Paying for care2 min read
CDPAP: when Medicaid pays a person you choose
New York's Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program lets someone on Medicaid hire their own aide, including many relatives. What it is, who can be the aide, and what changed in 2025.
Written and reviewed by Cardinal Care Advisors, Buffalo, New York. Published September 26, 2026, updated September 27, 2026.
Paying for careAt home
What it is
CDPAP is a New York Medicaid program for people who need help at home and want to choose and direct their own caregiver, called a personal assistant. The person receiving care, or someone acting for them, recruits, trains, and schedules the assistant. Medicaid pays the assistant.
Who can be the assistant
A friend or many family members, including adult children. A spouse cannot be the paid assistant, and neither can the person acting as the designated representative, or the parent of someone under 21.
The person receiving care, or someone acting for them, recruits, trains, and schedules the assistant.
What changed in 2025
New York moved CDPAP from hundreds of local fiscal intermediaries to one statewide fiscal intermediary, Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), which handles payroll and paperwork for assistants. The transition happened through 2025. If you used CDPAP before, you and your assistant had to register with PPL; if something from that switch is still not sorted, the state's CDPAP page has the current contact.
How to start
The person needs to be on Medicaid and be assessed as needing help at home. If they are in a managed long-term care plan, ask the plan about CDPAP; otherwise start with NY Connects or the county. A Cardinal coordinator can walk you through who to call, but does not fill out Medicaid or CDPAP applications.
Update, September 2025: the minimum needs rule
Since September 1, 2025, adults 21 and older applying for Medicaid help at home for the first time, CDPAP included, must meet the state's Minimum Needs Requirements: needing at least limited physical help with more than two activities of daily living, or, with a dementia or Alzheimer's diagnosis, at least supervision with more than one. People already getting services before that date stay under the old rule. How the assessment works, and the managed long-term care plan most people join, are in the guide Medicaid for care at home, under Read next below. Written September 27, 2026; check the state's CDPAP page for anything newer.
Official sources
These open another website. We link only to government agencies and established nonprofits.
- NYS Department of Health: CDPAP (opens another site) · The state's official page, with current contacts.
- NY Connects (opens another site) · 1-800-342-9871. Free help finding and applying for long-term care services.
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General information for families in Western New York, written by Cardinal Care Advisors. Not medical or legal advice; a physician, an elder law attorney, or a licensed assessor decides the things that need deciding. Tell us if something here is wrong or out of date: hello@thecardinalgroup.org.