What CDHCI is (in one minute)
Client-Directed Home Care Invoicing (CDHCI) is one way eligible Albertans receive publicly funded home and community care. Instead of only receiving services from a provider assigned through a contracted model, suitable clients can choose a care agency from providers registered with Alberta Blue Cross, which administers invoicing for the program. The agency delivers authorized personal care, home support, and/or respite (as applicable in the care plan) and submits claims to Blue Cross.
That definition is drawn from public materials such as the Alberta Blue Cross CDHCI page, the provider program guide PDF, and family-facing CDHCI brochures. Program names and administering health organizations in Alberta have been in transition in public documents (you may see AHS, Assisted Living Alberta / ALA, or related wording). Always use the newest official PDF or page when you train staff.
This is not legal or billing advice. If you are registering as a provider or advising a family on eligibility, use official channels.
How families typically enter the program
Public family materials describe a path like this:
- Assessment first. Publicly funded home care is not a walk-in retail purchase. Blue Cross and brochure text explain that clients need assessment and a care plan; Alberta residency and a valid health-care card are part of the usual framing.
- Call 811 to connect. Blue Cross notes that clients, families, friends, or health professionals can contact 811 to be connected for home care information, including CDHCI.
- Suitability for self-direction. CDHCI is aimed at clients who are able and willing to manage (or have a manager help manage) their care — researching providers, monitoring services, arranging backup, and staying in touch when needs change.
- Choose a registered provider. Clients select from agencies registered with Alberta Blue Cross. Brochures emphasize that clients should research providers; affiliation language in brochures has stressed that the health authority is not endorsing every listed vendor’s quality in a blanket way — families still choose.
- Authorized hours, not unlimited hours. Services are provided up to pre-approved hours/month (and service types) in the care plan. Extra hours are typically a private arrangement with the agency.
Brochures also state that clients do not need an Alberta Blue Cross insurance plan to use CDHCI — an important FAQ for your intake staff, because the brand name confuses people.
What CDHCI means for a small agency
Registration and listing
Alberta.ca’s provider/operator page points providers interested in CDHCI to Alberta Blue Cross registration information. The ACCA become-a-provider page likewise flags CDHCI as a client-directed pathway with Blue Cross registration resources.
Blue Cross provider communications have described directory listing fields such as minimum consecutive hours per visit, estimated hourly rate, and languages supported — information meant to help families choose. Keep those fields current if you participate; outdated directory data creates angry first calls.
Billing workflow
Provider materials describe direct billing to Alberta Blue Cross for services arranged under CDHCI, with accurate reporting of service hours by type. Blue Cross publishes secure website registration for online claims and provider contact channels (for example, provider inquiry numbers listed in Blue Cross PDFs). Train one office owner of claims quality: wrong hours create payment delays and trust issues with families.
We are not publishing dollar rates or “average CDHCI revenue per client” here. Rates and authorizations are program- and client-specific; inventing numbers would be irresponsible.
Operations beyond billing
CDHCI clients still need:
- clear scheduling and backup plans (families are told they share monitoring responsibility),
- documentation that matches what was authorized,
- a path to notify the case manager when needs change,
- transparent private-pay pricing when families want more than the public plan covers.
If your agency is weak on after-hours callbacks, CDHCI will not fix that — it may amplify it, because families who chose you expect responsiveness.
How to explain CDHCI on your website (without overclaiming)
Good patterns:
- “We are registered as a CDHCI provider with Alberta Blue Cross. Eligible clients with an authorized care plan may be able to use public hours with our agency. Assessment and suitability decisions are made through the public home care process — start with 811.”
- “Publicly funded hours are limited to what is authorized. Many families add private-pay hours for evenings, housekeeping extras, or accompaniment.”
Risky patterns:
- “Guaranteed government-paid home care if you call us.”
- “We replace your case manager.”
- “Approved by Alberta Health / AHS as the best agency in Calgary.”
- Publishing another agency’s rates or a fabricated “CDHCI maximum cheque.”
Type 3 / client-directed positioning under the Continuing Care Act framework is related but not identical to CDHCI branding — see our Continuing Care Act article, and keep program language precise.
Intake script starters for office staff
When a daughter calls: “Are you asking about private care, or have you already been assessed for publicly funded home care / CDHCI?”
If they have not been assessed: “The usual first step is to call 811 and ask about a home care assessment. If CDHCI becomes part of the plan, you can choose a registered provider. We can still discuss private-pay support in the meantime.”
If they are choosing among CDHCI providers: “Here is our service area, minimum visit length, languages, and how we handle backups. Here is what we need from the care plan before we schedule.”
None of those lines promise approval.
Internal readiness checklist before you market CDHCI
- Complete Blue Cross provider registration steps from current official pages.
- Confirm who in your office submits and audits claims.
- Document your minimum visit length and service area consistently with your directory listing.
- Train schedulers on authorized vs private hours.
- Add a short FAQ on your site with links to Blue Cross’s CDHCI page and the family brochure PDF.
- Align Google Business Profile service descriptions with reality — no “free government home care for everyone.”
- Review complaint and escalation contacts so families know how to raise concerns through official channels as well as with you.
What we cannot tell you from public pages alone
Public marketing pages do not give a single province-wide statistic for “how many CDHCI clients a 20-caregiver agency should expect” or “conversion rate from directory click to booked care.” If a consultant promises revenue uplift from CDHCI registration alone, ask for their primary source. This article does not invent one.
What to do next
If CDHCI inquiries already reach you, make the explanation boringly clear and the callback fast. Snipe Ventures helps Alberta agencies with inquiry-to-care follow-up and senior-friendly website pages — including FAQs families actually read.
Email c@snipeventures.com or see /senior-care.