The Michigan Home Help Program:
The Definitive Guide for 2026

The Michigan Home Help Program is a Medicaid-funded benefit administered by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). It provides in-home personal care services to Medicaid recipients who need assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs).

Unlike traditional home care, the Home Help Program allows qualifying loved ones — adult children, siblings, other relatives, and in many cases close friends or neighbors — to be paid directly as caregivers. The program excludes only two relationships: spouses can't be paid to care for each other, and a parent can't be paid to care for their own minor child. Beyond that, people who are already providing care can receive Medicaid compensation for that work.

Roughly 61,000 Michigan residents receive Home Help — a widely reported caseload figure — and many more are eligible but haven't enrolled because they don't know the program exists or find the application process too complex to navigate alone.

To receive Home Help services, the care recipient must: (1) be a Michigan resident, (2) be enrolled in Michigan Medicaid, (3) require assistance with ADLs or IADLs due to age, disability, or chronic health condition, and (4) be assessed by MDHHS as needing in-home care.

On the Medicaid side, there is more than one door in: full-coverage categories for seniors and people with disabilities, the Healthy Michigan Plan, and a deductible (“spend-down”) pathway for people whose income is over the limit. Don't rule a parent out because of one number you read online — the pathways differ, and the deductible route surprises many families who assumed they earned too much.

To serve as a paid caregiver, the caregiver must: be 18 or older, complete an enrollment in CHAMPS (Michigan's Medicaid management system), pass a criminal background check, and set up Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) through HHAeXchange. The full rules — including who is excluded and the override almost nobody knows about — are covered in the caregiver section below.

Home Help pays two different rates depending on the provider model, set statewide by MDHHS bulletin ASB 2026-002 (effective January 1, 2026):

The individual rate rose from $15.88 in 2025 because it's tied to Michigan's minimum wage, which increases annually. Despite the bulletin's “County Rates” title, the rate is the same in all 83 counties.

(When a family works with an agency provider like us, the caregiver is employed and paid by the agency out of the agency rate — that's how caregivers enrolled through Home Help Navigators earn $18/hour with the agency handling payroll and paperwork.)

Some websites say Home Help allows “up to 180 hours per month.” The truth is more interesting. There is no fixed maximum — hours are determined case by case through the assessment and documented on the Client Time and Task Managementform (MDHHS-6064-C), which lists each approved activity and the time allowed for it. But the “180” folklore has a real anchor: when assessed hours exceed 179.59 per month, the case becomes “Expanded Home Help Services” and needs written approval from MDHHS's Home Help Policy Section (ASM 120). So 180 isn't a ceiling — it's the point where extra state review kicks in, and hours above it can be and are approved when the assessment supports them.

What IS in policy: monthly ceilings for the household tasks (per ASM 120) — shopping capped at 5 hours/month, housework 6, laundry 7, meal preparation and cleanup 25. Personal care (ADL) time is built from how much hands-on help the person actually needs, task by task.

Set expectations honestly: most authorizations come out far lower than families expect — in our experience a plan of 40–90 hours per month is common; a 40-hour work week is not how this program works. The assessment score drives everything, which is why the next section matters more than any other on this page.

If other adults live in the client's home — a live-in caregiver included — some household-task hours are prorated at 50% (medication time never is). The state assumes you'd be doing some of that laundry anyway.

An MDHHS Adult Services Worker visits the home and scores the care recipient on seven Activities of Daily Living — bathing, dressing, eating, grooming, mobility, toileting, transferring — and five Instrumental ADLs (housework, laundry, medication, meals, shopping). Each is ranked on a 1–5 scale (per ASM 120):

1. 1

   Independent: performs the activity safely with no help

2. 2

   Verbal assistance: needs reminding, guiding, or encouragement

3. 3

   Some human assistance: needs some direct physical help or assistive equipment

4. 4

   Much human assistance: needs substantial hands-on help most of the time

5. 5

   Dependent: cannot perform the activity; someone else must do it

To qualify at all, at least one ADL must score 3 or higher. Hours are then built from the scores, task by task.

How to prepare honestly and accurately:

• Keep a one-week care log before the visit: every task, every day, how long it took, what went wrong.

• Describe the worst days, not the best ones — the assessment should reflect real need, not a good morning.

• Use concrete ADL language: "She cannot step over the tub wall without someone holding her" beats "I help her bathe."

• If the person uses adaptive equipment, say so — someone who would need hands-on care without their equipment can still rank 3 or higher.

• Don't coach the elder to exaggerate. Accuracy, documented, is what wins hours — and what survives later reviews.

Our free Assessment Prep Worksheet is the one-week care log, ready to print.

CHAMPS (Community Health Automated Medicaid Processing System) is Michigan's Medicaid management platform. All Home Help caregivers must be enrolled as providers in CHAMPS before services can be authorized or paid.

ASAP (Adult Services Authorized Payments) is the state system that processes Home Help payments. Once a caregiver is enrolled and services are authorized, payments flow through ASAP on a regular billing cycle.

HHAeXchange is Michigan's required Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) platform. All Home Help visits must be verified through HHAeXchange. Caregivers use the mobile app or telephone check-in to log the start and end of each visit. EVV compliance is required to receive payment.

The application process involves several steps across multiple Michigan state systems: the referral and medical needs certification, the home assessment, CHAMPS caregiver provider enrollment, criminal background screening, the Home Help Services Agreement (MSA-4676), and HHAeXchange EVV setup — in the order shown in the timeline above.

To apply on your own: contact the Adult Services unit at your county MDHHS office (the MDHHS county officesdirectory lists every location) — a referral can be made by phone, mail, fax, or in person — or start from the state's own MDHHS Home Help page. The client handbook (Pub-1733) walks through the full process.

Each step has its own requirements, timelines, and potential failure points. In our experience, many families who apply on their own hit delays — missing documentation, incorrect CHAMPS enrollment categories, or EVV setup errors — that can push back their first paycheck by weeks or months.

Home Help Navigators handles every step of this process at no cost to the family. Our goal is to get eligible Michigan families enrolled and paid as quickly as possible.

Can be paid: adult children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces and nephews, other relatives, friends, neighbors — any adult 18 or older who passes screening and enrolls in CHAMPS. The overwhelming majority of individual Home Help caregivers are family members.

Cannot be paid (per ASM 135; the spouse and minor-child exclusions come from federal rule 42 CFR 440.167): a spouse caring for a spouse; a parent caring for their own minor child(once the child turns 18, a parent CAN be paid); anyone under 18; and the client themselves. A separated-but-not-divorced spouse still can't be the paid caregiver — only divorce ends the exclusion. (A separated client must verify the spouse lives elsewhere so that a different caregiver can be paid.)

Background checks: two tiers. Federal mandatory exclusions cannot be overridden. State permissive exclusions(certain felonies within 10 years, certain misdemeanors within 5) CAN be overridden — the client has the right to knowingly choose that caregiver anyway by signing form MSA-119. Almost nobody knows this override exists. It doesn't apply to agency employees or to a caregiver who is also the client's guardian.

More than one caregiver is allowed— hours can be split among multiple enrolled caregivers (each signs their own MSA-4676; the same hours can't be billed twice). Useful for siblings sharing care of a parent.

No certification required. You do not need to be a CNA or take any training to be a Home Help caregiver. The bar is the background screening, CHAMPS enrollment, and meeting the common-sense caregiver criteria in ASM 135 — an adult who is physically able, willing, and reliable.

You'll get a W-2, not a 1099. Legally, the care recipient is the employer and MDHHS acts as the filing agent: it withholds the caregiver's 7.65% share of Social Security/Medicare (FICA), pays the employer's share itself, files quarterly with the IRS, and issues your W-2 (per ASM 145 and ASM 146).

No income tax is withheld. Federal, state, and city income tax are NOT taken out of Home Help payments — so plan for a tax bill in April or make estimated payments. A no-withholding W-2 does not mean the income is tax-free.

FICA exemptions: parents caring for an adult child, and children aged 18–20 caring for a parent, are FICA-exempt (agencies handle their own payroll). Caregivers who earn under the annual FICA threshold get a year-end FICA rebate.

The live-in exclusion (IRS Notice 2014-7) — read carefully. If the caregiver lives in the client's home as their real, primary residence, IRS Notice 2014-7 may allow the payments to be excluded from federal income tax. But: the IRS wrote that notice for Medicaid waiver programs, and Home Help is a state-plan benefit — MDHHS publishes no guidance confirming it applies, and tax professionals disagree. Two things are certain: it never applies if the caregiver keeps a separate home, and even when claimed it does not remove FICA. Talk to a tax professional who has seen difficulty-of-care income before — and know that excluded income can still count as earned income for Social Security purposes.

Does caregiver pay affect the caregiver's own benefits? It's earned income. On SSI it reduces payments after the first $85; on SSDI it's fine below the substantial-gainful-activity level (most Home Help authorizations are); on unemployment it must be reported and will reduce benefits. Report it everywhere, on time — clawbacks arrive months later and hurt. And no — the caregiver's pay does NOT count against the care recipient's Medicaid.

This section is general information, not tax advice. Tax outcomes depend on your household's facts — please review yours with a qualified tax professional.

Can't be on two at once: Home Help can't run alongside MI Choice or PACE — but it works with Medicare home health and hospice when not duplicating services, and it's a strong bridge while waiting on a MI Choice waitlist, since Home Help has none.

Not sure which fits?That's our job — the consultation is free, and if a different program fits better, we'll tell you and point you to it.