Counseling that helps people settle into life at home, and stay there.
On Long Island, Priority Cares is a NYS DOH-approved NHTD waiver provider for one service: Community Integration Counseling (CIC). If you or someone you love is on the NHTD waiver in Nassau or Suffolk, CIC can help with the emotional side of living with a disability at home.
Tell us a little about the situation and we will call you back.
Someone from Priority Cares will call you back. If it is urgent, call (718) 400-6166.
CIC is one of the services funded by New York's NHTD waiver. It is about the person, not the paperwork.
Counseling for NHTD participants, and often their families, to adjust to living with a disability in the community: coping, relationships, stress, confidence and the changes that come with moving home or staying home.
People enrolled in the NHTD waiver in Nassau or Suffolk whose service plan includes, or could include, Community Integration Counseling.
Regular sessions with a qualified counselor, at home or in the community, working on goals you set together and that support your service plan.
NHTD participants choose their own providers. Ask your Service Coordinator to add Priority Cares for CIC, or ask us and we will help with the request.
Tell your Service Coordinator you would like Priority Cares for Community Integration Counseling, or send us the form and we will reach out with you.
The Long Island Regional Resource Development Center (RRDC) is the starting point. New York State is currently not accepting most new NHTD referrals and releases limited openings through the RRDCs, so we will explain where things stand.
Priority Cares is not approved for those on Long Island. The Long Island RRDC can connect you with approved providers.
We are not the agency that sends aides in Nassau or Suffolk. We will connect you with a licensed home care agency and help you through the Medicaid and MLTC steps, so the hours you are approved for actually start.
What is the difference? A personal care aide (PCA) helps with bathing, dressing, meals, light housekeeping and getting around. A home health aide (HHA) has more training and can also help with some health-related tasks under a nurse's supervision. Your plan's assessment decides which one, and how many hours.
If the bigger question is getting home care paid for, here is the path. The first step on Long Island is your county Department of Social Services for Medicaid.
In New York City, most older adults and people with disabilities apply through the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA); some people apply through NY State of Health instead. Outside the city, you apply through your county Department of Social Services. If you are unsure which applies, ask us and we will walk through it with you.
Before Medicaid approves long-term home care, the New York Independent Assessor (NYIA) does a nurse assessment and a short clinical appointment. You schedule it through New York Medicaid Choice. It replaced the old CFEEC process.
If you also have Medicare and need care for more than 120 days, you will usually join an MLTC plan. Compare plans on the home care agencies they work with near you, languages, and how quickly they assess new members.
The plan does its own assessment, sets a care plan and hours, and sends a licensed home care agency from its network. We can help you prepare for that visit and follow up if hours seem too low.
On Long Island (Nassau and Suffolk), Priority Cares is a NYS DOH-approved NHTD waiver provider for one service: Community Integration Counseling (CIC). Other NHTD services, the TBI waiver and home care aides on Long Island come from other providers, and the Long Island RRDC can connect you with approved ones.
CIC is counseling for NHTD participants, and often their families, to help them adjust to living with a disability in the community: coping, relationships, stress, confidence and the changes that come with moving home or staying home.
People enrolled in the NHTD waiver on Long Island whose service plan includes, or could include, Community Integration Counseling. Participants choose their own providers, so you can ask your Service Coordinator to add us.
If you are on NHTD, tell your Service Coordinator you would like Priority Cares for CIC, or contact us and we will help with the request. If you are not on NHTD yet, the Long Island RRDC is the starting point; New York State is currently not accepting most new NHTD referrals, so we will explain where things stand.
Not directly. For the TBI waiver and other NHTD services on Long Island, the Long Island RRDC can connect you with approved providers. For personal care or home health aide hours, we will connect you with a licensed home care agency and help with Medicaid and MLTC.
We will talk it through with you and help with the request to your Service Coordinator.
Talk to us → or call (718) 400-6166