How does adult day care compare with home care?
Adult day care provides supervision, meals and activities in a group setting during the day, usually five or more hours at a time, while home care brings a worker into the home for a set number of hours; adult day costs about $80 a day at Tennessee's 2025 median, and home care about $31 an hour.
Adult day suits a parent who is safe in a group, benefits from company and can travel, and whose family caregiver works. Home care suits a parent who cannot leave home easily or needs hands-on help at specific times, such as getting up and bathing in the morning.
Does TennCare CHOICES pay for adult day care?
Yes. The CHOICES benefit table lists adult day care for Groups 2 and 3, up to 2,080 hours per calendar year, alongside personal care visits of up to 2,580 hours a year.
ACLFs can also offer adult day care services; HFC's bed report shows a separate count of adult day care beds for each licensed ACLF, and our directory pages show it. Ask any program about transportation, which is often the deciding factor.
Can adult day care and home care be combined?
Yes, and combining them is often the least expensive way to cover a full week: four program days at about $80 each plus ten hours of home care at about $31 costs roughly $630 a week, against about $1,240 for 40 hours of home care alone.
Those are statewide medians; local rates vary. In-home respite (up to 216 hours a year) and inpatient respite (up to nine days a year) under CHOICES can cover gaps when the family caregiver needs a break.
What should we ask an adult day program in the Memphis area?
Ask about hours and transportation, staff-to-participant ratios, whether a nurse is on site, how medications are given, how the program handles dementia-related behaviors, and whether it accepts TennCare CHOICES members.
Visit on an ordinary weekday and stay for a meal. Ask what a typical day looks like and how the program communicates with families when something changes.
Is adult day care licensed in Tennessee?
Adult day programs operate under their own licensing outside the Health Facilities Commission's facility listings, while ACLFs that offer adult day services report adult day care beds on HFC's bed report, which our directory shows.
Ask any program for its license and its most recent inspection, and confirm whether it can manage your parent's medications during the day.
At a glance
| Adult day care | Home care | |
|---|---|---|
| Setting | A group program outside the home | The person's own home |
| Tennessee median (2025) | About $80/day | About $31/hour |
| Best for | Socializing, caregiver work hours | Hands-on help at set times |
| CHOICES limit | 2,080 hours/year | 2,580 personal care hours/year |
Sources include Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. chapters 0720-26, 0720-21 and 0720-18, Health Facilities Commission and TennCare pages, CareScout and VA rate tables as cited above; see our editorial standards.
