Home Care in Wilkes-Barre, PA: Services, Costs and Programs

Families looking for home care Wilkes-Barre PA options usually start with two questions: what does a non-medical caregiver actually do, and who pays for it? A caregiver helps with bathing, dressing, meals, mobility and company under Pennsylvania’s home care regulations, and in Luzerne County the bill is paid by Medicaid, the Area Agency on Aging, the VA or the family. This guide covers all four, with the local numbers.

What home care in Wilkes-Barre includes, and what it does not

Pennsylvania licenses two kinds of non-medical providers. A home care agency employs its caregivers; a home care registry refers independent contractors. Both are licensed by the Department of Health under 28 Pa. Code Chapter 611, which defines “home care services” as five things: personal care, assistance with instrumental activities of daily living, companionship services, respite care and specialized care.

Personal care is the hands-on part. The regulation lists it as “assistance with self-administered medications, feeding, oral, skin and mouth care, shaving, assistance with ambulation, bathing, hair care and grooming, dressing, toileting and transfer activities.” Our personal care service page describes what that looks like day to day.

Companionship services are “socialization, support and assistance with instrumental activities of daily living”: conversation, meals, light housekeeping, errands and rides to appointments. See our companionship service page.

What home care does not include is anything skilled. The Department of Health states that home care agencies and registries “provide non-skilled services” (PA Department of Health, Home Care). Injections, wound care, catheter changes and medication administration are home health, ordered by a physician and often paid by Medicare. Medicare does not cover “custodial or personal care that helps you with daily living activities (like bathing, dressing, or using the bathroom), when this is the only care you need” (Medicare.gov, home health services). That gap is what non-medical home care fills.

Luzerne County by the numbers

The county is older than most of Pennsylvania and, in Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, far more Hispanic than people outside it assume. Both facts matter when you choose an agency: demand for caregivers is high, and language fit is a real question for many families.

	Luzerne County	Wilkes-Barre city
Population estimate, July 1, 2025	332,126	44,523
Persons 65 years and over	21.7%	15.3%
Hispanic or Latino	21.8%	33.8%
Language other than English spoken at home (2020–2024)	15.9%	27.8%
Veterans (2020–2024)	17,059	1,786

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Luzerne County and Wilkes-Barre city.

Roughly 72,000 county residents are 65 or older. The 17,059 veterans deserve a separate note: the VA program below is one of the more generous and least used ways to pay for care at home.

What home care costs in Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County

The best public benchmark is the CareScout Cost of Care Survey, built from more than 25,000 provider rates collected between July and November 2025 (CareScout, 2025 survey). The Pennsylvania median for a non-medical in-home caregiver through a provider is $34 an hour, against a national median of $35 (CareScout state tables, PDF). CareScout publishes no separate Wilkes-Barre figure, so expect local quotes near the state median, higher for short, overnight or weekend shifts.

At $34 an hour:

Schedule	Hours a week	Approximate monthly cost
Three mornings, 4 hours each	12	$1,770
Weekdays, 4 hours a day	20	$2,950
Weekdays, 8 hours a day	40	$5,890

Monthly figures use 4.33 weeks. Most agencies set a minimum shift length, so ask before assuming a two-hour visit is available. Our guide on affordable home care in Allentown lists nine ways to lower the number that apply equally in Luzerne County.

Four ways Luzerne County families pay for home care

Program	Who qualifies	What it pays for	Where to start
Medicaid Community HealthChoices (CHC)	Adults 21+ who need a nursing-home level of care and meet Medicaid financial limits	Personal assistance at home through an agency or a caregiver you choose, including relatives	Independent Enrollment Broker, 1-877-550-4227
Area Agency on Aging: OPTIONS	Pennsylvania residents 60+ with unmet needs that affect daily functioning; no income limit, sliding co-payment	Care management, personal care, in-home meals, adult day services	AAA in Wilkes-Barre, 570-822-1158 or 800-252-1512
Area Agency on Aging: Caregiver Support Program	Family caregivers of an older adult	Reimbursement for respite care and supplies up to $600 a month; home modifications up to $5,000 lifetime	Same AAA intake line
VA Homemaker and Home Health Aide Care	Veterans enrolled in VA health care who meet clinical need	An aide at home for bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, mobility and shopping; copay depends on service-connected status	Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center
Private pay	Anyone	Any schedule you agree on	A licensed agency or registry

Medicaid Community HealthChoices

CHC is Pennsylvania’s managed long-term care program for adults who need a nursing-facility level of care and qualify for Medicaid. The participant chooses a plan, and the plan authorizes hours of personal assistance at home. Every plan must offer “the opportunity to self-direct PAS and employ their own PAS provider, who can be a family member, a friend, a neighbor, or any other qualified personal assistance worker” (PA DHS, CHC Questions and Answers).

The process begins with the Independent Enrollment Broker at 1-877-550-4227 (CHC contact information), followed by a functional assessment and a financial review. Our step-by-step CHC waiver guide covers the financial limits; the guide to getting paid to care for a family member in Pennsylvania explains the participant-directed option.

Area Agency on Aging: OPTIONS and Caregiver Support

The Area Agency on Aging for Luzerne and Wyoming Counties is at 111 N. Pennsylvania Boulevard, Suite 100, Wilkes-Barre, open weekdays from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, at 570-822-1158 or toll-free 1-800-252-1512 (Luzerne County, Area Agency on Aging). It is the front door to two state programs.

OPTIONS serves Pennsylvanians who are “at least 60 years of age” and “determined to have unmet needs that impact daily functioning”: care management, personal care, in-home meals and adult day services. “There are no income requirements to participate in the program. However, depending on an individual’s income, they may be required to contribute towards the cost of their services based on a sliding co-payment scale” (PA Department of Aging, OPTIONS). Apply through the AAA before the need is urgent; there can be a wait.

The Caregiver Support Program reimburses the family caregiver. The county describes reimbursement for personal care, companionship or day care, up to $600 a month for supplies such as incontinence products, and “a lifetime benefit of up to $5,000 for home modifications and assistive devices” such as ramps, stair glides and grab bars (Luzerne County, Caregiver Support Program). The state confirms both maximums, on a sliding scale by the care receiver’s income (PA Department of Aging, Caregiver Support Program).

VA Homemaker and Home Health Aide care

The Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center is at 1111 East End Boulevard, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711 (VA, Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center). The VA’s Homemaker and Home Health Aide program sends “a trained person who can come to a Veterans home and help the Veteran take care of themselves and their daily activities”: eating, dressing, grooming, bathing, using the bathroom, moving from one place to another and grocery shopping.

All enrolled veterans are eligible if they meet the clinical need, and “a copay for Homemaker and Home Health Aide services may be charged based on your VA service-connected disability status” (VA Geriatrics and Extended Care). The request goes through the veteran’s VA primary care team. Our guide to VA home care benefits in Pennsylvania also covers Aid and Attendance.

Paying privately

Most families combine sources: a few OPTIONS hours, Caregiver Support reimbursement for respite, and private pay for the rest. If you are weighing an agency against hiring someone directly, read our comparison of private duty caregivers and agencies first; the tax and background-check rules are the same in Luzerne County.

Where home care is delivered in Luzerne County

Home care goes wherever the older adult lives, and Luzerne County is large: Wilkes-Barre, Wyoming Valley towns across the river such as Kingston, the Pittston area to the north, Nanticoke to the southwest, and Hazleton in the south, home to one of the largest Hispanic communities in northeastern Pennsylvania. Distance decides whether a caregiver can reach the home reliably in winter and whether short shifts are workable. Ask any agency which municipalities it serves today.

How to choose a home care agency in Wilkes-Barre: what to ask

Pennsylvania’s rules give you a checklist. Before services begin, a licensed agency or registry must give you a written packet with the services and the identity of the caregiver, the hours, “fees and total costs for those services on an hourly or weekly basis,” the Department’s complaint hotline (1-866-826-3644) and the local Ombudsman number, the hiring and competency requirements for its workers, and whether the worker is an employee or an independent contractor “and the resultant respective tax and insurance obligations” (28 Pa. Code § 611.57). No packet, keep looking.

Beyond the packet, ask:

1. Is the license current? Check the Department of Health provider locator under Home Care Agency or Home Care Registry.
2. How were the caregivers trained? Every direct care worker must pass a competency exam or training covering infection control, emergencies and abuse reporting; those who provide personal care must also be trained in bathing, transferring, toileting, feeding and medication reminders (28 Pa. Code § 611.55).
3. What happens when the caregiver cannot come? A same-day call-out is the most common failure in home care. Ask how it is covered and how often it happened last month.
4. Does the agency accept CHC, OPTIONS or VA payment? If you expect Medicaid to pay, confirm the agency is in your plan’s network before you settle on a caregiver.
5. Can we get a Spanish-speaking caregiver? In Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, this is often the difference between care that works and care that gets refused.
6. Who supervises, and how often? A written care plan that someone reviews is the minimum.

Home care or a facility in Luzerne County: where the cost lines cross

Sooner or later a Wilkes-Barre family asks whether it would be cheaper to move. The honest answer depends on how many hours of care the person needs, and the 2025 CareScout survey gives the Pennsylvania medians to do the arithmetic (CareScout state tables, PDF).

Setting, Pennsylvania 2025 median	Rate	Monthly figure	Equivalent home care hours at $34
Non-medical caregiver at home	$34 an hour	$2,950 for 20 hours a week	20 hours a week
Adult day health care	$117 a day	$2,535 for 5 days a week	About 17 hours a week
Assisted living community	$209 a day	$6,480	About 44 hours a week
Nursing home, semi-private room	$393 a day	$11,954	About 81 hours a week
Nursing home, private room	$450 a day	$13,688	About 93 hours a week

The home care figure uses 4.33 weeks a month; the facility figures are CareScout’s own monthly medians, the annual rate divided by 12. Hour equivalents are the monthly figure divided by $34 and by 4.33 weeks.

Read the last column. Below roughly 44 hours a week of paid help, home care costs less than assisted living in Pennsylvania; below roughly 81 hours, it costs less than a semi-private nursing home room. Most of the schedules families in Luzerne County actually buy, a few mornings or weekday afternoons, sit well under both lines. Above them, care at home is a decision about where to live, not a way to save money.

Adult day health care is the option most families skip. At $117 a day it replaces a full day of supervision for less than the cost of four home care hours, and the OPTIONS program described above lists adult day services among what it funds. It suits someone who is safe at night but should not be alone all day, and it gives the family a predictable break. It also combines well with a morning visit: a caregiver handles the shower and breakfast, the center handles the day.

Two facts about who pays settle a lot of arguments. First, Medicare pays for none of these long term: “Medicare and most health insurance, including Medicare Supplement Insurance (Medigap), don’t pay for long-term care services, including care in a nursing home or in the community” (Medicare.gov, Long-term care). Second, Medicaid pays on both sides of the line. Community HealthChoices enrolls people “receiving care in a nursing home paid for by Medicaid” as well as those receiving long-term services and supports at home, with the stated aim of “serving more people in communities rather than in facilities” (PA DHS, Community HealthChoices).

That second fact has a practical edge. To qualify for CHC at all, a person must need a nursing-facility level of care, so the same assessment that would admit someone to a nursing home is the one that authorizes paid hours at home. A family comparing home care Wilkes-Barre PA agencies with a nursing home should know that one CHC plan can pay for either, and that the plan’s service coordinator, not the family, sets the hours.

What the numbers leave out is the part of the decision that matters most: nights. A person who wakes confused, wanders or falls at 3:00 am needs someone awake, and once that is true the hours climb fast toward the assisted living line. For someone who sleeps through the night and needs help with mornings, meals and errands, home care in Wilkes-Barre remains the cheaper option by a wide margin. Ask any agency you call to price both schedules: the daytime one you need now and the overnight one you may need later.

Frequently asked questions