Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through ADvantage 1915(c) Waiver, Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services and Supports (CD-PASS). Most adult family members can be hired and paid to provide the care. A spouse can also be the paid caregiver.
How Oklahoma pays a family caregiver
| Program | ADvantage 1915(c) Waiver, Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services and Supports (CD-PASS) |
|---|---|
| Can a family member be paid? | Yes. “The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Services and Supports (CDPASS) service allows active ADvantage and Medically Fragile Waiver program Members to self-direct personal care services by: Empowering the Member to become the employer and hire their own employee, a personal assistant or PSA.” |
| Can a spouse be paid? | Yes. “OKDHS CAP may authorize a member’s legally-responsible spouse or legal guardian to be SoonerCare (Medicaid) reimbursed, per 1915(c) ADvantage Program as a personal care service provider.” |
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
Oklahoma’s ADvantage waiver offers CD-PASS, a self-directed personal care option in which the member becomes the employer, hires a personal services assistant (PSA), negotiates the PSA’s wage within a program-set maximum, and sets a service schedule once the case manager approves plan hours; a financial management agency (Acumen Fiscal Agent) handles payroll. A member’s spouse or legal guardian can be authorized as the paid PSA only as a documented exception (no available agency staffing, complex needs, or it being detrimental for anyone else to provide care), capped at 40 hours per week and monitored monthly by the case manager.
What this doesn’t answer
The CDPASS webpage does not itself enumerate which relatives besides spouse/guardian qualify as a PSA; that ordinary relatives face no special restriction is inferred from OAC 317:30–5-761, which imposes conditions only on spouses and legal guardians. No specific dollar wage figure is published; CDPASS states the wage is negotiated within a maximum limit without stating the limit.
Sources
- Oklahoma Human Services: CDPASS Service Option
- Oklahoma Health Care Authority: OAC 317:30–5-761 Eligible providers
Read September 4, 2026.
Same question, other states: Oregon · Pennsylvania.
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.