Alberta funding
Free hours first. Ours second.
Alberta pays for home care, there is no income test, and you can choose who delivers it. Here is the whole thing in plain language.
We will help you through this whether or not you become a client. It is a strange thing for a private care company to publish, but a family who understands their funding makes better decisions, and we would rather be the people who told them.
Getting assessed
Publicly funded home care in Alberta is arranged through Assisted Living Alberta, which took over home care from AHS in the autumn of 2025. Once a case manager has assessed an unmet care need, the funded hours cost nothing. There is no means test, unlike in British Columbia or Quebec.
You do not need a doctor to refer you. Call Health Link at 811 and ask for a home care assessment. Anybody can do this — the senior, an adult child, a neighbour with permission.
What the case manager is deciding
Whether there is a real, ongoing care need that is not currently being met. Be honest about the bad days, not the good ones. Families routinely undersell the situation out of pride or habit and are then surprised by how few hours come back.
What funded care usually does not cover
Housekeeping, companionship, most transportation, and the long stretches of the day between short scheduled visits. That gap is where private hours normally get used, and it is the gap we will show you honestly.
Free once assessedNo income test in Alberta
Before you call 811
Write down, for a normal week:
- What tasks need another person, and how often
- Falls, near-falls, or wandering in the last six months
- Medications and who currently manages them
- Who is providing care now, and how many hours a week they are giving
- What happens at night
Ask for the case manager’s name and direct line. Ask when the plan will be reviewed. Ask about CDHCI by name.
The part almost nobody explains
Client Directed Home Care Invoicing
Your funded hours do not have to be delivered by whoever is assigned to you.
CDHCI is Alberta’s Type 3 home care model. Once you have been assessed, you can choose your own approved provider, and that provider invoices Alberta Blue Cross directly. You are not paying up front and claiming it back. You are not stuck with the agency that happens to hold the contract in your postal code. You choose on quality, on continuity, and on fit — and you pay only the difference between the funded rate and the provider’s rate, if there is one.
Before this page goes live
[Confirm Finding Dora is an Alberta Blue Cross approved CDHCI provider, and add the provider number here. If approval is not yet in place, reframe this whole page as guidance rather than an offer, and remove the CTA below. Getting approved is worth more than any marketing on the plan.]
It tends to fit when
- The care need is predictable week to week
- The client, or someone acting for them, can direct their own care
- The person lives in their own home or a private apartment
- Continuity of caregiver matters, which is nearly always
It does not fit when
- The person lives in a congregate setting — CDHCI is not available there
- Needs change sharply from week to week
- Nobody is able to self-direct and no family member can act
- Care is needed within days, before an assessment can happen. Start privately, then switch.
How the money works
Illustration only, using placeholder figures. Real numbers go in before launch.
Line
Per hour
Who pays
Alberta Blue Cross funded rate
$XX.XX
Alberta, direct to us
Finding Dora rate, personal care
$XX.XX
—
Your share
$X.XX
You, invoiced monthly
Funded rates are set by Alberta and change. We will put the current arithmetic in writing for your specific plan, and update it when the rates move.
Money that is already there
Alberta benefits worth stacking
Alberta has no refundable seniors’ care tax credit of the kind Ontario introduced. What it has instead is a set of separate programmes that most families use one of, and few use all of.
Special Needs Assistance for Seniors
A grant of up to $5,872 a year for eligible low-income seniors. It can cover respite care, housekeeping and a personal medical alert service — three things funded home care generally will not touch. Income tested. Apply through Alberta Seniors and Housing.
Alberta Seniors Benefit
A monthly cash benefit for lower-income seniors, based on income and living situation. Paid automatically once you have applied and filed a return.
Alberta Aids to Daily Living
Cost-shared funding for equipment — walkers, bath benches, commodes, lifts. Assessed by an authorised health professional. This is often the cheapest safety improvement available.
RAMP and SHARP
Grants for wheelchair ramps and lifts, and a low-interest home equity loan that lets a homeowner defer repayment. Useful where the barrier to staying home is the house rather than the care.
Verify before relying on any figure here. Alberta’s thresholds changed on 1 July 2026 and change most years. Current amounts are at alberta.ca.
We will walk you through the assessment.
Even if you never hire us. Call and we will tell you what to say to 811, what to write down first, and whether CDHCI is likely to apply to your situation.