Glossary of self-directed care terms

Plain-language definitions of the words you’ll run into in self-directed care — plus the LynCare terms that go with them.

A lot of this vocabulary changes name at the state line — the same person might be a support broker in one program and a consultant in the next. For what a word means in your program, your case manager or support broker is the authority.

A

ADLs (activities of daily living)

Everyday personal care tasks: bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, eating, moving from bed to chair. Assessments often use them to gauge how much help someone needs. LynCare tracks them as daily tasks, with a record of who did what and why anything was skipped.

B

Backup plan

Your written answer to “what happens when the scheduled caregiver doesn’t show up.” Many programs want one on file before a plan is approved — ask your case manager what yours expects. A useful one names specific people rather than promising someone will be found. More: building a backup caregiver plan.

Budget

See spending plan.

C

Care Circle

A LynCare term: everyone involved in one person’s care inside the app — the participant, their caregivers, the Care Manager, and any family or advocates.

Care Manager

A LynCare role: the person who runs the Care Circle day to day — staffing, medication schedules, task plans, approvals, oversight. It is a role inside the app, not a title your program assigns — and not the same as a case manager.

Care plan (also support plan, plan of care, service plan)

The written document describing what support a person needs, who provides it, and how often. It is usually written after an assessment and revisited at each reassessment.

Caregiver

The person who provides the care — in self-direction, hired directly by the participant or their representative, and often someone the family already knows rather than agency staff. In LynCare, a caregiver works shifts: clocking in and out, giving medications, completing tasks, logging notes. LynCare does not employ, screen, verify, or place caregivers.

Case manager

The person assigned by the state, a managed care plan, or a contracted agency to oversee someone’s services — eligibility, the care plan, authorizations, and reassessments.

Consumer-directed care

Another name for self-directed care. Programs also say participant-directed, self-determination, or consumer direction. Either way, the participant — or someone acting on their behalf — chooses who provides the care.

E

eMAR

Electronic Medication Administration Record — a MAR kept in software instead of on paper. LynCare includes a full eMAR for scheduled medications, with dose windows and a record of who gave each dose; declines are logged with a reason.

EVV (electronic visit verification)

A federally required electronic record of certain Medicaid-funded personal care and home health visits, capturing who provided the service, who received it, and the date, time, and location. There is no single national system: each state administers EVV through its own rules and a vendor it chooses, and your fiscal agent or program office will tell you which one applies.

LynCare is not an EVV system. Its shift records are an internal log for your own circle — they do not satisfy an EVV requirement, and nothing is submitted to a state, vendor, or fiscal agent.

F

Family-directed care

When a family member or advocate directs a participant’s care on their behalf, for when the participant can’t manage it themselves. This is LynCare’s own phrasing rather than standard industry terminology — your program likely has its own word for that role, often something like “representative.”

Family-directed mode

The LynCare setting that enables family-directed care for a circle, so a family member or advocate can run it while the participant stays at the center of their own care.

Fiscal intermediary / fiscal employer agent (F/EA)

The organization that handles the employer paperwork behind self-direction: processing caregiver timesheets, issuing pay, withholding and filing employment taxes, and tracking spending against the budget. Yours is the authority on timesheets and pay. LynCare is not a fiscal intermediary, does not pay caregivers or withhold taxes, and is not payroll of record.

FMS (financial management service)

The service a fiscal intermediary provides — the payroll, tax, and budget-tracking side of a self-direction program.

H

HCBS (home and community-based services)

Medicaid-funded services that support someone living in their own home or community rather than in an institution — personal care, respite, day supports, home modifications. Self-direction is generally offered inside an HCBS program.

HIPAA

The federal health privacy law covering health plans, most health care providers, and their business associates. LynCare is not a HIPAA-covered service, and our Terms of Service go further than a disclaimer: if your use of LynCare would be subject to HIPAA, you may not use it.

M

MAR (medication administration record)

The running record of medications given to a person: what, how much, when, and by whom — including doses refused, held, or missed, and why. See eMAR for the electronic version.

Medicaid waiver

A Medicaid authority that lets a state set aside some standard rules so it can pay for home and community-based services for a defined group of people. Each waiver has its own eligibility criteria, covered services, and often its own waiting list.

P

Participant

The person receiving care — the one the plan and the budget belong to. Programs may say member, consumer, client, or individual. In LynCare, each Care Circle has one participant at its center.

Participant-directed care

See consumer-directed care.

Plan of care

See care plan.

PRN medication

“As needed” medication, from the Latin pro re nata — given when a symptom appears rather than on a fixed schedule. Good records note why the dose was given and what happened after. LynCare tracks PRNs with dose windows and daily maximums.

R

Reassessment

The periodic review where a program re-checks what someone needs and resets the plan and the budget. Many programs review at least once a year, sooner if circumstances change. Documentation matters here — LynCare builds PDF or CSV exports of medications, health events, notes, and shifts. See which records to bring to a reassessment.

Respite

Short-term care that gives the usual caregiver a break — a few hours, a day, or longer. It is often a funded service in its own right, with its own limits.

S

Scheduled medication

Medication taken at set times, as opposed to PRN. Each dose is recorded on the MAR, usually within a window around the target time rather than an exact minute.

Self-directed care

A model of care where the participant, or their family, hires and manages their own caregivers directly instead of going through an agency. It is often funded through a Medicaid waiver. For what that looks like day to day, read how a care circle runs.

Self-direction

The program-side name for the same idea — the authority a program grants a participant over their own services. It is usually described in two parts: employer authority (choosing, hiring, scheduling, and supervising your own workers) and budget authority (deciding how a set amount of money gets spent).

Skilled care

Care that requires a licensed clinician — nursing tasks, wound care, injections, certain therapies. What a non-licensed caregiver may do varies by state, so check with your case manager or nurse first.

Spending plan (budget)

The plan for how a participant’s allocated funds will be used across services over a set period, usually built with a support broker or case manager and approved by the program. What a budget can and cannot pay for is a program decision, not a vendor’s claim — ask your support broker, case manager, or fiscal agent before counting on anything.

Support broker

Someone who helps a participant plan and run their self-direction: building the spending plan, making sense of the rules, troubleshooting when something goes sideways. You may see the titles consultant, counselor, facilitator, or navigator instead. Some programs require one, others don’t.

Support plan

See care plan.

U

Unskilled care

Everyday, non-clinical support: help with ADLs, meals, housekeeping, errands, transportation, companionship. Much of self-directed caregiving is this kind of support. Also called personal care or attendant care.

V

Visibility tiers

A LynCare term for who can see a given note. Each note is set to one of three tiers — the whole Care Circle, admin only, or Care Manager only — so a sensitive detail doesn’t have to reach everyone working a shift.