After the hospital: CDPAP and agency care for Elmhurst households

For a lot of Elmhurst families the home care question begins in a hallway at NYC Health + Hospitals / Elmhurst, when a discharge planner says the person will need help at home. The planner can start a Medicaid application or a referral, but the planner does not authorize hours, does not choose between an agency aide and the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), and does not register anyone with the statewide fiscal intermediary. This page covers what happens after that hallway conversation. Elmhurst is one of the most multilingual neighborhoods in the country, with large Spanish-, Chinese-, Bengali-, Indonesian-, and Thai-speaking communities; every number here offers interpreters, and the fiscal intermediary is listed by the Department of Health as supporting more than 300 languages.

ZIP 11373 covers most of Elmhurst (approximate; verify with USPS), roughly from Roosevelt Avenue south to the Long Island Expressway and east to Woodhaven Boulevard. County: Queens.

• NY Connects: 1-800-342-9871 (Relay 7-1-1). The right call for a family that has just been told "your mother will need help at home" and does not know which program that means.
• HIICAP: 1-800-701-0501; say "Queens" when asked for your county. NYC Aging Connect, 212-244-6469, ask for HIICAP.
• In person: RAICES / Corona Senior Center, 102-47 43rd Avenue, Corona, NY 11368, 718-458-7259, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (7 train to 103rd Street-Corona Plaza), or Sunnyside Community Senior Center, 43-31 39th Street, Sunnyside, 718-784-6173 x411. Both by appointment; call Aging Connect first, because sites change.

Medicaid in Elmhurst is HRA, citywide. HRA Medicaid Helpline 1-888-692-6116 for the application, renewals, and address changes. If the person is 65 or older or disabled and not in a managed care plan, HRA's Home Care Services Program (DSS OneNumber 718-557-1399) is the fee-for-service door; HRA's forms include an attestation of immediate need for personal care or CDPAP services. If the person is in a Managed Long Term Care plan, the plan authorizes hours, and New York Medicaid Choice (1-800-505-5678, TTY 1-888-329-1541) answers enrollment questions. Office locations are on nyc.gov/hra.

1. Medicaid is applied for or confirmed through HRA, and a home care assessment is done. For adults 21 and over assessed on or after September 1, 2025, the Department of Health's Minimum Needs Requirements apply.
2. The plan (or HRA for fee-for-service) authorizes personal care. The Department's fact sheet says CDPAP and agency care have different rules on who provides care and what tasks are allowed, and that a switch needs a new authorization to avoid a gap.
3. The family chooses the assistant: not the spouse, not the designated representative, not the parent of a consumer under 21. A relative who shares the apartment may serve when the amount of care makes that relative's presence necessary, per Department guidance.
4. Consumer and assistant register with Public Partnerships LLC (PPL), the Department-designated statewide fiscal intermediary: 1-833-247-5346, TTY 1-833-204-9042, or PPL@Home online, a community facilitator, or an in-person session.
5. The assistant completes the pre-service health assessment, and the consumer (or designated representative) approves time through PPL's systems.

• Expecting the discharge planner to "set up CDPAP." Hospital staff can start the Medicaid and referral process; the authorization comes from the plan or HRA, and registration with the intermediary is the family's step.
• Assuming the son who shares the two-bedroom cannot be paid because he lives there. Department guidance allows a co-resident relative to be the assistant when the amount of care makes the relative's presence necessary. Ask the plan or HRA how that is documented.
• Treating the assistant's employment documents as the consumer's problem. The identification and work eligibility paperwork belongs to the assistant, is processed by the intermediary, and is separate from the consumer's Medicaid file.

NYC Health + Hospitals / Elmhurst at 79th Avenue and Broadway is the public hospital most of the neighborhood uses. The Elmhurst Avenue M and R station and the 7 on Roosevelt Avenue reach the Corona and Sunnyside counseling sites. Neither decides Medicaid home care.