Adult Day Care in the Philadelphia Area: The Complete 2026 Guide for Families
1 weekAdult day care is a licensed program where an older adult or an adult with disabilities spends structured daytime hours at a center — receiving supervision, meals, activities,
and health monitoring — and goes home to their family every evening. In Pennsylvania, these are licensed by the Department of Aging as Older Adult Daily Living Centers. Most families in Montgomery, Bucks, and Philadelphia counties pay nothing out of pocket, because adult day is a covered benefit under Medicaid’s Community HealthChoices program, the county OPTIONS program, and VA health care.
This guide covers all of it: what adult day actually is, who it’s for, what a day looks like, every way it gets paid for in Pennsylvania, how to enroll, and how to tell a good center
from a bad one.
We’ve written it because most of the families who call us have never heard of adult day care until a hospital discharge planner or a service coordinator mentioned it in passing. They arrive with almost no information and a decision to make quickly. This is the guide we wish they’d found first.
What adult day care is — and what it isn’t
An adult day center is a place your loved one goes during the day and comes home from at night. That single sentence resolves most of the confusion.
It is not a nursing home. Nobody sleeps there. It is not assisted living — there’s no apartment, no residency, no move. It is not a senior center, which is drop-in social
programming for independent older adults. And it is not home care, where a caregiver comes to the house.
Adult day sits in a specific gap: your loved one can no longer be safely alone during the day, but they can still live at home with family support in the mornings, evenings, and
weekends. That’s the profile. If you’ve found yourself calling your mother four times during a workday to check whether she’s eaten, or you’ve started declining shifts
because nobody can be at the house, that gap is the one you’re in.
Pennsylvania law is unusually clear about what these centers are for. The state’s licensing regulations name two explicit service goals: to promote a client’s functioning
to the extent of their ability, and to provide respite for caregivers and clients. Respite for the caregiver isn’t a side effect that centers advertise. It’s written into the
regulation.
Social model vs. medical model
There are two kinds of adult day program, and the difference determines almost everything about who pays.
Social adult day centers on activities, meals, and companionship. Staff supervise, but there’s no nursing oversight.
Adult day health care (ADHC) adds clinical care: an on-site registered nurse, medication administration, health monitoring, and often physical or occupational
therapy.
Public funding follows the medical model. When Medicaid, the VA, or a long-term care policy pays for “adult day,” they are nearly always paying for adult day health care, for
someone whose needs are significant enough to qualify. Purely social programs are more often private pay.
SarahCare of Jenkintown is an adult day health center. We staff an on-site registered nurse during all operating hours.
Who adult day care is for
Licensed adult day centers in Pennsylvania serve adults 18 and older, though the great majority of participants are 60+. Program eligibility can vary by funding source.
The people we serve fall into a handful of recognizable groups.
Adults living with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia. This is the largest group across the industry. Structured routine, familiar faces, and daytime cognitive
engagement do measurable good, and the supervision is the difference between a family managing at home and a family that can’t. → Adult Day Care for Alzheimer’s and
Dementia
Adults recovering from a stroke, or living with Parkinson’s disease or another progressive condition. Therapy, mobility work, and clinical monitoring in a group setting. → Adult Day Care After a Stroke, With Parkinson’s, or With Chronic Conditions
Adults with physical disabilities, including adults under 60. Community HealthChoices covers adults 21 and older with physical disabilities, not just seniors — a
fact many families never learn.
Veterans. VA Adult Day Health Care is part of the standard VHA medical benefits package and is dramatically underused in this region. → VA Adult Day Health Care in
Pennsylvania
Older adults who are simply isolated and declining. Not every participant has a dramatic diagnosis. Some have slowly stopped leaving the house, stopped eating
regular meals, and stopped talking to anyone but their daughter. Isolation is a clinical problem, and structure treats it.
One practical requirement worth knowing early: Pennsylvania regulations require that participants be capable of being transported to and from the center. A person who is
fully bed-bound is generally not a candidate for adult day.
→ Not sure whether your family fits? Signs Your Loved One Might Benefit From Adult Day Care.
What actually happens during the day
Here’s the shape of a weekday at our center on Old York Road.
We’re open 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday, which is deliberately wider than a standard workday — it has to cover a commute on both ends.
7:00–9:00 AM — Arrival and breakfast. Participants arrive by SarahCare transport or family drop-off. Breakfast is served. Our nurse does informal check-ins as people come in — this is often when a change gets caught first.
9:00–11:30 AM — Morning programming. Chair exercise and movement, cognitive stimulation work, arts and crafts. Physical and occupational therapy sessions run during this block for participants whose plans include them.
11:30 AM–1:00 PM — Hot lunch. Communal dining at tables, not trays in chairs.
Menus accommodate diabetic, renal, and cultural dietary needs.
1:00–3:00 PM — Afternoon programming and personal care. Entertainment, performances, outings, intergenerational programming. This is also when bathing
assistance, salon services, and podiatry happen.
3:00–4:30 PM — The hardest hour, handled deliberately. Late afternoon is when confusion and agitation tend to spike in people living with dementia. Programming here
is intentionally calmer and more structured.
4:30–6:00 PM — Snack and departures. Staggered by transport route and family pickup.
What we see in practice
Families almost always ask about the activity calendar on a tour. Understandable — it’s the visible thing. But the activity calendar isn’t what changes outcomes.
What changes outcomes is that eleven hours a day, five days a week, a trained person is watching. Weight comes off and someone notices. A shuffle becomes a stumble and
someone notices. A medication starts making someone drowsy at 10 AM and someone notices, and calls the family, and the family calls the doctor. That’s the actual product.
Who pays for adult day care in Pennsylvania
There are six funding paths. Most families qualify for one and have never heard of the other five.
1. Community HealthChoices — the primary payer
Community HealthChoices (CHC) is Pennsylvania’s mandatory Medicaid managed long term services and supports program, run by the Department of Human Services through the Office of Long-Term Living. Adult day services are a covered CHC benefit.
CHC operates in five regional zones. The Southeast zone covers Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties — the entire SarahCare service area.
Three managed care organizations serve it: Keystone First Community HealthChoices, PA Health & Wellness, and UPMC Community HealthChoices. You
can change MCO at any time.
To qualify you need two determinations: clinical (found nursing facility clinically eligible, meaning you’d otherwise need nursing home level care) and financial (Medical
Assistance income and asset limits). CHC waiver participants don’t pay cost-sharing for covered services.
Enrollment runs through the Independent Enrollment Broker, currently Maximus, reachable at 1-844-824-3655 or paieb.com.
Set expectations on timing: the Medicaid application process can take three months or longer from start to determination letter, and an incomplete application makes it longer. Start before you’re in crisis.
→ How Community HealthChoices Covers Adult Day Services · How to Apply for
Community HealthChoices
2. The OPTIONS program — for families over the Medicaid limits
This is the most overlooked path in the region. Pennsylvania’s OPTIONS program, sometimes called Help at Home, serves residents age 60 and older and covers adult
day services.
The critical detail: there are no income requirements to participate. Depending on income, a participant may contribute toward the cost on a sliding scale, but there’s no cutoff that disqualifies you outright. Montgomery County runs its own OPTIONS program through Aging and Adult Services, with care management as a core service.
Medicaid, Medicare, or private insurance must be used first before OPTIONS funds apply. Applications go through your county Area Agency on Aging.
3. VA Adult Day Health Care
Adult Day Health Care is part of the VHA Standard Medical Benefits Package. All enrolled Veterans are eligible if they meet the clinical need and the service is available in
their area.
A copay of up to $15 per day may apply, based on service-connected disability status and financial information, determined through VA Form 10-10EC (Application for
Extended Care Benefits). Typical attendance is two to three days a week, up to five.
Transportation assistance may be available.
Start with the Veteran’s VA social worker or case manager.
→ VA Adult Day Health Care in Pennsylvania · Does the VA Pay for Adult Day Care?
4. Long-term care insurance
Most modern LTC policies cover adult day services, but coverage language varies enormously and older policies sometimes exclude it. Check for a benefit trigger tied to
activities of daily living or cognitive impairment, and check whether the policy requires a licensed provider.
5. Philadelphia Corporation for Aging
For Philadelphia County residents, PCA administers county-level aging services and can be a funding pathway. We’re a participating provider.
6. Private pay
Nationally, adult day health care runs a median of about $95 per day — roughly $24,700 a year at five days a week — according to the CareScout Cost of Care Survey.
Pennsylvania averages roughly $2,535 per month in 2026, making adult day the least expensive formal long-term care option in the state.
For context, in Pennsylvania: assisted living averages about $6,480 a month, and a semi-private nursing home room about $11,954 a month — 25% above the national
median.
→ What Adult Day Care Costs in Montgomery County in 2026 · Who Pays for Adult Day
What the research actually says
We’d rather tell you the truth than oversell.
A 2025 systematic review of adult day services found that regular attendance is associated with reduced caregiver stress, improved caregiver mood, and
measurable physiological stress reduction. On days their loved one attends, caregivers report less negative affect and more positive affect. The review also linked
participation to delayed nursing home placement and associated cost savings. A multisite trial of a caregiver-support program embedded in adult day services reported
50% fewer nursing home placements among people living with dementia.
But the evidence on delaying nursing home placement specifically is genuinely mixed. A 24-month controlled study in Norway found no evidence that dementia-focused day
care postponed nursing home admission, and concluded that admission depends on a complicated mix of factors in both the person and the caregiver. Early Cochrane reviews were inconclusive.
So here’s what we’d say honestly: the strongest, most consistent evidence is about the caregiver. Adult day reliably reduces caregiver stress. And in our experience,
caregiver capacity is usually what determines whether a family can keep someone home— not the participant’s diagnosis. A daughter who can sleep and hold her job is the
reason her father is still in his own house.
That same review also identified why adult day stays underused: cost, low awareness, caregiver reluctance, and limited availability. Three of those four are solvable with
information, which is most of why this guide exists.
How Pennsylvania licenses and inspects adult day centers
Every family touring centers should know this, and almost none do.
In Pennsylvania, the licensed entity is called an Older Adult Daily Living Center, regulated under 6 Pa. Code Chapter 11 and licensed by the Department of Aging — not
the Department of Human Services, and not the Department of Health.
The rules that matter to you:
- A license is required for any center serving four or more clients who aren’t relatives
of the operator, for part of a 24-hour day. - The Department inspects every licensed center annually, and centers are also
subject to unannounced inspections. - The licensing requirement applies equally to for-profit, nonprofit, publicly funded,
and privately funded centers. - Operators must obtain criminal history background checks on themselves and
every prospective full-time, part-time, and temporary staff member — operator
checks before application, staff checks before hire. - The Department maintains a public Adult Day Center Directory you can search.
If a center can’t produce a current Pennsylvania license, walk out. It’s a five-second question and it eliminates a whole category of risk.
How to choose a center
Tours all look the same in the first ten minutes. Here’s how to see past that.
Go at 2:30 PM, not 10 AM. Morning is every center’s best hour. Mid-afternoon tells you the truth about staffing and engagement.
Count the people who aren’t doing anything. In a well-run room, most participants are engaged in something most of the time. A row of people asleep in chairs in front of a television at 2 PM is your answer.
Ask who the nurse is and whether they’re here right now. Adult day health care means clinical staff on site. Ask to meet them.
Ask what happens on a bad day. What does the center do when someone becomes agitated, tries to leave, or refuses to participate? A good answer is specific and calm. A
vague answer means it hasn’t been thought through.
Ask about the transportation radius and the actual pickup window. “We provide transportation” and “we can pick up in Warminster at 7:15” are different claims.
Ask about the first two weeks. Any center that tells you the adjustment is seamless is not being straight with you.
How to enroll: the realistic sequence
1. Call a center and schedule a tour. Do this before you sort out funding. A center’s intake staff will tell you within ten minutes which funding path you’re likely on — that saves weeks.
2. Identify your funding path. CHC, OPTIONS, VA, LTC insurance, PCA, or private pay.
3. Start the eligibility process. For CHC, call the Independent Enrollment Broker at 1-844-824-3655. For OPTIONS, call your county Area Agency on Aging. For VA, call
your loved one’s VA social worker.
4. Complete the clinical assessment. For CHC, this is the nursing facility clinical eligibility determination and a comprehensive needs assessment, which feeds a
person-centered service plan.
5. Gather the paperwork. Physician orders, current medication list, TB screening, insurance cards, emergency contacts, and any power of attorney documentation.
6. Set a start date and a schedule. Most families begin with two or three days a week and increase.
7. Plan for the adjustment. Two weeks is a realistic expectation.
→ How to Apply for Community HealthChoices and Get Adult Day Approved
The part nobody warns you about: the conversation with your parent
The logistics are the easy half.
The hard half is telling a proud 79-year-old man who ran his own business for thirty years that he’s going to spend his days somewhere supervised. Most families put this
conversation off for months, and the delay costs them.
Two things help more than anything else. First, don’t pitch it as care — pitch it as something for you. “I need help covering the days I work” is true, and it’s much easier to
accept than “you can’t be alone anymore.” Second, ask for a trial, not a commitment. Two days a week for two weeks is a proposal a person can say yes to.
And if you’re carrying guilt about it: the guilt is nearly universal and it is not evidence that you’re doing something wrong. It’s usually evidence that you’ve been doing too
much alone for too long.
→ Caregiver Guilt: Why Adult Day Care Isn’t Giving Up
Adult day care in Montgomery County, Bucks County, and Philadelphia
SarahCare of Jenkintown sits at 261 Old York Road, Suite A51 — on the Montgomery County side of the city line, minutes from Cheltenham, Abington, Elkins Park, Glenside,
and Wyncote, and a straight shot from Northeast Philadelphia and lower Bucks.
That location matters more than it sounds. A large share of the families we serve are adult children commuting into Center City or working in the Abington and Willow Grove corridors. Old York Road is on the way for a lot of them.
We also run a dedicated Korean program, launched in 2025, serving one of the region’s largest Korean American communities across Cheltenham, Elkins Park, and Abington —with Korean-speaking staff, culturally familiar meals, and programming built for the community rather than translated at it.
Frequently asked questions
Is adult day care the same as a nursing home? No. Nobody lives at an adult day center. Participants come during the day and return home each evening.
How many days a week does my parent have to attend? That’s your choice, within what the funding source authorizes. Most families start with two or three days and
adjust. Pennsylvania regulations define adult day services as generally four or more hours a day, one or more days a week.
Does Medicare cover adult day care? Generally no. Medicare doesn’t cover long-term custodial services like adult day. Medicaid through Community HealthChoices does, as do the county OPTIONS program and VA health care.
What if my parent refuses to go? Extremely common, and usually temporary. Most resistance resolves within the first two weeks once the routine and the relationships
become familiar. Ask the center directly what they do about it.
Can someone with advanced dementia attend? Often yes, provided they can be safely transported and their needs fall within what the center is staffed and licensed to
handle. This is a specific conversation to have during an assessment.
Is transportation included? At many centers, including ours, yes — within a defined service radius. Confirm the radius and the actual pickup window, not just that
transportation exists.
How quickly can we start? Private pay can start in days. Funded pathways depend on eligibility determination — VA is often fastest, Medicaid can take three months or more. Start the paperwork early.
Talk to someone who can answer your specific question
If you’re somewhere in this process and stuck — you don’t know which funding path applies, or you don’t know whether your father would even qualify — call us. Intake
conversations are free and there’s no obligation to tour.
SarahCare Adult Day Center of Jenkintown 261 Old York Rd., Suite A51, Jenkintown, PA 19046 215-999-1200 · info@sarahpa.com Monday–Friday, 7:00 AM–6:00 PM
Serving Montgomery County, Bucks County, and Greater Philadelphia
