Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: partially, through My Voice, My Choice (Self-Directed Services), where family pay is possible but narrower than a full open hire. A spouse cannot be the paid caregiver; the federal rule against paying a “legally responsible relative” still applies here.
How Idaho pays a family caregiver
| Program | My Voice, My Choice (Self-Directed Services) |
|---|---|
| Can a family member be paid? | Partial. “The Family Personal Care Services (FPCS) program, which allowed a parent of a minor child or spouse to provide Personal Care Services and Attendant Care to eligible members has terminated effective July 15, 2025. Legally Responsible Individuals (LRI’s) for members are no longer allowed to be the paid caregiver.” |
| Can a spouse be paid? | No. “Legally Responsible Individuals (LRI’s) for members are no longer allowed to be the paid caregiver.” |
Why the spouse question is different
Federal Medicaid rule treats a spouse (and a parent paying for a minor child) as a “legally responsible relative”, someone already assumed to owe the care for free, so paying them is barred by default. A state has to build an explicit exception into its waiver or state-plan option to pay a spouse at all; the rule for any other relative (an adult child, a sibling, a grandchild) is looser and usually allowed. That is why the two rows above can carry different answers on the same page.
The going rate
Not published by the state in the materials reviewed this session.
How it works
For the Developmental Disabilities Waiver, a member requests the “My Voice, My Choice” self-direction option through their regional Idaho DHW office, hires a support broker, and can then hire and pay people they know (including family) as Community Support Workers. For the Aged & Disabled population, the former Family Personal Care Services pathway that let a spouse or parent of a minor be paid ended July 15, 2025.
What this doesn’t answer
Idaho’s A&D-waiver-specific webpage returned an access-denied error on every attempt this session, so whether non-spouse relatives can still be hired as paid attendant-care workers under the A&D waiver’s participant-directed option was not directly confirmed from primary-source text. No published pay rate was found.
Sources
- Idaho DHW: LTC Provider Enrollment / Family PCS Program Termination Notice
- Idaho DHW: Self-Directed Services (My Voice, My Choice)
Read September 3, 2026.
Same question, other states: Illinois · Indiana.
Related: the private-pay caregiver-agreement rule · the household-employee tax rules once you’re being paid · what family caregiving actually costs unpaid.
General information drawn from each state’s own Medicaid agency and public program materials, not legal, tax or financial advice. Medicaid self-direction programs are administered state by state and change by budget cycle and waiver renewal; this page cannot see your own state’s current program status or your family’s eligibility. We are not a law firm, a benefits counselor, or a fiduciary, and this is not personalized advice. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.