In-Home Dementia Care in Maryland

Paying for care in Maryland: Home and Community-Based Options Waiver (HCBOW)

Medicare does not pay for the long-term help dementia requires. In Maryland the programme that can is Community Options Waiver, administered by the Maryland Department of Health Medicaid Administration, with access coordinated through Maryland Access Point.

Who qualifies

Applicants must be 18 or older, need a nursing facility level of care, live at home or in the community, and not be enrolled in another waiver or PACE at the same time. The cited page does not describe any dementia-specific eligibility route, so ask the office that administers the programme how a dementia diagnosis is weighed in that assessment.

The financial limits

Single applicant

$2,000 or $2,500 in countable assets, depending on eligibility category

Married couple

Not published on the cited page; spousal rules apply

Look-back period

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

How to apply

Call Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465 to be added to the Community Options Waiver Registry, then wait for an invitation to apply. People already in a nursing facility with 30 or more days of Medicaid-paid services can apply without waiting on the registry.

What is unusual about Maryland

Maryland runs the waiver from a registry with a waitlist rather than open enrollment, so getting on the Maryland Access Point list early matters - except for people already in a nursing facility, who bypass the wait entirely.

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