The Georgia CCSP Waiver, formally the Community Care Services Program, is a Medicaid home and community-based services program for adults who need nursing-home-level care at home. CCSP is one of the two service-delivery models inside Georgia's Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program (EDWP), not a separate Section 1915(c) waiver of its own. In 2026 it pays for personal support, adult day health, home-delivered meals, out-of-home respite, and Structured Family Caregiving (SFC) for an adult who is 21 or older, meets an intermediate nursing-facility level of care, and has monthly income below $2,982 (2026) with countable assets at or below $2,000 for an unmarried applicant.,,, You apply through your Area Agency on Aging (AAA), which you can find through Georgia's Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) at 1-866-552-4464; the AAA determines whether you are eligible and which services you need.,

In This Guide

What the Georgia CCSP Waiver Is

CCSP is a service-delivery model inside the Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program (EDWP), one of Georgia's Section 1915(c) home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers. It is administered by the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) and serves elderly adults and adults with physical disabilities who require a nursing-facility level of care but choose community-based services over institutional placement.

CCSP and SOURCE (Service Options Using Resources in a Community Environment) are the two service-delivery models found within Georgia's Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program (EDWP). Neither is a separate 1915(c) waiver; SOURCE is the model that adds enhanced case management coordinated through a primary care physician. The Area Agency on Aging (AAA) network is the EDWP's entry point: the AAA determines eligibility and the type of services needed, and an applicant who already has full Medicaid can contact either the AAA or a SOURCE site for that assessment.

If you searched for an intake name such as "Empowerline," what matters is which Area Agency on Aging serves your county. Georgia has 12, each covering its own list of counties; in metro Atlanta it is the Atlanta Regional Commission's Area Agency on Aging, which serves 10 counties (Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, and Rockdale). Statewide, the path in is the ADRC line at 1-866-552-4464, the number Georgia publishes for finding the AAA that serves your county.

Who Qualifies for the Georgia CCSP Waiver

Eligibility for the Georgia CCSP Waiver turns on a functional test with an age and disability category, a financial test, and the citizenship or immigration-status rule that applies to all full-benefit Medicaid.

Functional Eligibility (Nursing-Facility Level of Care)

The applicant must be 21 or older, have a functional impairment caused by physical limitations, and be certified at an intermediate nursing-facility level of care. DCH's fact sheet notes that Alzheimer's and dementia count as physical conditions for this test, and the applicant does not have to be homebound. DCH lists twelve criteria in all, including an unmet need for care, a care plan approved by the applicant's physician, and enrollment in only one waiver at a time. The Area Agency on Aging carries out the assessment that determines whether you are eligible and the type of services you need.

Financial Eligibility

CCSP uses the long-term-care (waiver) financial pathway:

  • Income. In 2026, the monthly income limit for a single applicant is $2,982, which is 300% of the federal SSI benefit rate; an applicant with income below $994 a month qualifies under the SSI pathway instead. An applicant whose income is at or above the limit can still qualify by routing income through a Qualified Income Trust (a "Miller trust"), which Georgia has allowed since September 1, 2004. The trust must be irrevocable, hold only the applicant's income, and name DCH as remainder beneficiary up to what Medicaid paid for care.
  • Assets. The countable resource limit is $2,000 for an unmarried applicant, and $3,000 for a couple who are both in EDWP. For a married applicant whose spouse is neither in EDWP nor in an institution, DCH's EDWP fact sheet counts both spouses' assets together and caps the combined total at $159,920, a figure from its Updated-2025 edition; anything over $2,000 in the applicant's name must be transferred to the community spouse within one year from the month Medicaid eligibility begins. For 2026 the federal spousal-impoverishment resource standards run from a minimum of $32,532 to a maximum of $162,660, with each state electing its standard inside that range. Because the fact sheet has not been reissued with 2026 figures, confirm with DFCS which amount applies to your application, and see our Georgia spousal impoverishment guide for the detail.
  • Home equity. The home-equity limit does not apply at all when the applicant's spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or permanently and totally disabled child of any age lawfully lives in the home. Otherwise, the 2026 home-equity limit starts at a federal minimum of $752,000, and a state may elect a higher amount, up to $1,130,000. Confirm with DFCS which equity standard Georgia applies to your case.
  • Transfers. Georgia applies the federal 60-month (five-year) look-back to uncompensated asset transfers under 42 U.S.C. 1396p(c); a transfer for less than fair market value during that window can trigger a penalty period.,

Other Requirements

Federal law requires the state to verify U.S. citizenship or satisfactory immigration status for full-benefit Medicaid.

What the Georgia CCSP Waiver Covers

The AAA determines the type of services a participant needs, and the care plan that sets them out must be approved by the participant's physician. DCH's waiver guide lists the CCSP services as adult day health care, alternative living services, an emergency response system, home-delivered meals, home-delivered services, personal support, and out-of-home respite care.,

The waiver also covers consumer-directed personal support, and Georgia does pay relatives other than a spouse or the parent of a minor child, through personal support as well as SFC. DCH's current EDWP manual (July 2026) says Medicaid will not pay a spouse, legal guardian, or parent of a minor child for services they are already legally obligated to provide. Another relative (related by blood or legal adoption within the third degree, or by marriage) may be covered once they meet the provider qualifications for personal support, consumer direction, or SFC and complete the required training first. When a relative provides self-directed care, the manual also requires an agreement in place before services start, a pay rate no higher than a provider of a similar service would receive, and help that is not something the family would ordinarily do or is responsible for doing. Meeting these criteria makes payment possible; it does not guarantee approval. Georgia's 2019 waiver application described the personal-support route more narrowly, as a case-by-case request to DCH based on extenuating circumstances such as a lack of qualified providers nearby; the current manual does not repeat it, so ask your care coordinator whether DCH still requires one.

How to Apply for the Georgia CCSP Waiver

1
Step 1

Contact your Area Agency on Aging

Call Georgia's Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) at 1-866-552-4464. It is the number Georgia publishes for finding the Area Agency on Aging that serves your community, one of 12 statewide. The AAA is the EDWP's entry point and determines both your eligibility and the type of services you need. If you already have full Medicaid, you can contact either the AAA or a SOURCE site for the assessment. In the 10-county metro Atlanta region, your AAA is the Atlanta Regional Commission.

2
Step 2

Apply for long-term-care Medicaid

If you are not already a Medicaid recipient, apply for long-term-care Medicaid. You can apply online through Georgia Gateway or in person at your local Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) county office, or call 1-877-423-4746 to request a paper application., For the step-by-step process, see our Georgia Medicaid application guide.

3
Step 3

Complete the functional assessment

The AAA assesses your needs to decide whether you are eligible and which services you need, including whether you meet the intermediate nursing-facility level of care.

4
Step 4

Get your care plan and determination

Your services are set out in a care plan, which your physician must approve. Two more of DCH's criteria apply here: your services must fall within the average annual cost of Medicaid-paid nursing-facility care, and your health and safety needs must be ones EDWP can meet. Once you are approved, services begin.

The Waitlist and Crisis Priority

CCSP is not an entitlement. Georgia's own waiver guide says funding for its home and community-based waiver programs is limited and that there are nearly always people on the waiting lists. The guide does not say how applicants on those lists are ranked, so ask your AAA directly how it prioritizes and where you sit. When you call, describe anything that makes your situation urgent, such as a hospital discharge with no safe plan at home or a family caregiver who can no longer continue.

Two practical points. First, verify the current wait with your local AAA rather than relying on a statewide number. Second, ask about the other EDWP model, SOURCE, which adds case management coordinated through a primary care physician; if you already have full Medicaid, you can go to a SOURCE site directly for an assessment, so ask both how long their waits are.,

Cost Share

Some CCSP participants owe a monthly cost share toward their care, calculated by DFCS in a patient liability/cost share budget. Before the share is set, income can be diverted to a spouse at home (Georgia's community spouse standard is $4,066.50 a month, effective January 2026, minus the spouse's own income) and to a dependent family member living with that spouse (a $2,706.00 standard, effective April 2026). Federal rules also require the state to account for medical expenses no third party pays, such as Medicare and other health insurance premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance, for people receiving waiver services. Ask your care coordinator for the figure in your own budget.

Structured Family Caregiving

Structured Family Caregiving is a paid-family-caregiver service offered inside both CCSP and SOURCE. A live-in family caregiver cares for the participant, and an enrolled SFC agency provides monitoring, coaching, education, and support for that caregiver and pays the caregiver a daily stipend. For how the model works in other states, see our national guide to structured family caregiving.

The Stipend

Medicaid pays the SFC agency, not the caregiver. DCH's EDWP manual lists the Structured Family Caregiver rate at $110.39 per day, effective July 1, 2024, and the agency must pay the live-in caregiver a daily stipend of at least 60% of that per diem. The manual prints no caregiver dollar amount; by our arithmetic, 60% works out to about $66 a day, and an agency may pay more. Under IRS Notice 2014-7, payments for personal care through a Medicaid 1915(c) waiver can be excluded from the caregiver's federal gross income when the caregiver and the participant share the same home as the caregiver's primary residence.

Who Can (and Cannot) Be the Paid Caregiver

Georgia Medicaid will not pay a spouse, legal guardian, or parent of a minor child for waiver services they are already legally obligated to provide, and a 2025 Georgia Senate study committee report adds conservators to the list of people who cannot be SFC caregivers. Other relatives, such as an adult child, may be covered once they meet the provider qualifications and required training. Georgia's SFC exclusion as written in its waiver application names a parent of a minor child, the participant, the participant's spouse, and the participant's legal guardian. That application also requires the SFC caregiver and the participant to be related by blood or by marriage, and the manual's bar on legally responsible relatives covers personal support and every other waiver service, not only SFC. For other ways a family caregiver can be paid, see our guide on how to get paid as a family caregiver in Georgia.

How CCSP Compares to Georgia's Other Waiver Programs

Georgia Medicaid describes four Section 1915(c) HCBS waivers among its operating programs. EDWP, through its CCSP and SOURCE models, serves frail older and disabled Georgians at a nursing-facility level of care; ICWP serves a limited number of adults who apply between the ages of 21 and 64 with severe physical disabilities or traumatic brain injury; and NOW and COMP serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with day-to-day operation delegated to a different agency. NOW and COMP applicants who are found pre-eligible go onto a planning list, which is Georgia's waitlist for those two waivers.

Waiver or model Who it serves Run by Waiting list
EDWP, CCSP model Adults 21+ at an intermediate nursing-facility level of care DCH Funding limited; ask your AAA
EDWP, SOURCE model Same population, with case management coordinated through a primary care physician DCH Funding limited; ask a SOURCE site
ICWP A limited number of adults who apply at ages 21 to 64 with severe physical disability or traumatic brain injury DCH Limited slots
NOW and COMP People with intellectual or developmental disabilities DCH, operated by DBHDD Yes (planning list)

Worked Examples

The following are hypothetical illustrations to show how the rules fit together. They are not real cases and not a guarantee of eligibility.

Margaret, 79, lives alone in DeKalb County. She receives $1,450 a month in Social Security and has $1,800 in savings, and she needs help with bathing, dressing, and meals. Because her income is below the $2,982 waiver limit and her countable assets are below $2,000, she clears the financial test, and the AAA's assessment would decide whether her needs meet the level-of-care standard. Her care plan could combine daily personal support, weekday home-delivered meals, and an emergency response system.

The Lee family in Cobb County. Mr. Lee has dementia and needs 24-hour supervision; his income is $3,200 a month, above the $2,982 limit. He qualifies by routing income through a Qualified Income Trust. Because his wife is not in EDWP, the couple's combined countable assets are measured against the married-applicant limit on DCH's fact sheet rather than the $2,000 single limit. Their daughter, who lives with them, becomes the paid Structured Family Caregiver; her SFC agency must pay her at least 60% of its $110.39 daily rate, while CCSP also authorizes adult day health two days a week to give her respite.

If You Are Denied: How to Appeal

If CCSP is denied, reduced, or terminated, you can request a state administrative hearing before Georgia's Office of State Administrative Hearings (OSAH), reachable at 1-404-657-2800 or toll-free at 1-877-809-0007. You have 30 days from the notice to request the hearing. If you already have coverage, keeping it and your cost share unchanged pending the hearing takes a separate request that must be received within 10 days of the notice date. Georgia's Medicaid manual allows 12 days from the postmark (with the envelope) or 14 from the notice date (without it) only when the notice arrived late, so don't count on 12 days from receipt; check your notice's deadlines. If you lose, DCH can make you repay the continued benefits. Free legal help is available from Georgia Legal Services Program at 1-833-457-7529 outside metro Atlanta. It does not represent people living in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton or Gwinnett counties, and it applies other requirements, so apply to learn whether you qualify. In Atlanta, OSAH refers people to the Atlanta Legal Aid Society at 1-404-524-5811.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CCSP the same as Medicaid?

CCSP is part of Georgia Medicaid, delivered as one of two models inside the Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program, a Section 1915(c) home and community-based services waiver. To enroll, you must be Medicaid eligible or potentially eligible after admission to EDWP, and you must also meet the program's other criteria, including an intermediate nursing-facility level of care and being 21 or older with a functional impairment caused by physical limitations.

Who can be a paid Structured Family Caregiver?

A relative who lives with the participant, such as an adult child, may be the paid Structured Family Caregiver once they meet the provider qualifications and required training; meeting them makes payment possible, not guaranteed. Georgia Medicaid will not pay a spouse, legal guardian, or parent of a minor child for services they are already legally obligated to provide, and a 2025 Georgia Senate study committee report also bars conservators.

How much does Structured Family Caregiving pay?

Medicaid pays the SFC agency $110.39 a day (the rate effective July 1, 2024), and the agency must pay the live-in caregiver a daily stipend of at least 60% of that, about $66 a day by our arithmetic; an agency may pay more. Under IRS Notice 2014-7, the stipend can be excluded from the caregiver's federal gross income when caregiver and participant share the caregiver's primary home.

What is the income limit for CCSP in 2026?

In 2026 the monthly income limit for a single applicant is $2,982, which is 300% of the federal SSI benefit rate, and the countable resource limit is $2,000. An applicant with income above the limit can still qualify using a Qualified Income Trust.

How is CCSP different from SOURCE?

Neither is its own waiver. Both are service-delivery models found within Georgia's Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program, a single Section 1915(c) waiver. SOURCE adds enhanced case management coordinated through a primary care physician. Both use the same EDWP income limit. An applicant who already has full Medicaid can go to either the AAA or a SOURCE site for the assessment.

Can I get CCSP if I have Medicare?

Yes. DCH's EDWP criteria do not exclude people with Medicare; one criterion instead requires that Medicare home health services or hospice not already meet your need for services. The two programs pay for different things. Medicare says it does not pay for long-term care, meaning help with daily activities such as bathing and dressing, home-delivered meals, and adult day health care, and it points people to Medicaid for that care. Medicare Part A covers inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing facility care, hospice care, and some home health care.

What if I am over the income limit?

You can still qualify by establishing a Qualified Income Trust (a Miller trust). The trust is irrevocable, holds only your income, and names the Department of Community Health as remainder beneficiary. See our Georgia Miller trust guide.

Key Phone Numbers and Resources

Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) The number Georgia publishes for finding the Area Agency on Aging that serves your community, the EDWP entry point for CCSP and SOURCE. 1-866-552-4464https://acl.gov/programs/support-caregivers/national-family-caregiver-support-program,
Georgia Medicaid (DCH) Member Services Questions about your Medicaid benefits, ID card, or providers. 1-866-211-0950https://www.medicaid.gov/about-us/where-can-people-get-help-medicaid-chip
Georgia Gateway Customer Contact Center Medicaid eligibility questions, Gateway account help, or a paper application request; staffed 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. 1-877-423-4746https://dhs.georgia.gov/contact,
Office of State Administrative Hearings (OSAH) File a hearing request to appeal a CCSP denial, reduction, or termination. 1-404-657-2800 or 1-877-809-0007https://osah.ga.gov/
GeorgiaCares (Georgia SHIP) Free, unbiased Medicare counseling from a certified counselor, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1-866-552-4464, option 4https://acl.gov/programs/connecting-people-services/state-health-insurance-assistance-program-ship aging.georgia.gov/georgia-ship
Georgia Long-Term Care Ombudsman Advocacy for residents of nursing homes, personal care homes, and assisted living; run by the Division of Aging Services. aging.georgia.gov/programs-and-services/long-term-care-ombudsman-program
Georgia Legal Services Program Free civil legal help outside metro Atlanta; other requirements apply. 1-833-457-7529https://dhs.georgia.gov/contact
Atlanta Legal Aid Legal help for people who live in Atlanta; OSAH lists it for hearing participants who need a lawyer. 1-404-524-5811https://osah.ga.gov/faq/

Learn More

MedicaidGeorgia Medicaid Programs OverviewGeorgia Medicaid 2026: income and asset limits, the EDWP waiver (CCSP and SOURCE), Pathways to Coverage, Miller Trusts, estate recovery, and how to apply. MedicaidGeorgia Medicaid Eligibility and Income LimitsGeorgia Medicaid income limits in 2026: the $994 ABD limit, $2,982 long-term-care cap, $2,000 asset limit, Miller Trust, CSRA, and Pathways to Coverage. MedicaidGeorgia Medicaid Long-Term CareGeorgia Medicaid long-term care in 2026: nursing facility coverage, HCBS waivers (EDWP with CCSP and SOURCE, ICWP, NOW, COMP), PACE, and how to apply. MedicaidGeorgia SOURCE WaiverHow the Georgia SOURCE waiver works in 2026: a delivery model inside the 1915(c) Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program, eligibility, sites, and how to apply. MedicaidGeorgia ICWP WaiverGeorgia's Independent Care Waiver Program (ICWP) funds home care for adults 21-64 with severe physical disabilities or TBI. Eligibility, services, how to apply. MedicaidGeorgia Miller TrustGeorgia Medicaid Miller Trust (Qualified Income Trust) in 2026: who needs one above the $2,982 income limit, how to set it up, and the monthly funding rules. MedicaidHow to Apply for Georgia MedicaidHow to apply for Georgia Medicaid in 2026: Georgia Gateway, your local DFCS office, Form 700, the documents you need, processing timelines, and how to appeal.

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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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