Connecticut home care Medicaid rates land almost exactly on the national middle. Connecticut Medicaid pays $7.63 per 15 minutes for agency personal care on its state code 1213M, or $30.52 an hour. That is precisely the national median of $30.52 (0.0% gap) and ranks 14th of 27 states with a comparable hourly rate.
What makes Connecticut unusual is not the personal care rate but the spread around it. Daily respite pays well above the national median, while hourly respite and companion care sit below it, and companion care does not cover the state's median aide wage. For a personal care agency, the service mix decides whether Connecticut works.
The $30.52 hourly rate has been effective since January 1, 2026, when provider bulletin PB25-67 put through rate increases for select home health and home and community-based services. Connecticut bills it on a state-specific code rather than the T1019 code most states use, which matters when you compare claims across states.
Ranked 14th of 27, Connecticut sits in the compressed middle of the market. The top of the range is Utah at $84.84 an hour, followed by Oregon ($42.24) and Iowa ($42.00). The bottom is Texas at $18.28. Connecticut is closer to the bottom of that list than its high labor costs would suggest.
Personal care is delivered through several Connecticut programs, including the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders (CHCPE), the Connecticut Personal Care Assistance (PCA) Waiver, Connecticut Community First Choice and the Acquired Brain Injury waivers. The full dataset holds all 45,012 current Connecticut Medicaid rates, each linked to its source on the Connecticut Medicaid rates hub.
| Service | Code | Connecticut rate | Rank | vs national median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal care (hourly) | 1213M | $30.52 / hour | 14 of 27 | 0.0% |
| Respite (daily) | S5151 | $308.28 / day | 13 of 34 | +27.3% |
| Respite (hourly) | 5153z | $23.56 / hour | 24 of 38 | -6.9% |
| Companion care | state rate | $17.25 / hour | 15 of 20 | -33.6% |
Daily respite is Connecticut's most competitive home care line. At $308.28 a day on S5151, effective July 1, 2026, it is 27.3% above the national median of $242.21. Minnesota leads the country at $938.09.
Hourly respite, also effective July 1, 2026, pays $23.56, below the $25.30 national median. Virginia leads that service at $74.04 an hour.
Companion care is the weakest line. Connecticut pays $17.25 an hour, a rate in effect since January 1, 2023, against a national median of $25.96. It ranks 15th of 20 states with a comparable rate. Vermont pays the most at $51.92.
Connecticut publishes most home care rates on its own alphanumeric codes, such as 1213M for agency personal care and 5153z for hourly respite, rather than on national HCPCS codes. Each program, such as CHCPE, the PCA Waiver or the DDS waivers, has its own code set.
For billing teams, three practical points follow:
- Code mapping. Billing software built for national codes needs Connecticut-specific mappings. A claim on the wrong code is denied, not repriced.
- Program matters. The same service can carry different codes, and sometimes different rates, depending on which program funds the client.
- Cross-state comparisons. Comparing a Connecticut code with T1019 in another state requires matching the service, not the code. Our rankings do that matching.
Connecticut's labor market is more expensive than the national one. The state median wage for home health and personal care aides was $18.75 an hour in May 2025, against a US median of $17.21. Registered nurses had a state median of $49.39 against $46.90 nationally.
Combined with a median-level rate, that produces thin or negative margins:
- Personal care at $30.52 an hour. Wages take 87.3% of the rate and the margin after a loaded wage is $3.87 an hour.
- Hourly respite at $23.56. Wages equal 113.1% of the rate, so the margin after a loaded wage is $-3.09 an hour.
- Companion care at $17.25. Wages equal 154.5% of the rate, the deepest negative margin of the three.
Reading the margins
Personal care is the only hourly line that covers a median aide wage with something left over, and only just. Agencies that take hourly respite or companion referrals are effectively subsidizing them from personal care or from daily respite, where the rate is above the median. That cross-subsidy works only while personal care and daily respite make up most of an agency's hours.
The FY 26 and FY 27 Connecticut budget includes support to reflect increases in minimum wage, which signals that the state recognizes wage pressure on providers. It does not change the per-service margins above, but it is relevant context when the state reviews rates.
Daily respite at $308.28 is the line that most improves Connecticut's economics. A full-day or overnight block lets one caregiver cover a long shift, avoiding the travel and scheduling overhead of several short visits. For families, it is the form of respite that gives a real break.
An agency that can staff daily respite reliably has a better home care business in Connecticut than one that relies on hourly respite and companion hours. Recruiting caregivers who are willing to work long blocks, and scheduling those blocks in advance with families, is the operational skill that unlocks the rate.
Connecticut's coverage rules cover 16 home care codes. All but one carry no prior authorization rules; code 1208Z has one. None carry a stated unit limit.
That leaves the program's own care plans and service authorizations as the practical cap on hours, rather than a code-level limit in the fee schedule. In CHCPE and the waivers, a care manager sets the plan of care, and hours beyond the plan are not payable. Agencies should reconcile delivered hours against each client's plan before billing, and flag clients whose needs have grown so that the care manager can update the plan.
Connecticut runs Medicaid through HUSKY Health, with HUSKY A, B, C and D and HUSKY Limited Benefit among the 9 plans and programs. The medical administrative contractor named is Community Health Network of Connecticut (CHNCT), alongside separate dental, behavioral health and transportation vendors.
Connecticut Medicaid / HUSKY Health is paid fee-for-service through CMAP, so home care agencies are paid the published state rate rather than a rate negotiated with a risk-bearing plan. For agencies, that means one rate per service, one payer to bill and no plan contracting. It also means the state rate process is the only lever on price. Agencies that want higher rates in Connecticut make the case through public comment on State Plan Amendments and budget proposals, which is why the SPA filings listed below are worth following even when they look technical. See the Connecticut managed care page for how each service line is paid.
- PB25-67: Rate Increases for Select Home Health and HCBS, effective January 1, 2026, is the change behind the current personal care rate. A companion SPA 26-A filing carries the same home health and HCBS increases.
- SPA CT-27-0005 proposes to renew the State Plan HCBS option for CHCPE, with an effective date of February 1, 2027.
- SPA 24-AD introduced value-based purchasing benchmark payments for home health agencies, Community First Choice and 1915(i) HCBS, effective November 27, 2024.
- PB25-02 and PB25-03 added new services to select HCBS waiver programs, including COPE/Confident Caregiver and CAPABLE, effective October 1, 2024.
What to watch
The CHCPE renewal is the change with the most reach for elder home care, since CHCPE is a core funding stream. Value-based benchmark payments are worth understanding: they reward agencies on performance measures rather than only on hours, so agencies that track quality data can earn more than the base rate.
Nationally, most states pay personal care within a few dollars of $30.52, and Connecticut is the textbook median state. Its advantage is daily respite; its disadvantage is companion care and hourly respite, which run below both the national median and the local aide wage.
Neighboring states make useful comparisons: see Massachusetts home care rates and New York home care rates. Compare every state on the home care Medicaid rates by state page.
- Budgeting. Model personal care and daily respite as the margin lines and treat hourly respite and companion care as cost lines.
- Referral decisions. Accept companion and hourly respite referrals when they come with personal care hours for the same client.
- Quality data. Track the measures used in value-based benchmark payments; they are one of the few routes to revenue above the base rate.
- Advocacy. A companion care wage share of 154.5% is a clear figure to bring to rate reviews.
Rates are compiled from official Connecticut Medicaid publications, including the CMAP fee schedules and the Connecticut DSS provider bulletins. Each rate links to its source document. Rankings compare the rate for the same service across states that publish one, using the per-hour figure where a service is billed in time units. Wages are May 2025 medians. Rankings follow our methodology; access to the full dataset is described on our pricing page.