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Maryland Community First Choice (CFC) Self-Directed Personal Assistance

Maryland Community First Choice is a Medicaid state-plan home and community-based services benefit for people who need an institutional level of care but can receive services in a home or community setting. Maryland's CMS-approved CFC state plan amendment added an agency or self-directed model effective October 1, 2023, and says all CFC individuals are eligible to participate in self-direction. Self-directing participants work with Financial Management and Counseling Services to recruit, hire or select, manage, schedule, dismiss, and set pay rates for providers, subject to state and federal requirements. Related Maryland HCBS waiver programs may interact with CFC personal assistance, but this record is scoped to CFC self-directed personal assistance.

CFC provides Medicaid-covered services and may include personal assistance, supports planning, nurse monitoring, consumer training, home-delivered meals, personal emergency response systems, assistive technology, accessibility adaptations, environmental assessments, and transition services. Under the self-directed model, participants use Financial Management and Counseling Services support to recruit, hire or select, supervise, manage, schedule, dismiss, and set pay rates for providers. CFC is a state-plan entitlement for eligible participants; Maryland's approved plan says anyone meeting CFC eligibility receives CFC services. Current official sources support participant-directed hiring but do not clearly enumerate spouse-specific provider rules, so spouse eligibility remains a primary-source follow-up item.

Some details for this program are still being verified. Check the official source for the most current information.

Eligibility

  • Care recipient must have a qualifying disability
  • Relationship: parent, child, sibling, grandparent, other relative, non relative

Services

CFC provides Medicaid-covered services and may include personal assistance, supports planning, nurse monitoring, consumer training, home-delivered meals, personal emergency response systems, assistive technology, accessibility adaptations, environmental assessments, and transition services. Under the self-directed model, participants use Financial Management and Counseling Services support to recruit, hire or select, supervise, manage, schedule, dismiss, and set pay rates for providers. CFC is a state-plan entitlement for eligible participants; Maryland's approved plan says anyone meeting CFC eligibility receives CFC services. Current official sources support participant-directed hiring but do not clearly enumerate spouse-specific provider rules, so spouse eligibility remains a primary-source follow-up item.

How to apply

  • Call Maryland Access Point at 844-627-5465.
  • Call the Community First Choice Program at 410-767-1739.
  • md-community-options-waiver (companion): Community Options Waiver participants may interact with CFC personal assistance, but CFC self-directed personal assistance is tracked here as the entitlement pathway.