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Services My Way in Pennsylvania: hire your own workers

Services My Way is Pennsylvania's budget-based self-directed option inside Community HealthChoices. You convert your service plan into a budget and can employ your own personal assistance workers, including family.

Carevo editorial team Updated October 27, 2026 Source checked by Carevo editorial team, October 27, 2026

Services My Way (SMW) is Pennsylvania's budget-based self-directed option for people who get long-term care through Community HealthChoices. You turn your authorized service plan into a budget, hire your own workers and manage a spending plan. A fiscal vendor handles payroll.

What Services My Way is

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) says Services My Way helps people who need long-term care support manage their own services. It is for people who can mentally and physically manage their care and who need help with tasks of daily living. To be eligible, people must be assessed as needing a nursing facility level of care. DHS says SMW supports people who choose to live in the community by employing workers who help with their care.

Medicaid.gov defines self-directed services as a model where participants, or their representatives, choose and manage the people who provide their services, and says participants can control a budget. SMW fits that description.

The 2026 Community HealthChoices (CHC) agreement defines Services My Way as the budget authority model of service. In it, participants hire and manage staff who give personal assistance services, manage a flexible spending plan, and buy allowable goods and services through their spending plan.

The two self-directed models

The agreement says that when personal assistance services are in a participant's service plan, CHC plans must present and explain self-direction first, before the traditional agency model.

  1. Participant-Directed Employer Authority. The participant employs their own personal assistance or respite provider. In the agreement's words, the provider can be a family member, a friend, a neighbor or any other qualified personal assistance worker as determined by the Department. Participants may also get some services from an agency.
  2. Services My Way. The service plan is converted to a budget and the participant builds a spending plan. Participants may choose agency personal assistance or respite, employ their own workers, or both.

The agreement also describes an Agency with Choice model, where an agency provides administrative functions for workers the participant recruits. It applies "upon Federal approval", so ask whether it is available yet.

In the employer authority model and the budget authority model, a fiscal management services vendor processes timesheets, makes payments and manages tax withholdings, including FICA taxes, for workers.

What you do as the employer

Under the agreement's description of the Agency with Choice model, the participant is the managing employer: selecting and dismissing workers, directing their duties, scheduling and arranging backup services. For SMW, DHS lists the support you get: developing and carrying out a service plan, help with budgeting and finding services and workers, help meeting tax, labor and workers compensation requirements for employing care workers in your home, and making financial transactions. Ask your service coordinator exactly which employer duties apply to you.

Who can be hired

The agreement lets participants hire family members, friends and neighbors under the employer authority model, and does not list exclusions in the sections we read. It says the worker must be "qualified" as determined by the Department. We could not find a DHS page that says whether a spouse or legal guardian can be paid, so ask your service coordinator. Our paid family caregiver page for Pennsylvania has the steps.

How to get started

  1. Be in CHC. Apply for long-term care services by phone at 1-866-550-4355, online through COMPASS, or through your county assistance office. DHS describes the process on the Pennsylvania overview.
  2. Be assessed for nursing facility level of care. DHS's Independent Enrollment Broker schedules an in-person assessment.
  3. Tell your service coordinator you want to self-direct. The CHC plan must explain the options.
  4. Complete the enrollment form. DHS publishes a Services My Way enrollment form and a representative screening questionnaire for people who want a representative to manage on their behalf.

If you change your mind, DHS publishes a disenrollment form.

What we could not confirm

We do not state hourly rates, budget caps or hours. The pages we read do not give them, and they depend on your assessment and plan. We also could not read the waiver appendices where family-hiring limits would be set.

Carevo is a connection platform and directory. We do not enroll anyone in Services My Way, run payroll or choose workers. If you want an agency while you set up, see home care in Pennsylvania.

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Common questions

What is Services My Way?

DHS says Services My Way (SMW) helps Pennsylvanians who need long-term care support manage their own services. In the CHC agreement it is the budget authority model: the service plan is converted to a budget, and the participant hires and manages staff, manages a flexible spending plan and buys allowable goods and services.

Who is eligible for Services My Way?

DHS says SMW is an option for people who can mentally and physically manage their care and who need help with tasks of daily living, and who are assessed as needing a nursing facility level of care. You can choose a representative to help; DHS publishes a representative screening questionnaire.

Can I hire a family member with Services My Way?

The CHC agreement says participants can employ their own personal assistance workers, and in the employer authority model the worker can be a family member, a friend, a neighbor or any other qualified worker as determined by the Department. The agreement does not list excluded relatives. Ask your service coordinator.

Do CHC plans have to present self-direction?

Yes. The 2026 agreement requires plans to give participants who need personal assistance services the chance to self-direct them as the first option over the traditional agency model, and to document the reason if a participant opts out.

Who handles payroll?

A fiscal management services (FMS) vendor processes timesheets, makes payments and manages tax withholdings, including FICA taxes, for workers employed under either self-directed model, according to the CHC agreement.

How do I enroll?

DHS publishes a Services My Way enrollment form and a disenrollment form. Start by telling your CHC service coordinator you want to self-direct.

Sources

Review status: Carevo checked this page against the primary sources listed above. It has not been professionally reviewed by a registered nurse, licensed social worker, benefits counselor or attorney. See our editorial standards.

This page is general information, not financial, legal or medical advice. Rules and services vary by state and by individual circumstances. Use the official sources and decision-maker named on the page. Carevo is a connection platform, not a care provider.