How Pennsylvania's Community HealthChoices program pays for personal care and what it does and doesn't cover for Philadelphia-area families.
By Philly Senior Advisor Care Team — Benefits & Costs Team · February 3, 2026
Community HealthChoices (CHC) is Pennsylvania's managed-care Medicaid program for older adults and adults with physical disabilities who need a nursing-facility level of care but want to receive services at home, in the community, or in an Assisted Living Residence instead. It replaced Pennsylvania's older Aging Waiver and several other waivers, and it's administered through one of a small number of CHC managed care organizations a person selects (or is assigned) once approved.
This is different from PA's PACE and PACENET programs, which are prescription-drug subsidy programs for older Pennsylvanians and have nothing to do with long-term care placement — and different again from the National PACE program (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly), which operates in Pennsylvania under the local brand name LIFE (Living Independence For the Elderly). A Philadelphia-area LIFE program provides comprehensive medical and social services, often including adult day services, to help a person stay in their home. Don't let the naming overlap confuse a benefits conversation — CHC, PACE/PACENET, and LIFE are three separate Pennsylvania programs.
If a Philadelphia-area senior qualifies financially and functionally, CHC can pay for personal care services: help with bathing, dressing, medication reminders, and similar support, whether delivered at home or inside a licensed Assisted Living Residence (ALR). What it does not pay for is room and board in an ALR or Personal Care Home — that portion of the bill remains the family's responsibility. This is one of the most common points of confusion we hear from families in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware, and Chester counties: CHC approval doesn't mean 'assisted living is now free.'
Eligibility runs through both a financial test (income and asset limits set by the PA Department of Human Services) and a functional/clinical test administered through an independent enrollment broker. Applications go through the Pennsylvania COMPASS system or a local County Assistance Office. Philadelphia families can also start with the Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA) for benefits counseling and help navigating the application, and collar-county families can start with their own county's Area Agency on Aging (Montgomery County Aging and Adult Services, Bucks County Area Agency on Aging, Delaware County Office of Services for the Aging, or Chester County Department of Aging Services).
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