What is the difference between CCSP and SOURCE in Georgia?
noindex.
Every page needs a named approver before it goes live — DCH General Services §605.1.28 makes
each published version a retained advertising record.
CCSP and SOURCE are two delivery models for the same Georgia waiver, EDWP, with the same menu of home services. Under CCSP the member keeps their own doctor and spousal income and asset protections apply. Under SOURCE medical care is built in, income rules are tighter, and spousal protections do not apply.
The short version: same waiver, two delivery models
Georgia has one waiver for older adults and adults with disabilities who need a nursing-home level of care. It is called the Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program, or EDWP. The state delivers that one waiver two different ways.
CCSP, the Community Care Services Program, coordinates the home and community services on their own. The member’s medical care stays where it is.
SOURCE, Service Options Using Resources in a Community Environment, wraps primary medical care around the same home services, so that the doctor’s office and the home care are managed together.
The list of things the waiver will pay for – a helper, meals, adult day health, respite, an emergency pendant, nursing visits, home modifications, a stipend for a live-in family caregiver – is the same list either way. What changes is who manages the medical side, and which financial rules apply.
How they compare
| CCSP | SOURCE | |
|---|---|---|
| Waiver | EDWP | EDWP |
| Home and community services available | The EDWP service menu | The same EDWP service menu |
| Medical care | Stays separate. The member keeps their own primary care physician and specialists. | Integrated. The member has a SOURCE primary care physician and the medical care is coordinated with the home services. |
| Who coordinates | A case management agency | A SOURCE site |
| Income rules | Medicaid financial eligibility, with the waiver’s rules for a person needing institutional-level care | Tighter, at the SSI income level |
| Spousal income and asset protections | Apply | Do not apply |
| Typical fit | Someone with a doctor they want to keep, or a married applicant with a spouse still at home | Someone whose medical needs and home care are best managed as a single package |
Why the money rules differ
This is the part that surprises families, so it is worth saying plainly.
Medicaid has rules that let a married applicant protect a share of the couple’s income and assets for the spouse who is staying at home. The point of those rules is that one person needing care should not leave the other with nothing to live on. Those protections apply on the CCSP side.
SOURCE uses tighter, SSI-level income eligibility, and the spousal protections do not apply to it. So for a married couple where the well spouse still needs the household income, the two models can produce very different answers about whether the applicant is eligible at all.
Nobody should try to work this out from a website. It is worth an hour with the Area Agency on Aging, or with an elder law attorney if the couple’s finances are complicated.
Which one should we ask for?
That is the member’s decision, and it is a real one. A few things usually decide it.
- A doctor they trust and do not want to leave. CCSP leaves the medical relationship alone. That is often the whole argument.
- A spouse still at home. The spousal protections on the CCSP side can be the difference between eligible and not eligible.
- Medical care that is already hard to hold together. Several specialists, frequent hospital visits, medication changes nobody is tracking – that is the situation SOURCE was designed for, and it can be genuinely better.
- What is actually available. Not every model has capacity everywhere at every moment, and availability changes.
Apple Community Health Services is a Traditional and Enhanced EDWP case management agency, which is the CCSP side of this. It is not a SOURCE site. That is worth saying out loud rather than burying, because it means we are not a neutral party about our own side of the line. If SOURCE is the better fit for someone – and for some people it plainly is – that is a legitimate choice, and a family should make it without feeling they have been steered.
Where the choice actually happens
For most families the sequence is: call the Area Agency on Aging or ADRC, have the level-of-care assessment done, and then be told what is available. That is the point at which the CCSP-or-SOURCE question comes up in a concrete way, with real options attached to it, rather than as an abstract comparison.
If a member is already enrolled under one model and thinks the other would suit them better, they can say so. Members have the right to choose their provider and to change it. That right is not a one-time thing they used up at enrollment.
Questions people ask about this
Can someone be in both CCSP and SOURCE at the same time?
No. CCSP and SOURCE are two ways of delivering the same waiver, and a member is enrolled in one or the other. A member who wants to move from one to the other can ask to do so, and the change goes through the case management agency or SOURCE site handling the enrollment.
Do I have to change doctors for CCSP?
No. CCSP does not touch the member's medical care. They keep their own primary care physician and their own specialists. SOURCE is the model where a SOURCE primary care physician is part of the arrangement.
Which one covers more services?
Neither. CCSP and SOURCE draw on the same EDWP service menu, so the home services available are the same. SOURCE adds a layer of medical case management around them rather than adding waiver services.
What are spousal protections and why do they matter?
Medicaid rules let a married applicant protect some income and assets for the spouse who stays at home, so that paying for one person's care does not leave the other without enough to live on. These protections apply under CCSP. They do not apply under SOURCE, which uses tighter SSI-level income rules.
Is SOURCE better than CCSP?
Neither is better in general. SOURCE suits someone whose medical care and home care need to be managed as one thing. CCSP suits someone with a doctor they want to keep, or a spouse at home whose income and assets need protecting. It is the member's choice.
Related questions
- EDWP explained EDWP is Georgia's Medicaid waiver that pays for help at home instead of a nursing home. How CCSP, SOURCE and the case management tiers fit together.
- Traditional vs Enhanced Traditional and Enhanced are the two tiers of EDWP case management. What each tier means in practice, and how a member ends up in one rather than the other.
- Choosing your provider Georgia waiver rules give a member the right to choose their EDWP provider, oblige the case manager to tell them what is available, and forbid bundling all services with one company.
- Do I qualify? Two tests decide eligibility for Georgia's Elderly and Disabled Waiver: nursing-home level of care and Medicaid financial rules. Work through both here.