How CDHCI Works: Funded Home Care in Alberta

If a family member has been approved for home care by Alberta Health Services (AHS), you may be able to choose your own provider and have those approved hours funded — and when the provider bills at the AHS-approved rate, those hours can be $0 out of pocket. The program that makes this possible is called CDHCI: Client Directed Home Care Invoicing. Here’s how it works in plain language.

What CDHCI is

CDHCI lets Albertans who’ve been assessed as needing home care direct their own funded hours to a registered provider they trust, instead of being assigned one. Your provider bills Alberta Blue Cross (the program administrator) directly for the approved hours, so you don’t front the money or chase reimbursements. AHS authorizes a maximum number of hours per month; unused hours don’t carry over to the next month.

Who qualifies

You may be eligible if you have a valid Alberta Health Care number, live in a community setting (at home), and:

• have been assessed by an AHS case manager and deemed to need home care services;
• your case manager agrees CDHCI is a suitable model that will meet your care needs (it isn’t automatically offered to everyone approved for home care);
• there’s no conflict with another AHS policy or service agreement; and
• you — or a family member acting as your “CDHCI manager” — are willing and able to take on directing and monitoring the care.

You do not need your own Alberta Blue Cross insurance plan to qualify; CDHCI is a separate, publicly funded program. If you don’t yet have a case manager, that’s okay — it’s usually the first step, and we can point you to exactly who to call and what to ask.

How the money works

AHS funds your approved hours up to a set maximum number of hours per month and a maximum hourly rate. For those approved hours, your provider bills Alberta Blue Cross directly — no invoices to pay up front, no reimbursement forms.

Here’s the honest part most brochures skip: you’re responsible for anything above the AHS maximum hourly rate or beyond your approved hours. In practice that means:

• If a provider charges more per hour than the AHS rate, you cover the difference. (KapwaCare is a registered CDHCI provider — ask us directly how we bill approved hours so there are no surprises.)
• Overtime, statutory-holiday premiums, mileage, and cancellation fees are generally not covered by CDHCI. (Publicly funded home care is generally GST-exempt, so GST usually doesn’t apply.)
• Extra hours beyond your monthly approval, or care you’d rather arrange privately, are billed at straightforward private-pay rates, with no sign-up fees or long-term contracts.

So “$0 out of pocket” is real and common — it holds when your approved hours are billed at (or below) the AHS rate and you stay within your approved hours.

What you’ll be responsible for

CDHCI is client-directed, so a few responsibilities stay with you or your CDHCI manager. We handle the Blue Cross billing end to end, but you (or your decision-maker) will:

• sign a Consent to Disclose Information form and the CDHCI Letter of Agreement with Alberta Blue Cross;
• choose a provider from the Alberta Blue Cross registered vendor list (AHS doesn’t rank or guarantee providers — the choice, and the care agreement, are yours);
• direct the care to your approved plan and keep a backup plan for when a caregiver is away; and
• notify AHS of changes — a hospital stay, a move, or a stretch when you won’t need care.

None of this is heavy, and we’ll walk you through every form. It’s just worth knowing up front.

Getting started

1. Call us and we’ll explain the process in plain language (English and Tagalog).
2. If you don’t have an AHS case manager yet, we’ll help you understand who to contact.
3. Once your hours are approved, we handle the Blue Cross paperwork end to end.

Not sure where you stand? Book a free assessment or call (403) 830-9600 — a real coordinator will walk you through it, with no obligation.