How LynCare works

What self-directed care looks like day to day — and where an app actually helps.

In self-directed care, the person receiving care hires and manages their own caregivers instead of going through an agency. Depending on the state and the Medicaid waiver program, you may hear the same idea called consumer-directed care, participant-directed care, or simply self-direction. When a family member or advocate runs things on the participant's behalf, we call it family-directed care.

The freedom is the point. It is also the hard part: once you are the employer, you own the schedule, the medication routine, the notes, and the paperwork that has to hold up at your next assessment. LynCare is built for that job — the day-to-day operation of a care circle after the program paperwork is already done.

Step by step

1. Someone creates the care circle

   Download the app and choose Create a Care Circle. You add the participant — the person receiving care — and you become the Care Manager, the person who runs staffing, medication schedules, task plans, and approvals. If the participant cannot run the app themselves, family-directed mode lets a family member or advocate direct the circle on their behalf, with the participant still at the center of their own care.

2. Everyone joins with an invite code

   Caregivers, family members, and advocates get an invite code from whoever set up the circle. They download LynCare, sign in, enter the code, and they are in — there is nothing to request from us. Each person sees the view that matches their role.

3. The Care Manager sets the plan

   Scheduled medications go into a full eMAR (electronic medication administration record) with dose windows. As-needed medications are tracked as PRN, with dose windows and daily maximums. Sensitive medications can be set to require Admin approval before every single dose. Daily living activities and weekly tasks get assigned, and appointments go on a shared calendar that can sync with Google Calendar in the participant's own time zone.

4. Caregivers work the shift

   One tap to clock in. Through the shift, medications are given and logged — including declines, which are recorded with a reason rather than left blank. Tasks get checked off, or marked skipped with an explanation. Observations go into daily notes, with severity levels for health concerns.

5. The shift ends with a real handoff

   One tap to clock out. The shift record includes a built-in review of which medications were given and which tasks were completed, plus a handoff note written for whoever comes next. That record also doubles as a clean time log for payroll and time confirmation — check what your program's fiscal agent accepts, since LynCare does not replace their timesheet.

6. Records come out when you need them

   This is the part families tend to discover the hard way. At a Medicaid reassessment, an audit, or a doctor's appointment, someone asks what actually happened over the last six months. The admin team or the participant can build clean exports of medications, health events, notes, and shifts as PDF or CSV — without reconstructing a year from memory and a shoebox of paper.

Who does what

• Participant — the person receiving care. They stay at the center of the circle whether they direct it themselves or a family member does it for them.
• Care Manager — runs the circle: staffing, medication schedules, task plans, approvals, and oversight.
• Caregiver — works shifts: clocking in, giving medications, completing tasks, and logging notes as they go.
• Family & advocates — stay informed without being handed the whole clinical record. Every note has an audience, so private observations reach only the right people.

How privacy works

Every daily note is set to one of three visibility tiers: public to the whole circle, admin only, or Care Manager only. Lock-screen notifications show only a category — never a medication name or a medical detail — so a phone on a kitchen counter does not broadcast someone's health information. Care records are preserved to medical-record standards, so a participant's history survives caregivers coming and going.

The full detail is in our Privacy Policy. Residents of Washington, Nevada, and Connecticut can also read our separate Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy.

What LynCare is not

Being clear about this saves everyone time, because self-directed care involves several different systems that are easy to confuse with one another.

• LynCare is not an EVV system. Electronic visit verification is a federal requirement your state or its vendor administers. LynCare's shift records are for coordinating and documenting care — they are not submitted as EVV.
• LynCare is not a financial management service and is not payroll of record. We do not pay caregivers, withhold or file taxes, or replace the timesheet your FMS, fiscal intermediary, or fiscal employer agent requires. Keep using whatever your program requires for payment.
• LynCare is not a HIPAA-covered service, and it is not intended for organizations acting as HIPAA-covered entities or business associates. If your use of LynCare would be subject to HIPAA, our Terms of Service do not permit you to use it. For families and individual self-directed arrangements, LynCare is simply a private place to coordinate care.
• LynCare does not give medical advice and is not a medical device. It records what your care team does; it does not tell you what to do.
• LynCare does not employ, pay, screen, or place caregivers. A caregiver jobs board is something we are building, but it does not exist yet.
• LynCare is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by any state Medicaid program or waiver. Whether a coordination tool can be paid for from a participant's budget is a question for your support broker, case manager, or fiscal agent — please ask them rather than assuming.

What it costs

LynCare is free during early access. If early access ever ends, existing care circles get clear advance notice before anything changes, and your circle's records are always yours to export from inside the app. More detail lives on the support page.