How to Change Your Home Help Provider in Michigan

Michigan’s Home Help Program gives participants the right to choose their caregiver — and that right includes the right to change. Whether you want to replace an agency-provided aide with a family member, switch from one family caregiver to another, or change your entire care arrangement, the process is straightforward.

How to Change Your Home Help Provider

Contact your local MDHHS office— the same office that conducted your loved one’s functional needs assessment. Tell the caseworker you want to change your Home Help provider. The caseworker will guide you through the steps, which depend on the type of change you’re making.

Switching from an agency aide to a family member:  This is the change we facilitate most often at CareChoice. Your loved one currently receives Home Help through an agency’s employee, and you want a family member to take over as the Individual Home Help Provider. The family member needs to complete provider enrollment — background check, employment paperwork, and electronic timekeeping setup. In our experience, this takes two to four weeks. The authorized hours don’t change; only the person providing the care changes.

Switching from one family member to another:  If the current family caregiver can no longer provide care — due to health, relocation, employment changes, or personal reasons — a different family member can be named. The new caregiver completes the same provider enrollment process. The authorized hours stay the same.

Switching from a family caregiver back to an agency: If the family arrangement isn’t working and your loved one wants a professional agency to provide care instead, the caseworker can
connect you with agencies in the Wayne County network.

Your Hours Stay the Same

The most important reassurance: your loved one’s authorized hours are determined by their assessment, not by their provider.  Changing who delivers the care has no impact on how many hours are approved. The hours are your loved one’s, attached to their care plan, and they carryover to any new provider.

If your loved one’s needs have also changed and you believe the current hours are insufficient, request a reassessment through MDHHS at the same time as the provider change. A new assessment might result in more hours — but that’s a separate process from the provider switch.

What Happens During the Transition

In our experience helping Detroit families switch providers, the smoothest transitions happen when the family identifies the new caregiver before formally ending the old arrangement. This allows the new caregiver to begin provider enrollment while the current caregiver is still active —minimizing any gap in paid coverage.

If there’s a brief gap between the old provider stopping and the new provider’s enrollment completing, the care itself doesn’t have to stop. The family member can begin providing care informally while the paperwork processes — they just won’t be paid for those specific days until enrollment is complete. Once enrolled, paid services begin from the enrollment effective date.

Common Reasons Michigan Families Switch

The agency sends different people every week.  Consistency matters, especially for individuals with dementia, cognitive disabilities, or anxiety about unfamiliar people in their home.  Switching to a family caregiver through Home Help eliminates the revolving door entirely.

The family caregiver is burned out.  Caregiver burnout is real. Sometimes the right move is bringing in a second family member to share the hours, or temporarily shifting to agency care while the primary caregiver recovers.

The family moved.  If your loved one relocated within Wayne County or to a different Michigan county, you may need to update your MDHHS office and potentially re-enroll with a new local office. The authorized hours carry over.

CareChoice Makes the Switch Smooth

CareChoice helps Detroit families change their Home Help arrangement — whether that means bringing a family member on as the new provider, switching between family caregivers, or
navigating the MDHHS process during a move. We handle the enrollment paperwork so the transition is as fast and painless as possible.

Ready to switch? →Contact CareChoice in Detroit

Written by Carolyn Choates, Assistant Marketing Manager | CareChoice