Understanding Your Care Options in Maryland

A few reasons. Our Director of Operations, Logan, is based in the DMV area and has built relationships with families and care coordinators across the state, many of which had made it clear that the current IDD options weren't working for them. 

Not at all. Like the families and providers we work with, we're subject to the same lack of communication and transparency from the DDA that frustrates everyone in this space. The only contact we've had with the DDA was through the regional office when we applied to become a licensed provider. No one at Clairo has ever had a conversation with DDA leadership or anyone in the state legislature — and we have no influence over the decisions being made there.

No. Clairo is a small, grassrots,  independently owned company. Our owners are private individuals who have personal connections to the I/DD community and believe in helping improve I/DD services. 

No private equity. No venture capital. No outside firm with a financial stake in our decisions. The people running Clairo are the same people who fund it, and we intend to keep it that way.

We understand why it looks that way — and we want to be transparent about the timeline.

Clairo started the DDA approval process well before we knew anything about the changes coming to the SDS program. It wasn't until last July, in a conversation with a care coordinator in Maryland, that we first heard the SDS wage cuts for family caregivers were likely coming. 

From that point on, we did start thinking seriously about whether Clairo could be a resource for families facing those changes. Not to capitalize on a difficult situation, but because families who lose access to their current caregiving arrangement deserve a real alternative. That's been our focus ever since.

We're not here because of the budget cuts. But we do hope to be useful to families navigating them.

This is one of the most common questions we get, and it deserves a straight answer.

Each individual enrolled in an HCBS waiver has their own personal budget allocated by the state. That funding follows them to whichever provider they choose — it doesn't come from a shared pool, and switching to Clairo doesn't affect anyone else's budget.

Here's the part most people don't realize: many traditional providers can generate significant profit margins on each individual they serve. That's not a secret in this industry — it's just not something that gets talked about openly. A large portion of each person's waiver funding goes toward agency overhead, administrative costs, and margin — before it ever reaches a caregiver.

We chose to build Clairo differently. We accept a smaller margin, use technology to streamline our operations, and pass more of that funding directly to caregivers. We're not receiving more money from the state — we're just taking less of it for ourselves.

That's how caregivers earn more. And that's why we built this.

No — and we want to be as clear as possible about this.

We have deep respect for what self-direction represents. The ability for families to choose who provides care, to have a voice in how that care looks, and to keep trusted people in their loved one's life, that's not just a program feature, it's a right that families fought hard for. We believe in that same principle. It's the entire reason Clairo exists.

We are not a government agency. We have no role in DDA policy decisions, no influence over how SDS is funded or structured, and no financial interest in seeing self-direction reduced or eliminated. Frankly, if self-direction goes away, the philosophy our entire model is built on goes with it.

What we are is an alternative for families who want the spirit of self-direction — the choice, the control, the trusted caregiver, without the administrative burden that comes with managing it alone. Some families thrive in self-direction. Others are exhausted by it. We're here for the second group.

We want self-direction to survive and improve. And we think more options for families, not fewer, is always the right direction.