How to Fill Out the CDPAP Application Form in Florida

Florida does not run a program called CDPAP, so there is no CDPAP application form in Florida to fill out. CDPAP — the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program — is a New York Medicaid benefit. Florida’s equivalent is the Participant Directed Option (PDO), a self-direction model inside the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care program that lets you hire, train, schedule, and fire your own caregiver, including family members, instead of using a home health agency.¹ Getting into the PDO is not a single form. You apply for Medicaid long-term care, get a clinical assessment, enroll in a managed care plan, and then ask that plan for the PDO.

Step 1: Apply for Florida Medicaid Long-Term Care

File your Medicaid application through the Florida Department of Children and Families. You can apply online at myflfamilies.com/medicaid, by phone, or in person at a local DCF office. Once your file is complete, DCF has 45 days to make an eligibility decision.²

Have these documents ready before you start:

Proof of income: Social Security award letters, pension statements, pay stubs, or tax returns for every income source.
Bank and asset records: current statements for checking, savings, and investment accounts, plus documentation of any other countable assets.
Proof of Florida residency: a utility bill, lease, or property tax statement.
Identification: government-issued photo ID and Social Security card.
Medical certification from your physician on AHCA Form 5000-3008, the Medical Certification for Medicaid Long-Term Care Services and Patient Transfer Form. It documents your primary and secondary diagnoses, decision-making capacity, infection control issues, patient risk alerts, advance directives, physical function, and skin-care needs.³

Watch the form number. AHCA Form 5000-0607 sounds similar but is the AIDS Physician Referral for Individuals at Risk of Hospitalization, a different document for a different purpose.⁴ For long-term care, the form you want your physician to complete is 5000-3008. Download it from AHCA’s website or ask your case manager for a copy.

Do You Meet the Financial Limits

For 2026, a single applicant’s monthly income cannot exceed $2,982, and countable assets are capped at $2,000. The income cap is set at 300 percent of the federal SSI benefit rate and adjusts yearly. Countable assets include bank accounts, investments, and cash. Your primary home (up to an equity limit), one vehicle, personal belongings, and prepaid burial arrangements do not count.

If you are married and your spouse is not applying, federal spousal impoverishment rules protect a portion of the couple’s resources and income for the spouse remaining at home. The community spouse’s protected resource and income allowances fall within federal ranges that adjust each year.

Step 2: The CARES Clinical Assessment

You also have to be 65 or older, or 18 or older and Medicaid-eligible on the basis of a disability.⁵ The Comprehensive Assessment and Review for Long-Term Care Services program, called CARES, decides whether you need a nursing-facility level of care.⁶ That standard means you need ongoing medical observation or nursing-level supervision because of a physical or mental condition that keeps you from living safely on your own. A CARES nurse or assessor typically comes to your home to do the review.⁷

Step 3: The Waitlist

Qualifying financially and clinically does not automatically mean services start. The Department of Elder Affairs keeps a statewide waitlist for enrollment in the long-term care managed care program.⁵ Your place in line is set by a frailty-based priority score, not by how long you have waited.⁸ The screen weighs your ability to handle daily activities, whether you live alone, caregiver availability, and overall health. A higher score means greater frailty and earlier release.

Three groups skip the waitlist if they otherwise qualify: nursing-facility residents who have lived in a Florida-licensed facility for at least 60 consecutive days and want to transition home, young adults aged 18 to 20 with chronic debilitating conditions requiring around-the-clock medical support, and individuals referred by the Department of Children and Families under Adult Protective Services as high-risk.⁵

Step 4: Choose a Managed Care Plan

Once Medicaid approves you and CARES confirms your level of care, the Agency for Health Care Administration mails a welcome letter listing the long-term care managed care plans in your region and giving you a default plan assignment.⁹ You can keep the default, pick another plan by the deadline printed on the letter, or call choice counseling at 1-877-711-3662 for help comparing options. You can also enroll or switch at flmedicaidmanagedcare.com.

Step 5: Ask Your Plan for the Participant Directed Option

After you are enrolled in a plan, tell your plan’s case manager you want to self-direct through the PDO. The option is available to any enrollee who has an eligible service on their care plan and lives in their own home or a family member’s home.¹ Once you make the request, the health plan sends a participant packet and an enrollment packet within three business days. That packet, not a state-issued “CDPAP form,” is where the PDO paperwork lives.

What You Can Self-Direct

The services eligible for self-direction under the PDO are personal care assistance, homemaker services, adult companion care, and attendant nursing care.¹⁰ Your case manager writes a care plan that spells out which services you get, how many hours per week are approved, and what tasks the caregiver performs. Anything not written into the care plan cannot be self-directed, so raise every need you have before the plan is finalized.

Who You Can Hire and What You Have to Do as Employer

You can hire neighbors, friends, and family members, including your spouse.¹ Every caregiver must be legally authorized to work in the United States and must pass a Level 2 background screening under Florida Statutes Chapter 435, which covers fingerprints and state and federal criminal record checks.¹¹ Your managed care plan coordinates the screen; your caregiver cannot start working until it clears.

Under the PDO, you act as the employer. That covers recruiting and hiring, training the caregiver in how you want tasks done, setting the schedule inside the approved hours, signing timesheets alongside the caregiver, working with your case manager on an emergency backup plan that is refreshed at least once a year, and reporting any termination to the case manager.¹ The pay rate is set by the managed care plan, not by you.

How Payroll Is Handled

You do not run payroll or file tax returns. Each managed care plan provides a Fiscal/Employer Agent that obtains a federal Employer Identification Number in your name for the PDO, files IRS Form 941 quarterly, Form 940 annually, and year-end W-2s, withholds and deposits federal and state taxes, and pays the caregiver at least twice a month by direct deposit or prepaid card.¹ Your main payroll duty is submitting signed timesheets on time. Late or incomplete timesheets are the most common reason caregiver payments are delayed.

If You Are Denied or Your Hours Are Cut

If your plan denies a service or reduces your approved hours, it must send you a Notice of Adverse Benefit Determination that explains the decision and how to appeal.¹² File an appeal through the plan’s internal process first. You must exhaust that step before you can request a state-level Medicaid Fair Hearing. After the plan issues its Notice of Plan Appeal Resolution, you can request a Fair Hearing if you disagree, and the Office of Fair Hearings will confirm receipt in writing. The deadlines are printed on the notice. Missing them can end the appeal before it starts.

1
Agency for Health Care Administration. An Introduction to the Participant Direction Option – A Long-Term Care Benefit
2
Florida Department of Children and Families. Medicaid
3
Agency for Health Care Administration. Medical Certification for Medicaid Long-Term Care Services and Patient Transfer Form
4
Cornell Law Institute. Florida Administrative Code 59G-1.045 – Medicaid Forms
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code 409.979 – Eligibility
6
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 409.985 – Comprehensive Assessment and Review for Long-Term Care Services (CARES) Program
7
Agency for Health Care Administration. CARES Assessment of Long-Term Care Needs
8
Agency for Health Care Administration. SMMC LTC Program Waitlist Release
9
Agency for Health Care Administration. Pick a Long-Term Care Plan
10
Sunshine Health. Participant Direction Option
11
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 435.04 – Level 2 Screening Standards
12
Agency for Health Care Administration. Make a Complaint or Ask for a Fair Hearing About Long-Term Care Services