Sign Up · Start here
Sign up — everything you need, in one place
This page is the whole front door: what signing up means today, every prerequisite for the person receiving care and for the caregiver, the complete registration packet, and the short forms that hold your place. Each requirement is explained in plain language — and each one links to the government source it comes from, so you can check it yourself.
Now forming in Delaware — please read first
Delmarva Family Care is now forming in Delaware. We are not yet a licensed Delaware Personal Assistance Services Agency or an enrolled Delaware Medicaid provider, and we are not yet providing care services. Signing up today is free, holds your place on our interest list, and is not a promise of employment or services — and it cannot officially enroll anyone in Medicaid or in Self-Directed Attendant Care today. The requirements below are Delaware’s program rules: they are what you and your caregiver will be measured against when enrollment opens, so you can prepare now. When licensing and enrollment are complete, we will contact families and caregivers in the order they signed up.
How signing up works — four steps
You are on Step 1 now. Nothing here costs anything, and the short form in Step 3 never asks for a Medicaid number, a Social Security number, or a date of birth.
Read the requirements
Two lists below — one for the person receiving care, one for the caregiver. Check your family against them, and use the government links to verify anything you want to confirm.
Take the packet
Download the complete registration packet as a PDF, or walk through it page by page right on this page — same content, whichever you prefer.
Fill in the short form
Two minutes: your name, phone, email, and ZIP. That holds your place on the interest list, in order.
We call you
When licensing and enrollment are complete, we contact sign-ups in order and walk through enrollment together — eligibility, assessment, screening, and paperwork.
I’m signing up for my family
For the person who will receive care — and the family arranging it. See every requirement for the participant, then the family form.
Go to the family requirements →I want to be a paid caregiver
For the person who will give the care and be employed by Delmarva Family Care. See every requirement for caregivers, then the caregiver form.
Go to the caregiver requirements →Most families need both lists: the person receiving care must qualify, and the caregiver must qualify. One sentence for the whole program: Medicaid decides who qualifies and how many hours; the family decides who gives the care; Delmarva Family Care makes that person a legal, screened, trained, verified employee and pays them.
Sign Up · Track 1 of 2
Requirements for the person receiving care (the participant)
These are Delaware’s rules for the person who will receive care — not Delmarva Family Care’s inventions. If one of them is missing, paid care through this program cannot start, which is why we check them together first. The state’s own gateway rule says it plainly: before a caregiver can be paid, the person receiving care must be eligible for and enrolled in a Personal Attendant Services Program.
1. Live in Delaware
What it is: the person receiving care must be a Delaware resident, with a Delaware home address where the care will happen. Why: these are Delaware Medicaid programs, paid for Delaware residents, and the care is delivered at home.
Check it yourself: Delaware Division of Medicaid & Medical Assistance (DMMA) — Long Term Care Medicaid Programs — the state page that states the residency requirement and the tests below.
2. Be covered by Delaware Medicaid — the money test (adult long-term care)
What it is: for adult long-term care, Delaware tests income and assets. The 2026 figures:
| Test | 2026 figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Income limit | $2,485 / month gross | Delaware sets the long-term care income limit at 250% of the federal SSI standard ($994/month in 2026). |
| Income over the limit | A Miller Trust is required | Being over is not the end of the road: Delaware requires a Miller Trust (Qualified Income Trust) to qualify. |
| Assets — single | $2,000 or less | Countable assets (savings and the like) at or under the limit. |
| Assets — married couple, both applying | $3,000 or less | The combined limit when both spouses apply. |
| If you are married and your spouse is not applying | Spouse may keep $32,532–$162,660 of assets and $2,705–$4,066.50 / month of income | These community-spouse protections are calculated from your actual assets and income at the eligibility determination — the exact figure is set then, not before. |
| Your home | Home equity cap $752,000 | The cap does not apply if a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind/disabled child lives in the home. |
| Gifts and transfers | 60-month look-back | Assets given away for less than fair value within 60 months can trigger a penalty period. If your family has transferred assets, get eligibility advice before applying. |
Children are different: a child’s eligibility rides on the child’s ordinary Delaware Medicaid coverage — the adult money test above does not apply to the children’s program.
Who decides: the Division of Social Services (DSS) decides Medicaid eligibility — never Delmarva Family Care. Figures are 2026 figures and change every January.
Check it yourself: DMMA — Long Term Care Medicaid Programs — the 250%-of-SSI limit, the Miller Trust rule, and the $2,000 asset limit in the state’s words. The $994 figure it builds on: U.S. Social Security Administration — SSI federal benefit rate.
3. Apply for Medicaid, if you are not already covered
What it is: an application through Delaware ASSIST (the state’s self-service portal), any State Service Center, or — for long-term care — DMMA’s Medicaid Central Intake Unit at 1-866-940-8963. The application asks for proof the state can verify: identity and citizenship or immigration status, income, and, for long-term care, asset documentation. Why: no Medicaid coverage, no program — this is the door everything else stands behind.
Check it yourself: Division of Social Services (DSS) — Medical Assistance Programs — how eligibility is decided and how to apply.
4. Pass the care test — the program must find a real need for help
What it is: for adults, the person must need a nursing-facility level of care — skilled or intermediate care, under Delaware Medicaid’s criteria. For a child, the child’s medical/behavioral-health team and health plan must find a medical need for help with everyday activities (bathing, dressing, eating, moving around) that is age-appropriate and medically necessary. Why it matters: a doctor’s note alone does not qualify anyone — the assessment is the program’s, run by the health plan’s care coordinator, and it is repeated on the plan’s review cycle.
Check it yourself: DMMA — Long Term Care Medicaid Programs (the adult standard) and DMMA — Self-Directed Attendant Care (SDAC) FAQ, December 2024 (PDF) (the children’s standard).
5. Be enrolled in the right program
What it is: three doors lead to paid family care in Delaware:
- DSHP Plus long-term care — adults 18 and older with a qualifying disability who pass the money test and the care test. Care runs through one of Delaware’s three Medicaid health plans (below).
- Self-Directed Attendant Care (SDAC) — children up to age 21 on Medicaid with a complex medical condition, an intellectual/developmental disability, and/or a behavioral-health condition behind the need for help.
- DSAAPD Attendant Services Program — a state-funded door (not Medicaid) for adults 18+ with a disability who meet financial and functional tests. This is the door to ask about if the Medicaid money test does not fit.
One limit: a person cannot receive DSHP Plus and DDDS Lifespan Waiver services at the same time — the family chooses one.
Check it yourself: DSAAPD — In-Home Support (the state-funded attendant door), DSAAPD — Attendant Services FAQ (the enroll-the-participant-first rule), and DHSS/DDDS — Compare Lifespan v. DSHP Plus (why the two cannot be combined).
6. Have a health plan, a care plan, and authorized hours
What it is: the participant is assigned to one of Delaware’s three Medicaid health plans — AmeriHealth Caritas Delaware, Highmark Health Options, or Delaware First Health — and the plan’s care coordinator writes a care plan authorizing a set number of care hours and the tasks they cover. The rule families plan around: no authorized hours, no paid care. Help with household tasks (light housekeeping, shopping, meal preparation) is covered only when it is written into the care plan, and respite hours cannot be swapped for attendant hours. If you do not know your plan, DMMA’s customer line can identify it: (302) 571-4900 / (866) 843-7212.
Check it yourself: Delaware First Health — Payment Policy DE.PP.003 (PDF) — one plan’s published policy showing how hours are authorized and what care they cover.
7. Choose self-direction — and name an Employer Representative
What it is: self-direction is a choice the family makes and signs for (in the children’s program, a signed statement of the decision). The family names an Employer Representative — the person who directs the care, manages the employer side, and approves timesheets. The hard rule: the Employer Representative can never be the paid caregiver — whoever directs, does not get paid to care. For a child, the Employer Representative can be a parent or guardian, or another person the parent or guardian designates. So in a two-parent family: one parent can 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 designates a non-parent Employer Representative, and then each parent can be paid (within the 40-hour cap in the caregiver list). In agency-directed care there is no Employer Representative — Delmarva Family Care directs as the employer.
Check it yourself: DMMA — SDAC FAQ (PDF) — the Employer Representative rules, including the both-parents answer, in the state’s words.
8. Have a back-up plan
What it is: a written plan for who provides care when the regular caregiver is sick, on vacation, or unavailable. Why: care cannot simply stop — the plan’s case manager checks that a back-up plan exists and is followed.
Check it yourself: Delaware First Health — Payment Policy DE.PP.003 (PDF) — the back-up plan requirement.
9. Receive the care at home
What it is: the care happens in the participant’s own home, in the community. Self-directed attendant care is not offered to people living in a nursing facility or an assisted living facility. Before services begin, the agency also makes an initial home visit and evaluation in the home.
Check it yourself: Delaware Code Online — 16 Del. C. §§ 1145–1146 — the law’s definition of care in a private residence, and the screening law your caregiver will meet below.
10. The documents enrollment will ask for — participant side
Nothing on this list is collected by the interest-list form today. At enrollment, have ready:
- Medicaid application or proof of active coverage (see items 2–3)
- Delaware Medicaid ID / member card and health-plan (MCO) assignment
- The level-of-care / medical-necessity assessment, through the plan’s care coordinator
- The signed care plan showing authorized hours
- The signed self-direction election, where the plan requires one
- The signed Employer Representative agreement — signed by someone who is not the caregiver
- The back-up plan for caregiver absences
- Miller Trust documents, if income is over the cap
- If someone acts for the participant: the authority document — guardianship, power of attorney, or advance health-care directive
- The signed consumer agreement with the agency — services, hours, emergency and termination procedures, and financial terms — plus the state-form disclosure of the agency’s tax, workers’ compensation, and liability-insurance status
Delmarva Family Care also keeps verification copies in the family’s file — Medicaid and plan cards, proof of the Delaware address where care will occur, the care-plan pages showing approved hours and tasks, photo ID for the participant and the Employer Representative, and emergency-contact details. These prove the same facts and keep the file audit-clean; they are not extra state requirements.
Where these come from: the consumer agreement and disclosure are required by Delaware’s Personal Assistance Services Agency rules — 16 DE Admin. Code 3345 (Cornell Law mirror of the Delaware regulation); the Employer Representative agreement and back-up plan by the plan policies linked in items 7–8.
Continue to the family sign-up form — Step 3
The form takes about two minutes and asks only for contact details — never a Medicaid number, Social Security number, or date of birth.
Sign Up · Track 2 of 2
Now the other half: the caregiver.
The participant qualifying is only half the door. The person who will give the care must also qualify — as a real employee, screened and trained under Delaware law. That list is next.
Requirements for the family caregiver (the attendant Delmarva Family Care employs and pays)
Delmarva Family Care hires the caregiver as a W-2 employee. Delaware law builds the screening in layers, and every layer must be passed before the first paid visit — there are no exceptions for family. Read this list before you count on a start date.
1. Be at least 18 years old
What it is: a hard minimum age for anyone paid to provide attendant care. Why: it is the program’s stated minimum qualification, and Delmarva Family Care applies it to every caregiver it employs.
Check it yourself: DMMA — SDAC FAQ (PDF) — “be at least 18 years old” is the first employee qualification listed.
2. Have a valid Social Security number and be legally authorized to work in the United States
What it is: every employee completes federal Form I-9 — Section 1 by the first day of work, with acceptable identity and work-authorization documents shown to the employer (the employer may not dictate which documents). Why: the caregiver is a real employee on real payroll, and a valid Social Security number is an express program qualification.
Check it yourself: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — I-9 Central — the federal rule every employer follows for every hire.
3. Have the skills to do the care in the care plan
What it is: the caregiver must be able to perform the specific help the care plan authorizes — bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, eating, mobility — safely. In the self-directed route the family helps judge and train this; in Delmarva Family Care’s agency route the competency test in item 7 confirms it. Care is non-skilled personal care only — nursing tasks are outside this program entirely.
Check it yourself: DMMA — SDAC FAQ (PDF) — the skills qualification, in the state’s words.
4. Pass a fingerprint-based criminal background check — before starting
What it is: Delaware law says an employer may not employ someone to work in a private residence before obtaining their criminal history. The check covers the person’s entire FBI record and Delaware record, and runs through the state Background Check Center, which also pulls the Adult Abuse Registry, the Nurse Aide Registry, state and national sex-offender registries, professional-license records, the federal excluded-provider data, and — for caregivers who will serve children — the Child Protection Registry. How it works: fingerprints are taken at the Delaware State Police, State Bureau of Identification, 600 S. Bay Road, Suite 1, Dover — walk-in, Monday–Friday 8:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Bring photo ID and a completed Criminal History Record Request form; the fee is $85.00. A report stays valid for a new employer for 1 year from fingerprinting. Timing: the law allows up to 60 days of conditional employment only after the employer has verification that fingerprinting is done — and it ends immediately if a disqualifying conviction appears.
Check it yourself: Division of Health Care Quality (DHCQ) — Criminal Background Checks, Fingerprinting and Mandatory Drug Testing — the Dover location, hours, ID and form to bring, the $85 fee, and everything the Background Check Center pulls. The law itself: 16 Del. C. § 1145, Delaware Code Online.
5. Pass a drug screening — results in hand before the first visit
What it is: Delaware law bars employing an applicant before the employer has the results of mandatory drug screening. The state-set panel covers marijuana/cannabis, cocaine, opiates, phencyclidine (PCP), and amphetamines — marijuana is on the panel for this workforce even though it is legal in Delaware. Delmarva Family Care’s rule: no caregiver works a visit before the results are in hand.
Check it yourself: 16 Del. C. § 1146, Delaware Code Online — the results-before-employment rule and the five-drug panel.
6. Not be barred — the absolute bars and disqualifying convictions
Absolute bars — no exceptions: appearing on the Adult Abuse Registry, a sex-offender registry, or the federal excluded-provider list.
Disqualifying convictions (Delaware’s agency regulation): a conviction within the past 15 years for abusing, neglecting, or mistreating a resident of a facility or an adult who is impaired; a theft-related felony within the past 10 years; or a theft-related misdemeanor within the past 2 years. These bars apply to Delmarva Family Care’s own employment in full — Delmarva Family Care does not use any waiver pathway for its employees.
Check it yourself: 16 DE Admin. Code 3110-8.2 (Cornell Law mirror of the Delaware regulation) — the disqualifying-conviction windows, word for word.
7. Complete Delmarva Family Care’s orientation and pass a competency test — before the first visit, then every year
What it is: Delaware requires every direct care worker to finish the agency’s orientation before providing services — covering consumer rights, infection control, body mechanics, dementia-specific training, confidentiality, the service plan, and the rest of the state’s required topics — and to pass a competency test before providing care, and annually thereafter.
Check it yourself: 16 DE Admin. Code 3345-4.5 (Cornell Law mirror) — orientation before service and the competency-test rule.
8. Have a health file: a physical exam and TB testing
What it is: the caregiver’s personnel file must hold a physical examination completed within 12 months before employment and pre-employment and annual TB testing. No one with active infectious TB may give care. Why: the care happens in a vulnerable person’s home; the state requires the health screen on file.
Check it yourself: 16 DE Admin. Code 3345-4.4 (Cornell Law mirror) — the personnel-file and health-record requirements.
9. Follow the family rules — who can be paid, and the 40-hour cap
Who can be paid: adult children, other relatives, neighbors, and friends — the caregiver does not have to be a relative at all. Parents, guardians, and spouses can also be paid, with one limit:
The 40-hour cap: a family member who is legally responsible for the participant — a parent or legal guardian for a child; a spouse for an adult — is limited to 40 hours of paid care per week, each. Adult children are not legally responsible for a parent, so the cap does not apply to them; their limit is the authorized hours. Authorized hours above the cap must be worked by someone who is not legally responsible. Two more hard rules: the Employer Representative can never be the paid caregiver (item 7 of the family list), and a caregiver’s pay can never be shared back to the participant — that arrangement is prohibited, full stop.
Check it yourself: DMMA — SDAC FAQ (PDF) and Delaware First Health — Payment Policy DE.PP.003 (PDF) — the cap, the above-cap rule, and the no-sharing rule.
10. Clock every visit in the EVV app — no record, no pay for that visit
What it is: every visit is logged in Delaware’s electronic visit verification (EVV) system — who received care, who provided it, the date, the location, and the start and end times. The hard edge: since July 1, 2025, Delaware denies payment for visits EVV cannot match. A missed clock-in is not a paperwork problem; it is an unpaid visit. The caregiver must be able and willing to use the app (or the telephone alternative) on every visit.
Check it yourself: DMMA — Electronic Visit Verification — the requirement and the July 1, 2025 denial rule. The system itself: HHAeXchange — the company behind Delaware’s EVV system.
11. Be a W-2 employee — with the paperwork that comes with a real job
What it is: Delmarva Family Care employs the caregiver: taxes withheld, workers’ compensation coverage, pay by direct deposit. Onboarding includes Form I-9, Form W-4 and Delaware withholding, the signed Background Check Center consent form, and the signed employment paperwork — all before paid service begins. In the self-directed route, a signed employment agreement must also be in place before the plan will pay for any care.
Check it yourself: USCIS — I-9 Central (employment verification) and Delaware First Health — Payment Policy DE.PP.003 (PDF) (the employment-agreement-before-payment rule).
12. The documents enrollment will ask for — caregiver side
Again: nothing here is collected by the interest-list form today. At hiring, have ready:
- Photo ID and the completed Criminal History Record Request form for fingerprinting ($85 fee — item 4)
- Fingerprints taken at the State Bureau of Identification in Dover (or documentation of fingerprinting within the past year)
- The signed Background Check Center consent form
- Drug screening completed, with results received by Delmarva Family Care before the first worked visit
- Form I-9 with acceptable documents, and a valid Social Security number
- Form W-4 and Delaware withholding form; direct-deposit details for payroll
- Physical examination (within the prior 12 months) and TB testing documentation
- Orientation completion and passed competency test records
- Signed employment paperwork before any paid service
Delmarva Family Care also keeps the verification copies behind these — screening receipts and result confirmations, education and work history, a skills attestation for the tasks in the care plan, and EVV app enrollment — and calendars the annual re-checks: competency re-test, TB, dementia training where it applies, and the criminal-history refresh.
Who cannot be paid — the short list
- Anyone under 18, or without a valid Social Security number or federal work authorization.
- The participant’s Employer Representative — directing and providing are two roles, and one person cannot hold both.
- Anyone with a disqualifying conviction inside its window, or on the Adult Abuse Registry, a sex-offender registry, or the federal excluded-provider list.
- Anyone who refuses or fails the drug screening — or whose results are not yet in.
- Anyone who has not finished orientation and passed the competency test, or who lacks the physical-exam and TB documentation.
- Anyone who will not clock visits in EVV — unmatched visits are not paid.
Continue to the caregiver sign-up form — Step 3
The form takes about two minutes and asks only for contact details and availability — never a Social Security number or date of birth.
Sign Up · Step 2
The complete registration packet — download it, or walk through it here
The packet is the whole Delmarva Family Care story in one document: the idea, how it works, how caregivers get paid, who qualifies, the care and support, the oversight — and the complete sign-up requirements from this page. Take it either way; the content is the same.
Download the complete Delmarva Family Care packet (PDF)
The packet, page by page
Page 1 — The idea
Why Delmarva Family Care exists: family already gives most home care in Delaware, unpaid. Delmarva Family Care’s job is the agency work behind it — employing the caregiver and handling billing, payroll, and compliance. The same story is on our home page.
Page 2 — How it works
The six steps from the first eligibility talk to the first paycheck. Expanded to seven steps, with who does what at each one, on the How It Works page.
Page 3 — How you get paid
The agency rate ($27.42/hour, the published Delaware schedule figure) versus the caregiver’s wage (about $16.50/hour, the Delaware median for home-care aides) — two different numbers, never blurred — plus a worked example and the 40-hour rule. In full on the Getting Paid page.
Page 4 — Who qualifies
The short version of the two requirement lists on this page. The complete lists — every prerequisite, with its government source — are the family requirements and caregiver requirements above; a plain summary is on the Who Qualifies page.
Page 5 — The care and support
What care can include — personal care, homemaker and companion help, attendant care, respite where authorized — and the support around it: coaching, payroll, the EVV app, care-plan reviews, supervisory check-ins. In full on the Care & Support page.
Page 6 — Oversight
Why families can trust the structure: Delaware licensure, state program administration, Background Check Center screening, and federal visit verification. Every body involved, with links, is on the Oversight page — each agency and plan, and what it oversees.
Page 7 — Sign up
The two paths in — family and caregiver — and what happens next: we call you, we check eligibility together, and your place in line is held. That is the section below.
Enrollment itself, step by step — what will happen when Delmarva Family Care opens
1. You join the interest list
The short form below — today’s step. Free, two minutes, no sensitive numbers.
2. We call you
In sign-up order, when licensing and enrollment are complete, and we talk through your situation.
3. Eligibility is checked
Medicaid coverage and the money test, decided by DSS (family list, items 2–3).
4. The plan assesses and authorizes
The care test, then a care plan with authorized hours (family list, items 4–6).
5. Your family chooses the caregiver — and names an Employer Representative
If you are self-directing (family list, item 7).
6. The caregiver is screened and trained
Fingerprints, drug screening, orientation, competency test, health file (caregiver list, items 4–8).
7. Agreements are signed
The consumer agreement and disclosures, the Employer Representative agreement, the caregiver’s employment paperwork (family list, item 10; caregiver list, item 12).
8. The home visit and EVV setup
The initial home visit and evaluation, and the caregiver’s EVV app set up and tested (caregiver list, item 10).
9. Care begins — and payday follows
Verified visits become claims; the caregiver is paid W-2 wages on a regular schedule. How pay works is on the Getting Paid page — who pays whom, and what the rates mean.
Sign Up · Step 3
Hold your place — the two short forms
Choose the form that fits who you are. Each asks only for contact details — never a Medicaid number, a Social Security number, or a date of birth — and each holds your place on the interest list in the order received.
Family sign-up form
For the person who needs care and the family arranging it: who needs care, what coverage you have, and who would provide the care.
Open the family form →Caregiver sign-up form
For the person who will give the care: who you would care for, your experience, and your availability.
Open the caregiver form →What happens after you submit
Your sign-up is recorded, and you’ll see a confirmation page. We review the details you shared. When licensing and enrollment are complete, we contact families and caregivers in the order they signed up, and enrollment begins with the eligibility check on this page. Signing up is free, and it is not a commitment by you or by Delmarva Family Care — it is your place in line, and an honest conversation about whether the program fits your family.