Cova

Family members, neighbors, or friends often provide unpaid home care such as bathing, dressing, meals, and mobility assistance to Medicaid-eligible relatives. Medicaid's Home Help Program can pay for this care, but the eligibility checks, enrollment paperwork, billing, and timesheets stand between a caregiver and their first paycheck. Traditional home care agencies instead send an unfamiliar caregiver on a schedule and, according to the page, pay as little as possible. Families are left choosing between unpaid family care or a stranger from an agency, with no easy way to get paid for care already being given at home.

Cova is a service that lets people enter through one of two paths: as a caregiver already looking after a family member, or as someone who needs care and wants to choose their own caregiver. After a short intake form covering who needs care, Medicaid status, location, and who will provide it, Cova simultaneously handles Medicaid eligibility checking, Home Help Program enrollment, offer letter signing, background checks, and EVV (electronic visit verification) and payroll setup. Once care begins, caregivers use the Cova system to clock in and out with EVV verification, track approved hours against a weekly target, and receive direct deposit payments every Friday. The company states it pays at the top of the state's Medicaid caregiver rate, provides free ongoing training, and offers a support team reachable by phone seven days a week.