She still manages on her own.
Just not with the bathtub, the stairs and the laundry
Personal care services cover exactly the parts of the day that have become unsafe, and leave the rest to her. In New York City the aide who does this work is usually called a home attendant. Across all five boroughs, most families pay $0 through Medicaid.
We will match a caregiver near home.
A nurse tells you which level of care qualifies.
Got it. Your request is with a coordinator, and we will call you back.
Your information is private and secure.
What personal care services actually cover
Level I or Level II. One word on the form decides how many hours she gets
How many hours your mother is given comes down to one thing: which of two levels she is approved for. Level I keeps the apartment running. Level II is hands on her, and it carries far more hours. Neither the agency nor the family picks the level, and we could not move it if we wanted to. The assessment does.
Personal care services, personal care aide, PCA, home attendant: four names for one job. Medicaid calls it personal care services, state regulation calls the worker a personal care aide, New York City has always said home attendant. Nothing changes between the words: same tasks, same training, same paperwork. If a discharge planner told you one word and your neighbour told you another, you are both talking about the same thing.
The house, not the person
Shopping, cooking, laundry, dishes, light housekeeping, getting to the pharmacy and back. Help that keeps the apartment running. Since September 2025 Level I is no longer authorized on its own for anyone newly assessed: housekeeping now comes as part of Level II. Families who already had stand-alone housekeeping before that date keep it, capped at eight hours a week.
The person, and everything in Level I
Bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, walking, transferring in and out of bed or a chair, turning and positioning, and help with feeding. Level II includes all of Level I. This is where the real hours are, and where most of our clients are approved.
Task lists are set by the New York State Personal Care Services program under regulation 18 NYCRR 505.14. An aide cannot go beyond them, and a good agency will tell you that before you sign, not after.
The question every family asks first
PCA or HHA: what the difference really is
Both come to the home. Both help with bathing and dressing. The difference is training hours, and what those extra hours legally allow.
PCA · Personal Care Aide
- 40 hours of state-approved training, minimum
- Bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, walking
- Transfers, turning and positioning in bed
- Meals, laundry, shopping, light housekeeping
- No skilled tasks: no injections, wound care or vital signs
The PCA certificate does not expire. Right for someone whose needs are physical rather than medical: she is steady enough at home, but the tub and the stairs have stopped being safe.
HHA · Home Health Aide
- 75 hours of training, minimum
- Everything a PCA does
- Plus 35 hours of health-related task training
- Medication reminders, vital signs, simple dressings under nurse supervision
- Ongoing nurse supervision and yearly in-service hours
Right when a diagnosis is driving the day: recovery after a hospital stay, a wound to watch, a medication schedule nobody can afford to lose track of. See home health aide services.
Training minimums come from the New York State Department of Health home care standards. In practice the choice is rarely yours alone: the assessment decides which one the plan of care calls for. What you can do is understand the answer when you hear it.
How to get a home attendant in NYC
Four steps, and the one that trips most families
Two parts of this have deadlines. The assessment appointments are meant to happen within 14 days of your call, and the hours are authorized in three to six weeks after that. The part with no deadline is getting her onto Medicaid in the first place, which is exactly why the aide does not have to wait for it.
Medicaid, or the way around it
Personal care through the state runs on Medicaid. If she already has it, you are past this step. If she does not, applying is the longest part of the whole path, and the part where an agency that files this paperwork every week is worth more than any brochure. Waiting it out is not the only option: an aide can start privately while the application is in.
The independent assessment
You call the New York Independent Assessor and they schedule two appointments: a nurse assessment and a clinical appointment with an independent practitioner. Both are meant to happen within 14 days of your call, and either can be done by telehealth or in person.
The step that trips people
Since September 2025 the bar is specific: she has to need at least limited assistance with physical maneuvering for more than two activities of daily living. With a dementia or Alzheimer’s diagnosis, supervision with more than one is enough. The rule applies to people newly assessed: anyone already authorized or enrolled in an MLTC plan on September 1, 2025 stays under the old criteria. One detail families miss: an activity only counts if someone actually helped her with it, family or paid aide, in the three days before the nurse’s visit. Describe the average day, not the good one.
Hours, then an aide
The assessment produces a plan of care with a set number of hours. If more than 12 hours a day is on the table, a separate review panel looks at the case before it is approved. Then you choose which licensed agency fills those hours. Nobody assigns one to you. Ask us what the number is likely to be before the assessment, not after it.
Steps follow the New York Independent Assessor Program.
What it costs
Who pays, and what she does during the weeks it takes
Personal care is a Medicaid benefit, so most families here pay nothing. The question that actually keeps people up is the gap: the assessment, the plan and the approval take weeks, and the tub is unsafe now.
Medicaid or an MLTC plan
The usual path in New York. Personal care services are a Medicaid benefit, delivered either through a Managed Long Term Care plan or through local Medicaid.
- $0 out of pocket for most eligible families
- Hours come from the assessment, not from a price list
- We do the NYIA paperwork and the plan of care
- Hours are authorized in 3 to 6 weeks once she has Medicaid
Private pay, from $32 an hour
No assessment, no approval, no waiting list. You set the hours and an aide can start within days.
- From $32 an hour for a personal care aide
- You choose the schedule and change it when it stops fitting
- No Medicaid, no MLTC plan and no NYIA appointment
- A licensed nurse, for anything a doctor ordered, is $95 an hour
Start now, switch when Medicaid comes through
The weeks the paperwork takes are the weeks she is alone in the apartment. This is the way around that, and the one families ask about least.
- An aide starts this week, paid privately
- We run the Medicaid application at the same time
- When the plan is approved, the billing moves to Medicaid
- We keep the same aide on the case whenever we can
Not on Medicaid and not planning to be? Private pay home care skips all four steps above and can begin this week.
Whether this is the right service
When a personal care assistant is enough, and when it is not
Choosing the wrong level wastes weeks. Here is the honest split, including the cases where we will tell you to ask for something else.
A PCA is the right fit when
- She is medically stable, but the tub, the stairs or getting dressed have become risky
- Meals are being skipped because cooking is too much
- She needs a hand getting out of bed or a chair
- Arthritis, frailty or poor balance is the reason, not a new diagnosis
- The family is covering the gaps and running out of road
Ask for something else when
- There is a wound, a catheter or injections: that is nursing at home
- She was just discharged from hospital: start with post-surgery care
- Wandering or sundowning has started: see dementia care
- She cannot be alone overnight: that is live-in care
- She is regaining strength after a fall: therapy at home comes first
Why families stay with us
A nurse writes the plan before an aide knocks on the door
Hours on paper are not care. What decides whether this works is who wrote the plan and who is watching it.
An RN reviews every plan
Our co-founder Anna Klyauzova, RN, MSN, MPA has run patient services here since 2017 and reviews each plan of care personally, with 14 years of clinical nursing behind her.
Licensed, and checkable
ProLife is a New York State licensed home care services agency, NY DOH License #2572L001. You can look the license up in the Department of Health registry before you call us.
She can be understood
Our aides speak 13 languages. For someone who has slipped back into their first language, being understood at home is not a nicety.
We handle the paperwork
The assessment, the plan, the Medicaid forms: our coordinators do this every week. Most families reach us somewhere in the middle of it, already tired of being transferred.
Anna Klyauzova, RN, MSN, MPA
Anna reviews every plan of care before anyone is assigned. With personal care the question is rarely the diagnosis. It is which parts of the day have actually become unsafe, and how many hours that honestly takes. Families tend to describe a good day. She asks about the average one, because the hours on the plan are built on the answer.
She has nursed since 2011, at Jacobi Medical Center and then at Mount Sinai, where she ran an operating room team before co-founding ProLife Home Care in 2017. Her profile is public on LinkedIn, and the agency licence is public on NYS Health Profiles.
Get a free care assessment
We'll call you the same business day.
We will match a caregiver near home.
A nurse tells you which level of care qualifies.
Got it. Your request is with a coordinator, and we will call you back.
Your information is private and secure.
Families in the same situation
“Reception and care is very reliable and thorough. It has been a great experience both for us and our beloved grandfather. He gets the respect and attention he deserves.”
“I am very satisfied with the agency. They help me take care of my mother. My family is very grateful to them.”
“Very professional! Good attitude and service. The staff explained all the information we needed in full detail.”
Personal care services in New York City
The short answers, in one place
- Who pays
- Medicaid or an MLTC plan. Most families pay $0 out of pocket
- Not paid by
- Medicare. It covers short skilled care, not daily help at home
- Without Medicaid
- Private pay, from $32 an hour, starting within days. How it works →
- Level I hours
- Household tasks. Not authorized on its own since September 2025
- Level II hours
- Personal tasks, plus everything in Level I. No weekly cap
- Eligibility
- Help needed with more than two daily activities. One, with dementia
- Who decides hours
- The New York Independent Assessor. Appointments within 14 days
- Counties served
- Kings, Queens, New York, Bronx, Richmond, Nassau
- Licence
- NY DOH License #2572L001, an LHCSA. Verify →
Last updated .
Questions families ask
PCA, HHA, hours and who pays
What is the difference between a PCA and an HHA?
Training hours, and what those hours allow. A personal care aide completes at least 40 hours of state-approved training and helps with bathing, dressing, toileting, walking, transfers, meals and the house. A home health aide completes at least 75 hours, including 35 hours of health-related task training, so an HHA can also do things like medication reminders and vital signs under nurse supervision. Everything a PCA does, an HHA does too.
What does a personal care assistant do?
New York splits the work into two levels. Level I is the household: shopping, cooking, laundry, dishes, light housekeeping. Level II is the person: bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, walking, transferring in and out of bed, turning and positioning, and help with feeding. Level II includes Level I. Since September 2025 Level I is not authorized on its own for anyone newly assessed: housekeeping comes with Level II. Families who had stand-alone housekeeping before that date keep it, capped at eight hours a week.
How do I get a home attendant in NYC?
Four steps. She needs Medicaid. You call the New York Independent Assessor, who schedules a nurse assessment and a clinical appointment, both meant to happen within 14 days. The assessment decides whether she qualifies and at what level. Her plan then authorizes a number of hours and you choose a licensed agency to fill them. Without Medicaid the same care is available privately and can start within days.
Does Medicaid pay for a personal care assistant in New York?
Yes. Personal care services are a Medicaid benefit in New York, delivered either through an MLTC plan or through local Medicaid, and most of our families pay nothing out of pocket. Medicare does not cover this: it pays for short-term skilled care such as nursing or therapy visits, not for ongoing help with bathing and meals.
What does personal care cost without Medicaid?
From $32 an hour for a personal care aide in New York City. Private pay skips all four steps: there is no assessment to wait for and no approval, so an aide can start within days. If she later qualifies for Medicaid, the same aide can usually stay and the billing changes underneath her. A licensed nurse, for anything a doctor ordered such as wound care or injections, is a different service at $95 an hour. How private pay home care works →
How many hours of personal care can she get?
That comes out of the assessment, not out of a price list. Hours follow the tasks she needs help with and how much help each one takes. Since September 2025 she has to need at least limited assistance with physical maneuvering for more than two daily activities to qualify at all, or supervision with more than one if she has a dementia or Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Cases above 12 hours a day go to a separate review panel.
Can the family member already helping her get paid instead?
Often yes, through CDPAP, New York’s consumer directed program. It lets the client choose and direct their own aide, including many relatives, rather than receiving one from an agency roster. It runs through the same assessment. ProLife Home Care does not deliver care under CDPAP: since New York moved the program to a single statewide fiscal intermediary, enrolment runs through PPL. Say on the call if that is the direction you want and we will explain how it works and where to enrol, at no charge.
Not sure whether she qualifies, or for how many hours?
Describe an ordinary day: what she still does herself and where she needs a hand. A nurse will tell you which level she is likely to be approved for, roughly how many hours that means, and what the assessment will ask. No cost, no obligation.