"Caring Homes": State Pays Families to House and Care for Seniors

Massachusetts has begun paying family members to house and care for their frail older relatives in an effort to keep them out of nursing homes and save the state money. The “Caring Homes” program pays $1,500 a month to caregivers to make it more feasible for family members to provide round-the-clock care. Federal rules require that the program exclude spouses and dependent children as caregivers.

Before the state begins paying a family for the care, state contractors evaluate the senior's needs, the home's safety, and the caretaker's qualifications. The care is monitored by a nurse, who visits monthly, and a case manager who checks on the family regularly.

Information on the program can be obtained by calling MassHealth's customer service center at 800-841-2900.

Background

Caring Homes has enrolled 21 seniors since beginning on a trial basis in March, and will expand this fall to as many as 80 low-income seniors or disabled people, funded by $2 million in the state budget. Officials expect the program will be expanded to serve many more in future years. Advocates say as many as 8,000 people could be eligible, depending on the criteria ultimately set by the state.

Massachusetts has historically had a larger percentage of its seniors in nursing homes than many other states -- in 2001, 6.8 percent of those over 65 were in nursing homes here, compared with 4.4 percent nationally. The state expects to spend $1.6 billion for nursing home care this year.

The program was proposed here by Mass Home Care, an association of nonprofit home care providers that is being paid to help administer Caring Homes. It is modeled on a program in Oregon, which was the first in the nation when it was set up in the 1980s and now serves 2,000 seniors.

-Adapted from: “Program pays families to house seniors’, By Alice Dembner, The Boston Globe, July 8, 2005.

07/2005