How to Pay for a Walk-In Tub or Stair Lift in Georgia: Medicaid Waivers, VA Grants & Assistance Programs (2026)

A walk-in tub in Georgia typically runs $5,000–$15,000 installed, and a straight stair lift $3,000–$6,000 — and no, Original Medicare will not pay for either. But Georgia homeowners do have real options: a VA HISA grant of up to $2,000–$6,800 for veterans, USDA Section 504 grants up to $10,000 for rural homeowners 62+, the state's Home Access Program, low-interest CreditAble assistive-technology loans, and — for those who qualify for Medicaid long-term care — the CCSP and SOURCE waivers that fund related in-home supports. This guide walks through each program with the real numbers, in the order most Georgia families should try them.

First, the correction: Medicare will not buy you a walk-in tub

This is the single most common misunderstanding we hear from Georgia families, and it's worth settling before you talk to any salesperson. Original Medicare (Parts A and B) covers durable medical equipment — walkers, hospital beds, commode chairs — when it's medically necessary and used in the home. Walk-in tubs and stair lifts fail that test in Medicare's eyes: they're treated as home modifications, permanent changes to the house rather than equipment that treats a condition. The same goes for wheelchair ramps and widened doorways. If a tub dealer tells you "Medicare will reimburse you," ask them to put it in writing; they won't.

What Georgia Medicare Advantage plans sometimes add

Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans can offer supplemental benefits Original Medicare doesn't, and since CMS expanded the rules for "special supplemental benefits for the chronically ill," some plans sold in Georgia have added bathroom-safety devices (grab bars, shower seats, handheld showers) and, less commonly, a capped home-modification allowance. Three cautions:

• These benefits vary by plan, by county, and by year — a benefit in Fulton County may not exist in Bibb County even under the same insurer.
• Where a home-modification allowance exists, it is typically a few hundred to a few thousand dollars — helpful for grab bars or a ramp section, rarely enough for a full walk-in tub.
• Some benefits require a chronic-condition diagnosis and a care-manager sign-off, not just enrollment.

To check your own plan, call the number on your member card and ask specifically about "supplemental home-safety or bathroom-safety benefits," or compare plans during enrollment at medicare.gov/plan-compare.

Georgia Medicaid: how CCSP and SOURCE actually work

Georgia's main Medicaid program for helping older adults stay out of nursing homes is the Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program (EDWP), which you'll encounter under two names: the Community Care Services Program (CCSP) and SOURCE (Service Options Using Resources in a Community Environment). Both are listed on the state's official Georgia Medicaid waiver programs page, and both serve people 21+ who are functionally impaired enough to qualify for nursing-home level of care but choose to stay at home.

Which door you enter through

The two programs deliver largely the same services; the difference is the entry path, and it comes down to your Medicaid status:

• SOURCE is the path for people who already have full Medicaid — typically because they receive SSI (in the state's most recent published fact sheet, SSI means individual income below $967/month; that figure rises with each Social Security COLA). They can contact a SOURCE site or their Area Agency on Aging directly for assessment.
• CCSP is the path most aging homeowners actually use: people whose Social Security or pension income is too high for SSI but who can qualify under Medicaid's "Medical Assistance Only" long-term-care category — income up to $2,901/month per the state's fact sheet (the 300%-of-SSI federal benefit rate standard, which also rises each January), with countable assets of $2,000 or less for a single person. A non-applicant spouse can keep substantially more (the fact sheet cites combined countable assets up to $159,920 and an income diversion of up to $3,948/month to the community spouse). You start with your Area Agency on Aging for the functional assessment and apply for Medicaid through your county Division of Family and Children Services office.

All figures above come from the Georgia Department of Community Health's official EDWP fact sheet (PDF); they adjust annually, so confirm the current numbers with your AAA when you apply.

The honest answer on home modifications under EDWP

Here's where we differ from a lot of what you'll read online. Many websites claim Georgia's CCSP/SOURCE waivers pay for walk-in tubs and bathroom remodels the way waivers in some other states do. The state's own published EDWP service list says otherwise. The fact-sheet service menu is: adult day health, alternative living services, emergency response services (a 24/7 medical alert system — this one is a covered benefit worth having), home-delivered skilled services, personal support services, consumer-directed personal support, structured family caregiving, out-of-home respite, home-delivered meals, and case management. Environmental or home modification does not appear on that list.

To get screened for CCSP or SOURCE anywhere in Georgia, contact the Georgia Aging and Disability Resource Connection or your regional AAA (all twelve are listed on the state fact sheet). In the ten-county metro Atlanta region, that's Empowerline, run by the Atlanta Regional Commission — 404-463-3333.

VA HISA grant: the clearest money on this list for veterans

If the person who needs the tub or lift is a veteran enrolled in VA health care, start here. The Home Improvements and Structural Alterations (HISA) grant, run by the VA's Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service, pays for medically necessary home modifications — and the VA's own list of covered work includes "use of essential lavatory and sanitary facilities (e.g. roll in showers)" and lowering counters and sinks. Per the official VA HISA page, the lifetime benefit is:

• $6,800 — for a service-connected condition, or for any condition if the veteran has a service-connected disability rating of at least 50%
• $2,000 — for a non-service-connected condition (most aging-related mobility cases)

You do not need a service-connected disability to get the $2,000 tier — you need to be enrolled in VA health care and have a VA physician document that the modification is medically justified. The application is VA Form 10-0103, submitted with the prescription, an itemized contractor estimate, and photos of the area to be modified, through the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service at your VA medical center.

One more VA note: veterans with qualifying service-connected conditions may also be eligible for the much larger SAH/SHA disability housing grants — different programs with different rules, worth asking about at the same appointment.

USDA Section 504: rural Georgia's best-kept secret for homeowners 62+

The USDA's Single Family Housing Repair Loans & Grants program (Section 504) is federal money for very-low-income homeowners in rural areas — and huge swaths of Georgia outside the Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Savannah and Macon urban cores qualify. The program has two parts:

• Loans up to $40,000 at a fixed 1% interest rate over up to 20 years — for repairs and improvements including accessibility modifications. A $10,000 stair-lift-and-bathroom project financed this way costs roughly $46/month.
• Grants up to $10,000 — only for homeowners age 62 or older who can't afford to repay even the 1% loan, and only to remove health and safety hazards (a documented fall hazard qualifies). The grant must be repaid if you sell the home within 3 years. Loans and grants can be combined for up to $50,000.

How to check whether your county — and your income — qualify

1. Check the address, not the county name: enter it under "Single Family Housing" on the USDA eligibility map. Rural parts of otherwise-ineligible counties often qualify.
2. Check your income against the "very low income" limit for your county (50% of area median, published on the same USDA site — limits differ between, say, Bibb County and Baker County).
3. Confirm the basics: you must own and occupy the home, and for the grant, be 62+ and unable to repay a 1% loan.
4. Call USDA Rural Development in Georgia (state office in Athens, rd.usda.gov/ga) or your area RD office to start the application — there's no fee, and staff will tell you the current funding position for the fiscal year.

Georgia's own programs: AAAs, Empowerline, Home Access, and Tools for Life

Area Agencies on Aging — the front door

Georgia is divided into twelve Planning and Service Areas, each with an Area Agency on Aging that screens for every program in this article, runs the EDWP intake, and administers a state-funded Home Modification and Repair service (grab bars, ramps, bathroom safety work) for older adults under the Division of Aging Services' non-Medicaid HCBS program — subject to local funding and waiting lists. In metro Atlanta (Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Rockdale), the AAA is the Atlanta Regional Commission's Empowerline — 404-463-3333. Elsewhere, find yours through the Georgia ADRC.

Georgia Home Access Program

The Department of Community Affairs' Home Access Program funds accessibility modifications to owner-occupied homes where a person with a disability lives — its covered-work list explicitly includes "bathroom retrofitting which may include roll-in showers" plus wheelchair ramps, widened doorways, and lowered counters. Applications go through the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia (770-270-6860) or your local Center for Independent Living. Funding rounds open and close, so get on the list early.

Tools for Life + CreditAble financing

Tools for Life, Georgia's federally designated Assistive Technology Act program at Georgia Tech, is the state's clearinghouse for AT funding — its funding page and published funding guide map every option, and its lending libraries let you try equipment before you buy. Its financing arm, CreditAble (run with FODAC and a partner credit union), makes loans up to $10,000 for assistive technology including home and vehicle modifications, designed for Georgians who can't get ordinary credit. FODAC itself also runs a home-medical-equipment reuse program worth checking for transfer benches, portable ramps and similar gear at little or no cost.

Every program at a glance

The order to work the list

1. Veteran in the house? HISA first — it's the fastest defined-dollar grant here.
2. 62+ and outside a metro core? Run the USDA address check; a 504 grant is the only program on this list that can hand a non-veteran $10,000 outright.
3. Call your AAA regardless (Empowerline in metro Atlanta). One call screens you for EDWP, the AAA home-modification service, and local grant pots you'll never find on Google.
4. Apply to Home Access through your Center for Independent Living while you wait — queues move.
5. Finance the remainder through CreditAble rather than dealer financing; and always get a second quote, including a tub-to-shower conversion alternative.

Frequently asked questions