask a tax preparer familiar with the notice before the first tax year.

Thinking about signing up as a Home Help caregiver for a parent? Chat with Brevy's care navigator and we'll walk you through eligibility, enrollment, and how to coordinate with Medicaid and MI Choice.

How to Apply for the Michigan Home Help Program

Home Help applications run through the county MDHHS office, usually in parallel with a Medicaid application if the applicant is not yet on Medicaid.

1
Step 1

If not already on Medicaid, apply first

Apply for Medicaid through MI Bridges (newmibridges.michigan.gov) or a paper MDHHS-1171 Assistance Application, and indicate interest in Home Help on the application.

2
Step 2

Request an Adult Services Worker referral

Your Medicaid caseworker can trigger the referral. If you are already on Medicaid, call your county MDHHS office directly (find it through the MDHHS county office locator).

3
Step 3

Complete the home visit

A MDHHS Adult Services Worker visits the applicant's home (or sometimes the hospital room before discharge) and completes the Home Help Comprehensive Assessment (form MDHHS-5534). A family member should be present if possible.

4
Step 4

Get medical certification

A physician or other approved Medicaid-enrolled provider certifies medical need on form MDHHS-6200 or form DHS-54A, both accepted as of May 1, 2026; clinical nurse specialists were added to the providers who may certify.

5
Step 5

Receive service authorization

The Adult Services Worker writes a service plan with weekly hours and specific tasks authorized. The participant receives a copy.

6
Step 6

Hire a caregiver

The participant (or their representative) identifies who they want to hire. The caregiver enrolls in CHAMPS through the provider application, criminal background check, and training on time reporting.

7
Step 7

Begin services

Once enrollment is complete, services start and the caregiver submits hours through MI Time.

MDHHS must approve or deny the Medicaid application within 45 days, the standard of promptness; the full path to a first paycheck commonly runs about 6 to 10 weeks.

What If You're Denied or Get Too Few Hours

If MDHHS denies Home Help or authorizes fewer hours than you expected, you can appeal. You have 90 calendar days from the date of the written notice of case action to request a hearing, which is conducted by the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules (MOAHR). If you request the hearing within 11 days of the effective date of a negative action, your existing benefits continue while the appeal is decided.

Home Help vs. MI Choice: When to Use Which

The two programs differ on whether they are an entitlement, what services they cover, and who can be paid.,

Feature Home Help MI Choice Waiver
Entitlement? Yes, no waitlist No, capped with regional waitlists
Services covered Personal care only (ADLs, basic IADLs) Personal care plus other home- and community-based services
Home modifications No Yes
Adult day health No Yes
Respite No Yes
Home-delivered meals No Yes
Private duty nursing No Yes
Spouse can be paid caregiver No Case-by-case through the waiver agency, not via Home Help rules
Other family caregivers paid Yes (children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, friends) Yes, through self-direction
Typical hours authorized Varies by assessed need Customized plan, often higher
Assessment tool Home Help Comprehensive Assessment (MDHHS-5534) Nursing Facility Level of Care Determination (LOCD)
Functional threshold At least one ADL Nursing facility level of care
Who administers MDHHS Adult Services Worker Regional waiver agency

Use Home Help when: you need paid personal care and do not need the broader service menu, the caregiver will be an adult child, sibling, or friend, and you do not want to wait.

Use MI Choice when: you need home modifications, adult day health, respite, or other non-personal-care services, a spouse hopes to be paid (Home Help bars spouse providers, so ask the waiver agency what applies), or you qualify for nursing-facility level of care.

Use both: in limited circumstances, a family can get Home Help started now and transition to (or add) MI Choice later. Ask your MDHHS worker about coordination.

Common Misconceptions

"My husband and I can each be paid to care for each other." Neither spouse can be paid as the other's Home Help caregiver. Any paid spousal caregiving through Michigan Medicaid is limited and handled outside Home Help, so ask your MDHHS caseworker or MI Choice waiver agency what applies.

"Home Help is the same as a home care agency." It is different. Home Help is a Medicaid benefit that directly employs an individual (or contracts with an enrolled agency) to provide personal care to a specific Medicaid-eligible participant. Traditional private-pay home care agencies operate on different contracts and rates.

"Home Help caregivers work under the table." They are W-2 employees, and MDHHS issues W-2s. Skipping reporting risks both the caregiver's wages and the participant's Medicaid eligibility.

"I have to move my parent to my house to get Home Help." No. Home Help serves the participant wherever they live, including their own home, a child's home, or an assisted living or adult foster care facility (though Home Help does not pay room and board).

"Home Help replaces Medicare home health after a hospital stay." It does not. Medicare covers short-term, skilled home health after a qualifying hospital stay. Home Help is long-term personal care that Medicare does not pay for. They can run in parallel.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the Michigan Home Help Program pay caregivers in 2026?

The 2026 individual caregiver rate is $17.13 per hour, up from $15.88, effective January 1, 2026. It is Michigan's $13.73 per hour minimum wage plus a $3.40 pass-through built into the Home Help rate structure. Agency-based Home Help is reimbursed on a different rate schedule set by MDHHS.

Can I be paid to care for my spouse through Michigan Home Help?

No. Spouses cannot be hired as caregivers under Home Help. Adult children, grandchildren, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, and unrelated qualified individuals such as friends can all be hired under Home Help, but a spouse cannot. Paid spousal caregiving through Michigan Medicaid is limited and handled outside Home Help; ask your MDHHS caseworker or MI Choice waiver agency what applies in your situation.

Is there a waitlist for Michigan Home Help?

No. Home Help is a Medicaid state-plan entitlement, meaning every Medicaid-eligible adult who meets the functional criteria is served. There is no cap and no waitlist. This is the single biggest difference from the MI Choice Waiver, which has limited capacity and regional waitlists.,

How do I apply for Michigan Home Help?

If you are not already on Medicaid, apply through MI Bridges (newmibridges.michigan.gov) or a paper MDHHS-1171 Assistance Application and indicate interest in Home Help. Request an Adult Services Worker referral. A worker visits the home and completes the Home Help Comprehensive Assessment (form MDHHS-5534). A physician or other approved provider certifies medical need on form MDHHS-6200 or DHS-54A. The worker authorizes a service plan, the participant hires a caregiver, and the caregiver enrolls in CHAMPS. The full path commonly runs about 6 to 10 weeks.

Are Home Help wages taxable?

Home Help caregivers are W-2 employees, and wages are reported through CHAMPS. Some caregivers who live in the same home as the person they care for may be able to exclude these wages from federal income tax under IRS Notice 2014-7, which treats them as difficulty-of-care payments. The rules are specific, so talk to a tax preparer familiar with the notice before the first tax year.

Learn More

MedicaidMichigan Medicaid Programs for Seniors (Hub)Every Michigan Medicaid program for seniors in 2026: Nursing Home Medicaid, the MI Choice Waiver, Home Help, MICH, and who qualifies for each. MedicaidHow to Apply for Michigan MedicaidA complete, step-by-step guide to applying for Michigan Medicaid in 2026: MI Bridges, MDHHS-1171, documents you need, timelines, and how to appeal a denial. MedicaidMI Choice Waiver ProgramMI Choice Waiver pays for home care, adult day, respite, and home modifications so Michigan seniors avoid a nursing home. See who qualifies and how to apply. CaregiverHow to Get Paid as a Family Caregiver in MichiganSix Michigan programs that pay family caregivers in 2026: Home Help, MI Choice, VA benefits, and more. Who qualifies, what they pay, how to apply. CaregiverMichigan Caregiver Programs (Complete Directory)Every Michigan caregiver program in 2026: Home Help pay, MI Choice, NFCSP respite through 16 Area Agencies on Aging, VA stipends, tax breaks, and legal steps.

Find personalized help applying for caregiver pay programs in Michigan at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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