Families searching for “affordable home care Allentown PA” usually expect a list of cheaper caregivers. The real answer is different: affordable home care comes from paying for fewer of the hours yourself. At the 2025 Pennsylvania median of $34 an hour, 20 hours a week costs about $2,950 a month, and most families start there without knowing that a county program, a Medicaid waiver, a veteran’s benefit or a tax deduction could cover part of it. Here are nine ways Lehigh Valley families lower the cost without lowering the quality.
Key takeaways
- The fastest savings come from buying the right hours, not the fewest: a few well-placed shifts often replace a full day.
- Pennsylvania’s OPTIONS Program serves anyone 60 and older with no income limit and a sliding co-payment. In Lehigh County it starts with one call, 610-782-3200.
- Medicaid’s Community HealthChoices pays for personal care at home when income is within 300 percent of the SSI federal benefit rate, $2,982 a month in 2026.
- The state Caregiver Support Program reimburses up to $600 a month. VA benefits, long-term care insurance and the IRS medical deduction each cover another slice.
- Paying under the table, skipping the background check or hiring without a contract does not lower the cost. It moves the cost to later.
Table of Contents
What home care costs in Allentown before any help
The CareScout Cost of Care Survey, built from more than 25,000 provider rates collected between July and November 2025, puts the Pennsylvania median for a non-medical in-home caregiver at $34 an hour (CareScout 2025 survey; state data tables, PDF). It publishes no separate Allentown rate, so use the state figure as a starting point and ask each agency for its own.
| Hours a week | Monthly cost at $34/hour (PA median, 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10 | About $1,470 |
| 15 | About $2,210 |
| 20 | About $2,950 |
| 30 | About $4,420 |
| 40 | About $5,890 |
Every option below either reduces the hours you pay for or pays part of the bill. Our Allentown home care guide explains what those hours include.
1. Start with fewer hours, chosen well
The most common mistake is booking an eight-hour day because it feels safer. Most of that day is not care; it is presence. Map the day first. If the hard parts are the morning routine (getting up, bathing, dressing, breakfast, medications) and the evening routine (dinner, getting to bed), two three-hour shifts cover them. A parent who is steady by day but fell at night needs an overnight shift, not a daytime one.
Ask the agency for a written care plan that lists the tasks each shift covers, then compare hours against tasks. Families who do this routinely cut a 40-hour week to 20 or fewer without losing the help that mattered. For a parent who needs someone present around the clock, the math changes; our guide to 24-hour home care in Allentown covers it.
2. Combine family care and professional care
A professional caregiver does not have to do everything. Many Lehigh Valley families cover evenings and weekends themselves and buy the weekday hours they cannot cover, or the tasks they cannot do safely, such as bathing and transfers. Companion visits fill the social gap on the days the family cannot come; our companionship service page describes what they include.
Two rules keep this from failing. Write down who covers what, so the family caregiver does not quietly absorb every gap. And build in relief: a family caregiver who never gets a day off burns out, and then the family buys 40 hours in a crisis (how to plan respite care).
3. Medicaid: Community HealthChoices (CHC)
CHC is Pennsylvania’s Medicaid managed care program for adults 21 and older who have both Medicare and Medicaid, or who qualify for long-term services because they need help with everyday personal tasks (PA Department of Human Services, CHC). It pays for personal assistance hours at home, through an agency or a caregiver the family chooses, including a relative; see getting paid to care for a family member.
The financial test is strict. For home and community-based services, “an individual is income-eligible if gross monthly income is within 300 percent of the Federal Benefit Rate,” and resource-eligible “if total countable resources are at or below $2,000, after a $6,000 standard automatic disregard” (PA DHS, Eligibility for CHC, PDF). The 2026 federal benefit rate is $994 a month (Social Security Administration), so the income line is $2,982 a month and the practical asset line is $8,000, not counting the home. Spousal protections apply when one spouse stays in the community.
Enrollment starts with the Independent Enrollment Broker at 1-877-550-4227 (CHC contact information). Our CHC waiver guide for the Lehigh Valley walks through the application. If the hours CHC authorizes are not enough, families add private-pay hours on top.
4. The OPTIONS Program through Lehigh County Aging and Adult Services
This is the program most families have never heard of, and it has no income limit. OPTIONS, run by the Department of Aging through each Area Agency on Aging, serves Pennsylvania residents “at least 60 years of age” with unmet needs that affect daily functioning. “There are no income requirements to participate in the program,” though participants may contribute through “a sliding co-payment scale” (PA Department of Aging, OPTIONS Program). Core services include personal care, adult day services, in-home meals and care management.
In Lehigh County the Area Agency on Aging is the Office of Aging and Adult Services. Its Information and Referral Unit answers at 610-782-3200, Monday through Friday (Lehigh County Aging and Adult Services). Ask for an OPTIONS assessment. Hours are limited by funding, so OPTIONS rarely replaces private care entirely, but it can cover the gap while a CHC application is pending or pay for the adult day services in point 9.
5. The Pennsylvania Caregiver Support Program
If a family member does most of the caregiving, the state will reimburse part of what that costs. The Caregiver Support Program serves a caregiver “age 18 and older” caring for someone 60 or older with functional deficits, or anyone with Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder. “The caregiver and care receiver are not required to be related or live in the same residence” (PA Department of Aging, apply for the Caregiver Support Program).
Reimbursement is a sliding-scale percentage based on the care receiver’s household income: 100 percent at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, tapering to zero above 380 percent. The maximum is $600 a month for ongoing costs such as respite care and supplies, and $5,000 lifetime for home modifications or assistive devices (PA Department of Aging, Caregiver Support Program). Because respite from a licensed agency is a reimbursable expense, the program can effectively pay for a few hours of professional care each week. Apply through the same Lehigh County number, 610-782-3200.
6. VA benefits: Aid and Attendance, and Homemaker/Home Health Aide care
Veterans and surviving spouses have two separate routes, and families often know only one.
Aid and Attendance is a monthly addition to a VA pension for someone who needs “another person to help you perform daily activities, like bathing, feeding, and dressing,” is largely bedridden, is in a nursing home, or has severely limited eyesight. The application uses VA Form 21-2680, completed in part by a medical examiner (VA.gov, Aid and Attendance). It is cash, so the family can spend it on any caregiver.
Homemaker and Home Health Aide care is a VA health care service, not a pension benefit. A trained aide helps with personal care and daily activities at home, through “an organization that has a contract with VA.” Veterans enrolled in VA health care are eligible if they meet the clinical need, and “a copay … may be charged based on your VA service-connected disability status” (VA.gov, Homemaker and Home Health Aide Care). The request goes through the veteran’s VA social worker. Our guide to VA home care benefits in Pennsylvania covers both.
7. Long-term care insurance: activate the policy you already pay for
Families with a long-term care policy often wait too long to use it, or assume it only covers a facility. Most policies pay for care at home. Benefits are triggered when the insured needs help “with two or more of six ADLs” (bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, transferring, continence) or has a cognitive impairment, confirmed by “a company sponsored nurse/social worker assessment” (ACL, receiving long-term care insurance benefits).
Two details decide how much you save. The elimination period, typically 30, 60 or 90 days, works like a deductible measured in time: “during the period, you must cover the cost of any services you receive.” Starting care sooner starts that clock sooner. And the insurer’s care manager approves a plan of care that defines which services are covered. Call the insurer before the first shift, ask for the daily benefit maximum, and confirm that non-medical care from a licensed agency qualifies.
8. The IRS medical expense deduction
Home care can be a deductible medical expense, and many families never claim it. For 2025 returns, “you can deduct on Schedule A (Form 1040) only the amount of your medical and dental expenses that is more than 7.5% of your AGI” (IRS Publication 502, 2025 returns). Whether personal care counts depends on two rules in that publication.
Under nursing services, wages for nursing-type care count; when an attendant also does household work, only the care portion qualifies, along with the same share of the employment taxes you pay. Under long-term care, “maintenance or personal care services” qualify in full when the person is chronically ill: a licensed practitioner has certified within the past 12 months that they cannot perform at least two activities of daily living without substantial assistance for 90 days or more, or need substantial supervision because of severe cognitive impairment, and the services follow a plan of care that practitioner prescribed.
In practice: ask the doctor for that certification and a written plan of care, keep the agency’s invoices, and give both to your tax preparer. If the parent is your dependent, the expenses may be deductible on your return. This is general information, not tax advice.
9. Adult day services and respite
An adult day center is the least-known substitute for daytime home care hours. Lehigh County’s Office of Aging and Adult Services describes Older Adult Daily Living Centers as a “safe, supervised environment for older adults with a functional impairment, and adults with a dementia related disease,” offering personal care, nursing services, therapeutic activities and meals. All are “licensed through the Pennsylvania Department of Aging,” and the county “reviews and approves all applications for supplemental funding” (Lehigh County, Older Adult Daily Living Centers). Call 610-782-3200 to apply and to get the current list of centers.
For a parent who is safe with supervision but cannot be alone, two or three days a week at a center replaces those daytime hours, and OPTIONS or the Caregiver Support Program may subsidize it. Respite works in the other direction: a few paid hours that let the family caregiver rest, reimbursable through the Caregiver Support Program. The respite planning guide explains how to schedule it before exhaustion forces the decision.
Every option at a glance
| Way to lower the cost | Who qualifies | What it can save |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer, better-placed hours | Anyone | Often half the hours |
| Family plus professional care | Families able to cover part of the week | Hours you no longer buy |
| Medicaid CHC | 21+, income within $2,982/month (2026) and about $8,000 in countable assets | Personal care hours paid by the plan |
| OPTIONS Program | 60+, any income; sliding co-pay | Subsidized personal care, meals, adult day |
| Caregiver Support Program | Caregiver 18+; care receiver 60+ or with Alzheimer’s; full reimbursement at or below 200% FPL | Up to $600/month; $5,000 lifetime for home modifications |
| VA Aid and Attendance | Veteran or surviving spouse on VA pension who needs help with daily activities | Monthly cash added to the pension |
| VA Homemaker/Home Health Aide | Veteran enrolled in VA health care with clinical need | Aide hours through a VA-contracted agency; possible copay |
| Long-term care insurance | Policyholder needing help with 2 of 6 ADLs or with cognitive impairment | Daily benefit after the elimination period |
| IRS medical deduction | Itemizers with medical costs above 7.5% of AGI; chronically ill certification | Tax reduction on qualifying care costs |
| Adult day services and respite | 60+ with functional impairment or dementia | Replaces daytime hours; may be subsidized |
What does not lower the cost
Three shortcuts look like savings and are not.
Paying a caregiver under the table. Once you pay a household employee $3,000 or more in 2026, you owe Social Security and Medicare taxes and must file Schedule H (IRS Publication 926). Unreported wages expose you to back taxes and penalties, leave the caregiver without Social Security credits, and cannot be claimed as a medical deduction.
Skipping the background check. Licensed agencies must obtain a State Police criminal history report, verify competency and screen for tuberculosis before the first shift. A family that hires directly and skips those steps saves $22 and takes on the whole risk.
Hiring without a contract. Without a written agreement on hours, pay, overtime, notice and duties, every disagreement is settled in the middle of a care crisis. Our comparison of a private duty caregiver versus a home care agency in Allentown lays out what hiring directly really costs, and when it is still the right choice.
If you live in Northampton County: same programs, a different front door
Allentown is in Lehigh County, but a large part of the metro is not. Bethlehem sits on the county line, and Easton, Nazareth, Hellertown and the Slate Belt are in Northampton County. That matters for three of the nine options above. OPTIONS, the Caregiver Support Program and adult day funding are applied for through the Area Agency on Aging of the county where the older adult lives, not where the family lives. A family that searches for affordable home care Allentown PA from an Easton address and calls the Lehigh number will be sent next door.
Northampton County’s Area Agency on Aging is at 2801 Emrick Boulevard, Bethlehem, PA 18020, open Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, at 610-829-4540. Its OPTIONS program lists in-home services, care management, adult day services, in-home meals and personal care. Its Caregiver Support program offers “financial reimbursement for supplies and services related to caregiving,” and the same office does the functional assessments for in-home waiver programs and hosts PA MEDI Medicare counseling (Northampton County, Area Agency on Aging).
| Lehigh County | Northampton County | |
|---|---|---|
| Area Agency on Aging | Office of Aging and Adult Services | Northampton County Area Agency on Aging |
| Phone | 610-782-3200 | 610-829-4540 |
| Office | Allentown | 2801 Emrick Boulevard, Bethlehem |
| Hours | Monday through Friday | Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm |
| Apply here for | OPTIONS, Caregiver Support Program, adult day funding | The same three |
| Also here | Information and referral | Waiver assessments, PA MEDI counseling |
What does not change with the county line: Medicaid’s Community HealthChoices goes through the statewide Independent Enrollment Broker at 1-877-550-4227, VA benefits go through the VA, and the long-term care insurer and the IRS rules are the same everywhere. The state program rules are identical too. OPTIONS serves residents 60 and older with no income limit, and the Caregiver Support Program reimburses up to $600 a month on the same sliding scale (PA Department of Aging, OPTIONS Program; Caregiver Support Program). What changes is the funding available, the co-payment assessment and the person who answers the phone.
Two practical consequences. First, if your mother lives in Easton and you live in Allentown, the application goes to Northampton County under her address, and a caseworker from that office does the home visit. Second, ask any agency you are considering which municipalities it serves today. A caregiver based in Allentown may not take a 7:00 am shift in Bangor in January, and a shift that does not happen is the most expensive kind.
Frequently asked questions
Affordable home care Allentown PA: where do I start?
Buy only the hours that cover real tasks, then apply for the programs that pay part of the bill: OPTIONS through Lehigh County (610-782-3200), Medicaid’s Community HealthChoices if income and assets qualify, the Caregiver Support Program if a relative provides most of the care, VA benefits for veterans, and the IRS medical deduction at tax time.
What is the income limit for Medicaid home care in Pennsylvania in 2026?
For home and community-based services under CHC, gross monthly income must be within 300 percent of the SSI federal benefit rate. With the 2026 rate at $994, that is $2,982 a month. Countable resources must be at or below $2,000 after a $6,000 disregard, about $8,000 in practice, excluding the home.
Is home care tax deductible?
On the federal return, yes, when it qualifies as a medical expense under IRS Publication 502 and total medical expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income. Personal care counts in full when a licensed practitioner certifies the person is chronically ill and the care follows a prescribed plan. Confirm it with a tax preparer.
Will the Caregiver Support Program pay me to care for my mother?
It reimburses expenses rather than paying a wage: up to $600 a month for costs such as respite and supplies, on a sliding scale based on the care receiver’s income, plus up to $5,000 lifetime for home modifications. To be paid an hourly wage, look at Medicaid CHC’s participant-directed option.
Talk to a care coordinator in Allentown. Home Care Concepts serves families across the Lehigh Valley and Wilkes-Barre. Call (484) 894-7888 or send us a message for a straight answer on how many hours your parent actually needs, what they cost, and which of these programs to apply for first.
