·State program
Texas Community First Choice (CFC) / Consumer Directed Services (CDS)
Texas Community First Choice (CFC) is a 1915(k) Medicaid state plan option providing personal assistance and habilitation services to eligible Medicaid members with functional limitations. Consumer Directed Services (CDS) is an option within multiple Texas Medicaid and HCBS pathways that lets the member or legally authorized representative hire, manage, and supervise eligible attendants, including some family members and other workers, as an alternative to agency-directed care. Spouses are generally excluded from paid CDS employment except for narrow program-specific exceptions such as CMPAS.
What it offers
CFC and CDS provide personal assistance, habilitation, emergency response, and support-management options for eligible Texas Medicaid members who need help with activities of daily living, community integration, or adapting behaviors and meet an institutional level of care. CFC personal assistance and habilitation can be delivered through the Consumer Directed Services option. Under CDS, the member or legally authorized representative becomes the employer of record and recruits, hires, manages, trains, and dismisses employees, including eligible family members, friends, or neighbors. Texas HHS materials do not support a single statewide FPL screen for this combined record; financial eligibility depends on the member's Medicaid or HCBS pathway. Spouses are generally excluded from being paid CDS employees, except for narrow program-specific exceptions such as CMPAS.
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 Texas?
Residency is usually the first thing a program checks.
- 02
Does your relationship to the person — 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?