Does Medicaid Cover Medical Alert Systems?

That answer is unsatisfying, so here is what sits behind it. A medical alert system is called a personal emergency response system, or PERS, in Medicaid paperwork. PERS is not a benefit that Medicaid guarantees everywhere. It is a service that individual states may choose to add to individual waiver programs. Below we show what that looks like in two states we read line by line, and then how to get a straight answer about your own.

Section 1915(c) lets a state waive certain normal Medicaid rules so it can pay for services that keep people in their own homes rather than in an institution. Each waiver is written by the state, aimed at a specific group of people, and attached to its own list of covered services. Medicaid.gov is direct about how much room states have.

• States “can operate as many HCBS Waivers as they want,” and about 257 waiver programs are active nationwide.
• A waiver “enables states to tailor services to meet the needs of a particular target group.”
• “States choose the maximum number of people that will be served under a HCBS Waiver program.”
• “States are also permitted to establish additional criteria to further target the population to be served.”

Read those four lines together and the shape of the answer becomes clear. The state picks the waivers. The state picks the services in each waiver. The state picks who qualifies and how many people it will take. A medical alert system is covered when your state put it on the service list of a waiver you are eligible for, and not otherwise.

South Carolina runs several waivers, and PERS shows up on most of them. The Community Choices waiver, which serves people aged 65 and over and people with physical disabilities aged 18 to 64, lists personal emergency response system installation and personal emergency response system monitoring as two separate covered services. The Mechanical Ventilator Dependent waiver, for technology-dependent people aged 21 and over, lists the same pair. Community Supports, HASCI and the ID/RD waiver list PERS as well.

Then there is the HIV/AIDS waiver, run by the same state agency, which does not list PERS at all. That single line is the most useful thing on this page. Coverage is decided waiver by waiver. Asking whether your state covers PERS will only get you halfway. Ask whether the waiver you qualify for covers it.

Connecticut's 1915(c) waiver for people aged 18 and over with an acquired brain injury also covers a personal emergency response system. Different state, different target population, different paperwork, same service on the list. That is the pattern worth carrying into your own call: PERS is a common waiver service, and it is never a guaranteed one.

Source: the South Carolina and Connecticut waiver fact sheets published by Medicaid.gov, read on 17 September 2026. These two states are illustrations. They tell you nothing about the other forty-eight.

Because we would have to invent most of it, and a wrong answer here costs a family money or a device they needed. With roughly 257 waiver programs running nationwide, each with its own service list, enrollment cap and eligibility criteria, a tidy chart would be out of date within months even if we built it honestly. We publish what we read. For everything else, we send you to the agency that actually decides.

The free Eldercare Locator connects you to the right local agency by ZIP code, which is usually the fastest way to reach a human who knows your state's waivers by name.

Then the cost falls to the family. Original Medicare will not pick it up either, so plan for a monthly subscription rather than a one-time purchase. Start with our comparison of the best medical alert systems and our breakdown of what these systems really cost. If a recurring bill is the problem, the no-monthly-fee options are worth reading, with the trade-offs laid out.

Medicaid is also not the only program worth asking about. Original Medicare does not cover medical alert systems, but some Medicare Advantage plans include one as a supplemental benefit, and there are VA, PACE and long-term-care-insurance routes as well. Our guide to whether Medicare covers a medical alert system walks through each of those.