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How CarePair works.
Pick your seat at the table. Each guide is a few minutes and matches the tour inside the app.
For families
How CarePair works for families
You do not have to know how senior care works. You need one place to keep it all, and a person to ask. CarePair is both.
- 01
Create a free account
Two minutes, no credit card. Sign up at trycarepair.com and you land on a short welcome screen.
- 02
Add the person you are caring for
Their name, where they live, and what you need right now: senior living, care at home, or not sure yet. Everything else in CarePair attaches to this person.
- 03
Find care
Search communities by county, level of care, budget, Medicaid, and the Assisted Living Program. Tick the ones that fit. Twelve at a time is the limit, and three to five is usually right.
- 04
Fill out one application
One form, checked against each community's own rules before it goes out, so nothing bounces back for a blank. Write None or N/A where something does not apply. Save and come back any time.
- 05
Send it everywhere at once
Each community gets its own secure link and 72 business hours to answer. You see every response side by side, and you get an email the moment one arrives.
- 06
Run the plan from one screen
Tours and doctor visits on the Calendar, which you can subscribe to from your phone. Messages with your advisor. Documents kept safe. Invite siblings to your Care circle so everyone sees the same next step.
- 07
Tour, decide, and tell us
When a community accepts, request a tour with three times that work for you. Afterward, rate the visit on the case page; only your advisor reads it. When you have decided, tap This is our choice and your advisor confirms the move-in.
- 08
Stay in the loop your way
Updates in the app, email you can turn off, and texts only if you opt in, with quiet hours overnight. Your advisor can ask you for a specific document; it shows on your calendar with an upload box.
- 09
Keep the story in one place
The journal holds what happened, when, in your words, private to your care circle. Share one entry with your advisor, or turn it into a to-do. Not sure what to ask? Ask your advisor starts you with good questions.
- 10
Staying home is a real option
Home care lists agencies that send aides and nurses to the house, hospice, and adult day programs near you, and adds them to a care team list with one tap. The Resources pages explain levels of care, paying for it, and the paperwork in plain words.
Questions people ask
- Is it really free?
- Yes, always. Facilities and care organizations pay to use CarePair because it saves them time. Families never do.
- Who sees my information?
- Only the communities you send an application to, and your Cardinal advisor. Financial details and Social Security numbers are never part of the first application; they go to one community, after a bed is offered, only with your say-so.
- What about the doctor's forms?
- Physician forms pass through CarePair encrypted and go straight to the receiving community. They are not kept on our servers once delivered.
- Can I talk to a person?
- Yes. Sign on as a concierge client under Concierge, free, and a Cardinal advisor calls within one business day. From then on your advisor is in Messages, sends your application to the communities that fit, and schedules the tours. The free tools never require it.
- Not sure what level of care is right?
- Try the care guide at trycarepair.com/guide. Six questions, two minutes, nothing saved, and a starting point your advisor confirms with you and the doctor.
- Can I get my information out, or leave?
- Yes. Settings has Download my data, which gives you everything in one file, and Close my account, which takes 30 days and can be cancelled by signing in.
For facilities
How CarePair works for senior living facilities
Applications arrive complete and checked against your rules, with physician forms attached. You review and answer. No fax, no chasing.
- 01
Get your login
Cardinal sets it up for you and emails an invite. Create your account with the code in the email and you land in your portal. No login yet? Secure links still work; every application email carries one.
- 02
Check your profile
Address, phone, website, price range, Medicaid, and ALP. This is what families see in Find care, so keep it honest and current.
- 03
Choose who receives applications
Add your admissions contacts and mark who should receive application links. Change it any time.
- 04
Tell us who you take
Levels of care, ways residents pay, and the needs you can and cannot meet, under Who you take. Advisors check it before sending an application, so a no here saves everyone a call.
- 05
Sign the referral agreement
The door into the CarePair network. Every commercial term is preprinted; sign it in the portal, or send it to the person who signs and keep going with setup. Cardinal countersigns, and applications can reach you.
- 06
Open an application
Applications shows new, opened, overdue, and answered. Open one to read the full application and download the physician forms.
- 07
Respond in one click
We can accept, waitlist for now, we need more information, or not a fit right now, with an optional note. The family and their advisor see it instantly and get an email. A waitlist or a question can be changed later; accept and decline are final.
- 08
Set your admission rules
Under Profile, tick the checks your admissions team actually requires: exam within a number of days, signed medication list, your standing orders form. Every packet is checked against them before it can be sent to you.
- 09
Next steps happen in the open
If you accept, the tour gets scheduled in the family's calendar and the financial packet follows on request. Everyone sees the same next step.
Questions people ask
- What does it cost?
- Nothing during the Western New York beta. When facility plans arrive, beta partners hear first and get the best terms we ever offer. Placement fees, where they apply, work the way they always have, and never on a government-funded resident.
- Why 72 business hours?
- Families stop waiting in the dark and you stop getting chased for updates. If you need longer, say so in a note; the link keeps working.
- Where do the physician forms live?
- They pass through encrypted and are released to you only. Download them; they are purged from CarePair afterward.
- Can more than one person at my community log in?
- Yes. Ask Cardinal to add a colleague, and a group with several communities sees all of them in one portal with a filter per community.
- How do I get started?
- Ask for your inbox at trycarepair.com/claim. A person verifies you work at the community, usually a quick call, then you get a login and a setup that fits in one onboarding call: profile, contacts, who you take, and the agreement.
- How long can I open the family's documents?
- While the application is open, and for 30 days after you answer. Access closes after a decline, a withdrawal, or once the family has moved. Ask Cardinal if you need something re-shared.
For discharge planners
How CarePair works for hospitals and care teams
Refer once. Every community that fits gets a complete packet and answers on a clock. Your checklist and Cardinal's are the same checklist.
- 01
Get your workspace
Cardinal creates it and invites the first planner by email. That person can invite colleagues. No workspace yet? Use the public referral form at trycarepair.com/refer.
- 02
Refer a patient
Plain-language needs, current location, anticipated discharge, level of care, payer, and the family decision-maker. No clinical detail; the PRI/SCREEN and physician forms go straight to the receiving community.
- 03
Cardinal calls within four business hours
An advisor confirms the level of care with you and reaches the family.
- 04
Work the discharge checklist
Nine items on every patient. Four complete themselves as things happen in CarePair: level confirmed, application sent, bed offer, discharge date. Tick the rest as you go; Cardinal sees the same list.
- 05
Watch outreach
Every community the application went to, with waiting, accepted, declined, or needs information, and the response deadline.
- 06
Message Cardinal on the record
Updates stay on the patient's record instead of in voicemail. You get an email when Cardinal replies.
Questions people ask
- What do I see and not see?
- Status, outreach, your checklist, and the thread with Cardinal. Application contents and financial details stay with the family and Cardinal.
- Does Cardinal complete the PRI/SCREEN?
- No. Those are the hospital's, and CarePair never asks for them. They go from you to the receiving community.
- Who pays?
- Families never do. Cardinal's placement fee, where one applies, comes from the community, and never on a government-funded resident.
Still stuck?
Email hello@thecardinalgroup.org or call Cardinal Care Advisors at 716-783-1638, business hours, Eastern. Not an emergency service. For emergencies call 911.