Eligibility
PCA Program Eligibility and Process
The Personal Care Attendant program is available to people with disabilities who meet the following conditions:
- Personal Care Services are prescribed by a physician or nurse practitioner
- Have a permanent or chronic disability that impairs their ability to perform activities of daily living without physical assistance .
- Needs physical assistance with two or more activities of daily living
Consumers must be able to manage the PCA program themselves, or have someone available of legal age to help them as surrogate.
Referral Process
BCIL works with individuals referred to us by:
- Hospitals
- Doctors
- Visiting Nurse Agencies
- Friends
- Family members
- State and local agencies
- Community organizations
Each consumer is assigned to a Skills Trainer, who helps the consumer through the application process, and gives the consumer and/or surrogate the training they need to manage their PCA program. BCIL provides the initial evaluation, which results in a recommendation as to the number of hours needed. PCA services are approved and paid for by MassHealth, which has the final approval on whether a consumer is eligible for the PCA program, and if so, the number of hours per week which a consumer may use.
Approvals are usually good for one year. Annual re-evaluations are done by our RN consultants.
