Guide your care
Participate in selecting workers and direct how your approved support is delivered. Your preferences and routines belong in your service plan.
CFSS · Agency model
Care that fits
Care that fits
your everyday life.
Community First Services and Supports through Affinity’s agency model: support for everyday life, with an agency team behind your care.
Understanding CFSS
More choice.
More choice.
Everyday independence.
Community First Services and Supports (CFSS) is Minnesota’s program for eligible people who need assistance to live in their homes and communities. It replaces Personal Care Assistance (PCA) and the Consumer Support Grant (CSG).
Affinity Caregiver provides the CFSS agency model. You help direct your care while Affinity serves as your support workers’ employer.
Read Minnesota DHS’s CFSS overview
The agency model
Your voice.
Your voice.
Our support.
Stay involved in your care with a provider agency responsible for employing your workers.
Employ your workers
As the agency employer, Affinity recruits, hires, trains, supervises, and pays support workers.
Help with your plan
A separate consultation services provider explains CFSS and helps prepare and review your service delivery plan.
Learn more about responsibilities in the Minnesota DHS CFSS FAQ.
What CFSS can support
Help with the things
Help with the things
that shape your day.
Your assessment and approved service delivery plan determine the support you receive.
Personal care
Assistance with eating, bathing, grooming, and transferring.
Daily routines
Help with shopping, cooking, laundry, and self-administered medications.
Individual support
Covered health-related tasks and observation or redirection of behavior.
CFSS can also include approved goods, services, and personal emergency response systems. Ask your consultation provider what your plan may include. See DHS program guidance
Who may qualify
Start with
Start with
an assessment.
Eligibility is determined through the assessment process, not by Affinity alone.
CFSS requires community living, the ability to direct care or a representative who can, and an assessment finding you eligible.
Eligible coverage includes Medical Assistance, an MA waiver, Alternative Care, or MinnesotaCare in certain cases. People using the Family Support Grant cannot use CFSS.
Review DHS eligibility requirements
Your path to care
Let’s make the next steps clearer.
- Assessment
Find your starting point
Contact your county or tribal nation about an assessment. If you are 65 or older and enrolled in managed care, contact your managed care organization.
- Consultation
Choose your plan partner
After eligibility is confirmed, select a consultation services provider. They must be separate from your CFSS provider agency.
- Planning
Put your needs in writing
Develop your service delivery plan with the consultation provider’s support and review. They submit it to your lead agency.
- Approval
Confirm authorization
Your county, tribal nation, or managed care organization reviews the plan and authorizes approved services.
- Affinity intake
Prepare to begin
Contact Affinity to confirm availability and complete intake. Services begin after plan approval, authorization, and provider intake are complete.
Can a family member be my paid caregiver?
CFSS allows eligible spouses and parents of minors to be support workers. Worker requirements, limits, and approved services still apply. Ask Affinity about hiring requirements for your situation.
Do I have to become an employer?
No. With Affinity’s agency model, Affinity is the employer. You remain involved in directing your care.
Does Affinity offer the budget model?
Affinity provides the agency model only. For questions about other CFSS options, speak with your independent consultation provider.
Who approves my service plan?
Your lead agency—the county, tribal nation, or managed care organization—approves your service delivery plan. Affinity’s intake process does not replace that approval.
What should I ask Affinity before getting started?
Ask about service availability, worker onboarding, required intake information, and how the team will coordinate your start date.
Let’s find your way forward
A conversation is a good place to start.
Tell us what matters to you. We’ll help you explore the next step.