In-Home Dementia Care in Florida

Paying for care in Florida: Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care Program

Medicare does not pay for the long-term help dementia requires. In Florida the programme that can is SMMC LTC, administered by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration with the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, through long-term care managed care plans.

Who qualifies

A person must be 65 or over and eligible for Medicaid, or 18 or over and eligible for Medicaid by reason of a disability, and the Comprehensive Assessment and Review for Long-Term Care Services (CARES) unit at the Department of Elder Affairs must find them at nursing home level of care and meeting one or more established clinical criteria. The cited page does not describe any dementia-specific route, so ask the local Aging and Disability Resource Center how a dementia diagnosis is weighed in that assessment.

The financial limits

Single applicant

Not published on the cited program page; set by Florida Medicaid financial eligibility rules

Married couple

Not published on the cited program page; spousal impoverishment rules apply

Look-back period

Not published on the cited program page; standard Medicaid transfer-of-asset rules apply

How to apply

Contact the local Aging and Disability Resource Center, which is the contact point for the program's waitlist, or call the statewide Elder Helpline at 1-800-96-ELDER. Enrollment depends on the CARES assessment of nursing home level of care, and once enrolled, services come from a long-term care managed care plan, chosen with help from Florida's Choice Counseling service.

What is unusual about Florida

Florida delivers this help through managed care plans that must each offer the same minimum list of services, including personal care, adult companion care, respite, adult day care and caregiver training, and the program has a waitlist, for which the local Aging and Disability Resource Center is the contact.

Rules and figures change. Confirm the current position with the programme itself before making a financial decision.