Medicare GUIDE program
Medicare may pay for dementia respite care.
GUIDE is a Medicare program for people living with dementia at home. Every enrolled family gets a dementia care navigator and a 24/7 support line, and families further along in the disease can also get respite visits from our caregivers, billed to Medicare instead of to you.
Most eligible families never hear it exists.
We'll go through the questions with you in about five minutes.
What GUIDE covers
Respite visits
Four-hour visits from one of our caregivers so you can rest, work or see your own doctor, billed to Medicare rather than to you. Medicare decides who qualifies based on how far the dementia has progressed and how much strain the caregiver is under.
A dementia care navigator
A trained person who calls every month. Education, resources, help finding things, and someone to talk to who has seen this before.
A 24/7 support line
Dementia doesn't keep business hours. Urgent questions, behavior nobody prepared you for, any hour of the night.
Our caregivers provide companion respite: company, supervision, meals and activities. They don't give hands-on personal care.
What this is actually for
Families caring for someone with dementia at home tend to run out of road. The caregiver gets sick, or exhausted, or has to go back to work, and someone who could have stayed home longer ends up in a facility. GUIDE pays for the three things that usually break first.
You're worn out
Respite isn't a luxury, and it isn't admitting defeat. It's the afternoon you get to go to your own doctor, or a grandchild's game, or just sleep.
Nobody told you what happens next
Most families are handed a diagnosis and sent home. The care navigator tells you what the next stage looks like, which paperwork matters, and which worries are worth your energy.
It's 2am and they won't settle
That's what the 24/7 line is for. Not an answering service that takes a message, but a clinical line that can talk you through it.
Who qualifies
Two things decide most of it: the kind of Medicare your loved one has, and where they live. Medicare changed the residence rule in 2026, so if someone told you assisted living was fine, that's no longer true.
Perfectly fine
- Original (traditional) Medicare
- A dementia or memory impairment diagnosis
- Living at home, alone or with family
- A house, apartment or condo, including a family member's home
- Independent living, where care isn't part of the lease
- Palliative care (this isn't hospice)
- Having Medicaid or VA benefits as well
Rules it out
- A Medicare Advantage plan (any plan name)
- Assisted living, memory care, a group home, or board and care
- Living in a nursing home
- Enrolled in Medicare hospice
- Enrolled in PACE
- Already enrolled in another GUIDE program
How it goes from here
The honest version, including the part where you wait.
We talk
Free, with no obligation, at home or on the phone. We go through the eligibility questions and answer whatever you want to ask.
The assessment
A full assessment is completed with you and your loved one and sent to Medicare. Plan on a few weeks for approval.
Care starts
We don't make you wait on paperwork. If you need help now, we can start weekday companion visits as regular care and let the Medicare side catch up.
Good to know before you count on it. Respite visits don't roll over. Unused visits expire June 30 and a fresh year starts July 1, so families who save them for a rainy day tend to lose them. We can only bill Medicare once GUIDE enrollment is approved, and how much respite is available follows Medicare's rules, not ours.
Questions families actually ask
Does every family get the respite visits?
No, and we'd rather say so plainly. Everyone accepted into GUIDE gets the care navigator and the 24/7 line. Respite goes to families where the dementia has progressed to a certain stage and the caregiver is carrying a heavy load, which Medicare measures with two standard assessments: one that stages the dementia and one that asks the caregiver how they're holding up. If your loved one is early in the disease, they may be enrolled without respite at first and qualify later as things change.
Is this really free?
The GUIDE services are covered by Medicare, so there's no bill to you for them. What it isn't is unlimited care. Medicare sets a yearly respite budget, and how many visits it buys depends on Medicare's rate for your area. If you need more care than that, the rest is regular companion care at our hourly rate, and we'll tell you exactly what it costs before you commit to anything.
Does this replace their doctor?
No. Nothing changes about their doctor, neurologist or anyone else on their team. GUIDE adds a care navigator and a support line alongside them.
Mom has a Medicare Advantage plan. Can we switch?
Medicare Advantage plans aren't eligible for GUIDE, and we wouldn't tell you to change plans over it. Switching back to Original Medicare affects the rest of her coverage, and that's a decision to make with a licensed Medicare counselor, not a home care company. Call us anyway; there may be other ways we can help.
Dad is in assisted living or memory care. Does he qualify?
Not anymore, and we're sorry to be the ones to say it. Medicare changed the rules in 2026 to limit GUIDE to people living in a private home or in independent living. Assisted living, memory care, group homes and board and care homes are no longer eligible. If he's already enrolled, don't ask to be unenrolled; his medical group handles that.
She lives in a retirement community. Is that independent living or assisted living?
What matters is what her lease pays for, not what the building calls itself. If she has her own apartment and the community doesn't provide personal care, medication management or supervision as part of her agreement, that's independent living and she can qualify. If any of that care is included in what she pays, she can't. Give us the community name and we'll help you work it out.
How long does it take?
Plan on a few weeks from the assessment to approval. That's exactly why we'd rather start companion visits now, as regular private-pay care, than have you sitting at home waiting on a form.
What's the catch?
GUIDE covers a set amount, and people sometimes leave the program without much warning, usually because they start hospice, move to a nursing home or switch to a Medicare Advantage plan. Visits after that date aren't covered. So we ask every family to sign a service agreement saying anything Medicare doesn't cover is billable to them. We're not trying to catch anyone out; we're making sure nobody opens a surprise bill.
Do we have to use Caring Companions?
No. You can be enrolled in GUIDE and use a different respite provider, or adult day services instead. We'd like to be the ones, but the program belongs to you, not to us.
What if we live outside your area?
We serve Mustang and the towns around it, including west, southwest and northwest Oklahoma City. If you're further out, your loved one may still be eligible for GUIDE through another provider. Call and ask; it costs nothing to find out.
If you work with families
Your dementia families may be missing a Medicare benefit.
Discharge planners, memory clinics, home health, elder law and social workers: most professionals haven't heard of GUIDE yet. We're glad to walk your team through who qualifies, at no cost and with nothing to sign.
Get the fifteen-minute version
Call (405) 500-1758 and we'll come to you.
You don't have to figure this out alone.
Call and we'll go through the questions with you in about five minutes. Either way, you'll know where you stand.