Community Services
12. Home and Community-Based Services Waiver Programs
The federal government's Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) program supports state groups that offer creative alternatives for low-income individuals to receive care at home or in a community setting instead of in a hospital or nursing facility.
People with all types of disabilities may be eligible as long as they would qualify for admission to a nursing facility, subacute facility, or acute hospital.
Participating programs are called "waivers" because they waive certain federal rules to provide different or more services than the state normally offers to people who qualify for Medi-Cal.
The rules that are waived allow the state to:
- Provide home and community-based services to a limited number of people, rather than all eligible Medi-Cal recipients;
- Offer services that are not offered under the regular Medi-Cal program; and
- Service people who otherwise would not be eligible because their family or spouse's income is too high.
These programs also expand Medi-Cal eligibility to people under age 65 who have disabilities and to the elderly whose need for care has become a financial burden.
The services can include case management, community transition services, private duty nursing, family training, home health aides, life-sustaining utility reimbursement, habilitation services, and respite care.
For more information, call the California Department of Health Care Services in Sacramento at 916-552-9105 or Los Angeles at 213-897-6774.
