Aetna Better Health of Texas: In-Home Personal Care for Children & Families (STAR & STAR Kids)
If your child or family has Aetna Better Health of Texas — through STAR Kids or STAR — your plan can cover trained in-home caregivers. Newport Home Health serves Aetna Better Health families across the Dallas–Fort Worth area today, and has spent 17 years helping Texas Medicaid families get dependable care at home.
We bill Aetna Better Health directly, so for covered services under your child’s plan, you typically pay $0 out of pocket. This page explains what Aetna Better Health covers at home for children, how personal care hours are assessed, how we work with your service coordinator, and how the rules work when a family member wants to provide the care. Aetna Better Health is one of several plans we work with — see the full list of insurance and programs Newport accepts.
Ready to start? Call 972-602-3500 or use the quick form below — we can usually verify your child’s Aetna Better Health coverage the same business day.
What Aetna Better Health Covers at Home for STAR Kids Children
STAR Kids is the Texas Medicaid managed-care program for children and young adults age 20 and younger who have disabilities or complex medical needs, and Aetna Better Health of Texas is one of the health plans that runs it. For children who qualify, the plan covers personal care services (PCS) — hands-on help at home from a trained attendant with the everyday activities a child needs more help with than is typical for their age. In practice, that means help with things like:
- Bathing, dressing, and grooming — safe, patient help with personal care
- Feeding and mealtime help — meal prep, feeding assistance, and cleanup
- Toileting and hygiene — age-appropriate, respectful assistance
- Mobility and transfers — moving safely between bed, chair, and wheelchair
- Daily routines — getting ready for school in the morning and settled at bedtime
- Keeping things on track — laundry, tidying the child’s space, and reminders that keep the day moving
Aetna Better Health of Texas also serves STAR — the Texas Medicaid program for children, pregnant women, and low-income families. Personal care services are a Texas Medicaid benefit for members under 21 when medically necessary, so children in STAR families can qualify for in-home help too, based on the same kind of needs assessment.
How Personal Care Hours Are Assessed for Children
Hours aren’t one-size-fits-all, and no agency can promise your child a set number. PCS hours are authorized based on an assessment of your child’s needs: an assessor looks at what help your child requires with everyday activities over and above what’s typical for a child of the same age, and the plan authorizes hours to match. As your child grows or needs change — new school schedule, new diagnosis, recovery after a hospital stay — hours can be reassessed. What Newport controls is the part families feel every day: a caregiver who actually shows up, reliably, for every hour the plan authorizes.
How Newport Works With Aetna Service Coordinators
STAR Kids members get service coordination through their health plan — a coordinator who manages the child’s services and supports. The path to in-home care runs through them:
- Assessment. The plan reviews your child’s needs — usually through an in-person or phone assessment with you and your child.
- Authorization. Aetna Better Health authorizes a specific number of personal care hours per week and sends that authorization to the home-care agency you choose — and you choose the agency, not the plan.
- Care begins. Newport matches your child with a caregiver your family is comfortable with, builds the schedule around school and family life, and verifies every visit through Texas’s required electronic visit verification (EVV) system.
Newport coordinates directly with plan service coordinators every week — checking authorizations, reporting changes, and keeping care moving. If you don’t know who your child’s service coordinator is, call the member-services number on the back of your child’s Aetna Better Health ID card and ask — or call us and we’ll help you sort it out.
Can a Family Member Be Paid to Care for My Child?
This is one of the most common questions we hear from parents, and it deserves a straight answer: Texas Medicaid’s rules about paying family members are different for children than for adults. Who can serve as a child’s paid caregiver depends on the program, the child’s situation, and who in the household would provide the care — so a one-size-fits-all answer on a web page would be wrong for many families. Call us at 972-602-3500 and we’ll walk through your family’s specific options in a few minutes.
If you’re exploring paid family caregiving in general — for a child or an adult relative — our guide to becoming a paid caregiver for a family member in Texas explains how the agency and Consumer Directed Services (CDS) options work.
Aetna Better Health Home Care — Frequently Asked Questions
Does Aetna Better Health cover home care for my child?
Yes. For STAR Kids members who qualify, Aetna Better Health of Texas covers personal care services at home — a trained attendant helping with bathing, dressing, feeding, mobility, and daily routines. Coverage is based on an assessment of your child’s needs and medical necessity, and the plan authorizes the hours. Newport delivers the care and bills Aetna Better Health directly.
What are personal care services (PCS)?
Personal care services are hands-on, non-medical help with everyday activities — bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting, mobility, and daily routines — provided in the home by a trained attendant. For children, PCS covers the help a child needs beyond what’s typical for their age, which is why it’s such an important benefit for kids with disabilities or complex medical needs.
Which areas does Newport serve for Aetna Better Health families?
Today we serve Aetna Better Health families across the Dallas–Fort Worth area — including Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Dallas, and surrounding communities. Families on the west side of the Metroplex can also read about our Fort Worth home care team, which includes pediatric personal care.
How do I get started?
Call 972-602-3500 or use the form below. We’ll verify your child’s Aetna Better Health coverage — usually the same business day — help you connect with the plan’s service coordination for an assessment if one hasn’t been done, and match your child with the right caregiver once hours are authorized.
Check Your Child’s Aetna Better Health Coverage — Get a Call Back Today
Tell us a little about your situation and a member of our team will call you back — usually the same business day. Please don’t include medical details in this form; we will cover those by phone.
No cost, no obligation — bilingual staff available.