Opinion: MassHealth’s Personal Care Attendant Program’s hybrid model cheats families like mine

Governor Maura Healey lamented the “crisis-level” shortages in MassHealth’s Personal Care Attendant Program earlier this year. Fixing it, she pledged, would crown “the top of the list.” A tweak in policy would help. MassHealth allows consumers to hire friends, adult children, siblings, nephews, nieces, or adult grandchildren as paid providers of personal care services. But MassHealth crops parents like me out of the picture, expressly forbidding us (legally responsible relatives) from receiving remuneration for rendering assistance. Ending the disqualification would expand the PCA labor pool, improve continuity and quality, and reduce poverty. Read the full article.