Here’s an unusual Louisiana advantage: aide pay is low by national standards, so each Aid and Attendance dollar buys more hours of help at home than it would in most states. On top of that, Medicaid offers LT-PCS and the Community Choices Waiver, and one phone line, 877-456-1146, is the door to both.
Below: what the hours cost, how to pay a relative, and how the programs stack.
Hours versus dollars in Louisiana
In May 2025 the median Louisiana home health or personal care aide earned $10.83 an hour; nationally the figure was $17.2112. An agency’s hourly charge will be higher than the wage, since it covers overhead, so for VA use the actual invoice or the caregiver agreement you sign. Search home care in Louisiana.
| Weekly hours | Annual wages at $10.83 |
|---|---|
| 10 | $5,632 |
| 20 | $11,263 |
| 40 | $22,526 |
Weekly hours × 52 weeks × $10.83. Expect agency charges above these.
Source: BLS OEWS, Louisiana, May 20251
Louisiana's Medicaid options at home
LT-PCS
Long-Term Personal Care Services cover help with bathing, dressing, transfers in and out of bed, walking, eating and toileting for Medicaid members. You need at least limited help with one daily activity, you must be able to direct your own care, and one more condition applies: you’re ready to leave a nursing home, likely to need one within 120 days, or your main caregiver is disabled or 70 or older3. LT-PCS isn’t 24-hour care3.
Community Choices
The Community Choices Waiver layers on support coordination, personal assistance, home-delivered meals, respite, home modifications, monitoring systems and therapies. Families should know two of its services. Financial Management Services lets your parent hire their own workers while a provider runs payroll, and Monitored In-Home Caregiving pays a principal caregiver who lives in the home4. Offers go to priority groups first, then by request date4.
Adult day health and PACE
The ADHC Waiver is built around weekday adult day health centers that include meals and support coordination5. PACE bundles everything together in the areas that have it6. All of these start with Louisiana Options in Long-Term Care, 877-456-11467.
Turning home care into VA dollars
When someone needs Aid and Attendance, what the family pays for help with bathing, dressing, eating, toileting and supervision is a medical expense in VA’s eyes8. A single veteran’s 2026 maximum is $29,0939.
When a grandson or neighbor is the aide
Put it on paper: the duties, the weekly hours, the hourly rate. Pay by check or bank transfer so a trail exists, because VA only counts money actually paid. One Louisiana wrinkle: LT-PCS won’t pay for care family members already provide for free, so keep any LT-PCS hours and the family arrangement clearly apart3.
A veteran near Natchitoches
Start with a Marine who served in Korea and lives outside Natchitoches, who brings in $21,600 a year. Out-of-pocket care and medical bills come to $11,263. VA ignores the first $872 of that, the $872 figure equal to 5% of the base rate109, and subtracts the remaining $10,391 from his income. That leaves $11,209 of countable income. Take it away from the $29,093 ceiling and VA owes $17,884 for the year, or close to $1,490 in each monthly deposit9. The $11,263 is what 20 hours a week costs at the state’s median aide wage, paid to his grandson under a signed agreement.
VA's test for care at home
Louisiana counselors run through VA’s federal test in four checks. Service: 90 days on active duty, at least one of them falling in a wartime period; for most people who entered after Sept. 7, 1980, it’s 24 months or the whole period they were called up for. Discharge: anything except dishonorable11. Money: savings plus one year of income must come to $163,699 or less, and VA reviews anything given away or sold cheaply in the 36 months before the claim1213. The house your parent lives in, on a lot of two acres or less, is left out of that total14. Health: for care at home, a physician uses VA Form 21-2680 to show your parent needs a hand with everyday tasks or needs protecting from ordinary dangers1516. Anyone younger than 65 also has to be permanently and totally disabled.
If your parent rarely leaves the house but doesn’t need hands-on help every day, the smaller Housebound allowance may fit better; see Housebound versus Aid and Attendance.
Stacking the benefits
- A&A and the waiver test. LDH leaves Aid and Attendance out of the $2,982-a-month waiver income test1718.
- VA's own in-home help. The New Orleans, Alexandria and Shreveport VA systems can discuss homemaker and home health aide care and Veteran-Directed Care19202122; see Louisiana senior care benefits.
- LDVA's Military Family Assistance Fund. Need-based help of up to $10,000 within 12 months for essentials like housing, utilities and some medical bills23.
Home care slip-ups
Filing for home care
- Sit down with an LDVA counselor first. Use the locator or call 225-219-5000 to reach the nearest of the 74 service offices, and have the counselor lodge an intent to file that day, which holds your effective date for up to a year while records come together2324. More on that: how an intent to file works.
- Bring the doctor's or facility's paperwork. Your parent's physician fills out VA Form 21-2680; if your parent already lives in a nursing facility, its staff fill out 21-0779 instead1625.
- Pick the right pension form. A veteran files 21P-527EZ. A widow or widower files 21P-534EZ. Either way, attach bank statements, income letters and receipts for care2627.
- Add proof of payment. The caregiver agreement plus one or two months of pay records or agency invoices.