Who can receive care
- A Delaware resident
- Covered by Delaware Medicaid
- Meets the program’s level-of-care assessment
- Has authorized hours in a care plan
- Adults in DSHP-Plus long-term care
- Children under 21 in the Self-Directed Attendant Care program
Eligibility · the short version
Who qualifies
Plain, respectful answers about who can receive care, who can be the paid caregiver, and who cannot be paid. This is the summary — the complete requirement lists, with every government source, live on the Sign Up page.
Who can be the paid caregiver
- Legally authorized to work in the United States
- Passes the state Background Check Center criminal check and drug screening
- Completes orientation and competency testing
- Adult children, relatives, and friends
- Parents and guardians for their own child — subject to the 40 hours per week cap
- Spouses in Delaware’s adult attendant-care programs — the plan confirms at enrollment
Who cannot be paid
- The person who directs the care cannot also be paid to provide it. In self-directed care, the family names an Employer Representative to direct the care and run the employer paperwork, and that person can never be the paid caregiver. For a child’s care, one parent may serve as Employer Representative while the other parent is the paid caregiver — no outside adult is needed. If both parents want to be paid caregivers, the family names a non-parent Employer Representative, and then both parents may be paid (each within the 40-hour-per-week cap). In agency-directed care there is no Employer Representative — Delmarva Family Care directs as the employer.
- Anyone who fails the background check, or who appears on federal exclusion lists.
- No one — pay can never be shared back to the member. A caregiver’s pay belongs to the caregiver.
Final eligibility is confirmed at enrollment, based on the member’s program, care plan, and health plan.