Consumer Directed Services in Maryland Heights, Missouri

Communicare Elite provides MO HealthNet Consumer Directed Services to residents of Maryland Heights and the surrounding northwest St. Louis County area. If you are eligible, you choose your own personal care attendant — including a family member other than your spouse — and we handle payroll, program paperwork and Medicaid billing.

Why home care matters in Maryland Heights

Maryland Heights covers a lot of ground — from the older residential streets near Dorsett Road through the Westport office district to the Riverport area along the Missouri River bottoms. Its residential neighborhoods have a substantial population of long-tenured homeowners, and a growing number of adult children who have moved a parent in with them rather than into a facility.

That multi-generational arrangement is worth understanding properly, because families often assume it disqualifies them. It does not. Living with your adult children has no bearing on CDS eligibility, and the child you live with can be your paid attendant — the only excluded relationship is spouse. What families in this situation most often need is not permission but structure: a care plan that says what help is authorized, and a payroll arrangement that treats real work as real work.

How CDS works for Maryland Heights residents

1. Confirm you are likely eligible. You need to be 18 or older, eligible for MO HealthNet, physically disabled, able to direct your own care, and assessed at a nursing facility level of care. Full requirements.
2. Request a state assessment. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services assesses you at home. Their referral line is 866-835-3505.
3. Receive an authorized care plan listing the tasks and hours approved for you. What can be authorized.
4. Choose Communicare Elite as your CDS vendor.
5. Hire your attendant — anyone but your spouse, subject to background screening. How to choose.
6. Work begins. You and your attendant sign biweekly timesheets; we run payroll and bill Medicaid. How pay works.

What your attendant can help with

See the full list of covered tasks →

Getting paid to care for a family member in Maryland Heights

If you already help a parent, an adult child, a sibling or a friend in Maryland Heights, that work can become paid employment. Missouri law excludes only the consumer’s spouse from being a paid personal care attendant — every other relationship is eligible.

How family caregivers get paid →

Distance from our office

Communicare Elite is at 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 106, St. Louis, MO 63134, minutes from Lambert International Airport — roughly about 15 minutes from Maryland Heights. Most business is handled by phone, but you are welcome at the office; call ahead so someone is expecting you.

Questions from Maryland Heights families

My mother lives with us. Does that disqualify her?

No. Living with family has no effect on eligibility, and one of you can be her paid attendant as long as it is not her spouse.

Can two of us split the caregiving hours?

Yes. A consumer can employ more than one attendant within their total authorized hours — many families divide weekdays and weekends.

Do you cover the Westport and Riverport areas?

We cover all of Maryland Heights, though CDS is a residential service — it is delivered in the consumer’s home.

Does CDS cost me anything?

No. The program is funded by MO HealthNet. You do not pay Communicare Elite and you do not pay your attendant directly.

Can I switch to Communicare Elite from another vendor?

Yes, without reapplying for the program or losing your authorized hours. How switching works.

Nearby communities we also serve

St. Louis City · St. Louis County · Florissant · Ferguson · Hazelwood · Bridgeton · University City · Kirkwood · Chesterfield · Arnold · Festus · St. Charles · St. Peters · O’Fallon · Wentzville