·State program
Oregon Medicaid In-Home Services (Consumer Employer/Homecare Worker and Independent Choices)
Oregon Medicaid long-term services and supports include consumer-directed in-home options for older adults and people with disabilities, including the Consumer Employer/Homecare Worker model and the Independent Choices Program. After a person qualifies for state-paid in-home services, they may be able to hire, schedule, and direct approved providers or receive a cash benefit to arrange services under option-specific rules.
What it offers
Oregon offers several in-home service options for people who qualify for state-paid long-term services and supports. In the Consumer Employer/Homecare Worker option, the person receiving services or their representative hires, schedules, trains, and supervises a homecare worker while Oregon handles provider enrollment, background checks, and payment through the public homecare workforce system. The Independent Choices Program pays a monthly cash benefit so the participant can arrange and pay for approved services, including hiring qualified family members or friends; Oregon's ICP materials say a spouse or parent may be a service provider if program qualifications are met. Oregon also has a Spousal Pay Program for approved people whose spouse provides in-home care. For children with very high medical or behavioral needs, the Children's Extraordinary Needs Program lets eligible parents or guardians be paid for up to 20 hours per week, but the program is capped and uses a waitlist. The 2025-2027 Oregon Home Care Commission contract lists 2026 regular homecare-worker wages from $21.25/hr at Step 1 to $25.25/hr at Step 5, with possible differentials such as CPR/First Aid and enhanced or exceptional qualifications. Actual hours, cash benefit amounts, and provider eligibility depend on assessment, service plan, Medicaid or other state-paid service eligibility, and the selected option.
Questions that decide eligibility
GiveCare prepares the questions; the program makes the decision. Bring these to the call or the application:
- 01
Does the person receiving care live in Oregon?
Residency is usually the first thing a program checks.
- 02
Does your relationship to the person — spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, other relative, or non relative — count for this program?
- 03
What counts as a qualifying disability or level of care need, and what documentation shows it?
- 04
Does the VA disability rating meet the program’s minimum (our record lists null%)?
- 05
Do the work hours meet the minimum (our record lists null hours)?
- 06
Is there a caregiver-specific department, coordinator, or support line? Ask for it by name.
Many agencies have one that isn’t advertised on the website.
- 07
What documents do you need from us to start an application?
- 08
Is there a waitlist right now, and how long is it?