Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Mi Via Self-Directed Waiver, a 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services waiver. Most adult family members can be hired and paid to provide the care. A spouse can also be the paid caregiver.
How New Mexico pays a family caregiver
| Program | Mi Via Self-Directed Waiver, a 1915(c) Home and Community-Based Services waiver |
|---|---|
| Can a family member be paid? | Yes. “A person who has a duty under state law to care for another person. This category typically includes: the parent (biological, legal, or adoptive) of a minor child, or a guardian who must provide care to an eligible recipient under 18 years of age or the spouse of an eligible recipient.” |
| Can a spouse be paid? | Yes. “the spouse of an eligible recipient” |
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
Mi Via is New Mexico’s 1915(c) self-directed HCBS waiver: an eligible recipient (or representative) gets an individual budget and, working with a Third-Party Assessor and a Financial Management Agency, can hire and pay support workers, including a spouse or a parent of a minor child as a Legally Responsible Individual (LRI), once that arrangement is written into the Service and Support Plan. A parent/guardian’s or spouse’s paid hours are capped at 40 per 7-day period, and hiring a parent/guardian of a minor requires written DOH approval.
What this doesn’t answer
Could not reach the New Mexico Human Services Department’s own Mi Via program page directly; the facts above come from the codified rule text (8.314.6 NMAC) hosted on the state’s official rule-publishing site rather than an HSD program page. No specific dollar wage figure is published in the rule itself, and it is unclear whether the same LRI/spouse provisions extend beyond Mi Via to New Mexico’s other HCBS waivers.
Sources
Read September 4, 2026.
Same question, other states: New York · North Carolina.
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.