Free Options Counseling for Long-Term Care Decisions, Anywhere in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula
Long-term care decisions tend to arrive all at once.
A parent has a stroke. A diagnosis changes everything. A fall lands someone in the hospital, and suddenly a social worker is asking what the “discharge plan” is and you realize you have no idea. Home care? Assisted living? A nursing home? In-home help? What does any of it cost? What does your loved one even qualify for?
It’s a lot. And most people are making these decisions for the first time, under pressure, with no map.
Here’s what we want you to know:
You don’t have to figure it out alone. And you don’t have to pay to get good guidance.
There’s a free program called MI Options, also known as Person-Centered Options Counseling, or PCOC, and its entire purpose is to help you understand your long-term care choices. A trained counselor sits down with you (over the phone or in person), listens to your situation, and walks you through your options. No pressure. No sales pitch. No cost.
And here’s the part that makes this especially worth knowing: it’s available to anyone in Michigan’s entire Lower Peninsula. Not just one county. The whole region.
Save this number: 1-800-803-7174. That’s the statewide MI Options call center, open 8 AM to 8 PM, Monday through Friday. One call starts the conversation.
What Is Options Counseling, Really?
Let’s start with what it’s not.
It’s not a sales call. Nobody is going to push you toward a particular facility, agency, or service because they get something out of it. That’s the whole point of the word “unbiased”, the counselor works for you, not for any provider.
It’s also not a one-size-fits-all script. Options counseling is “person-centered,” which means it starts with you, your situation, your goals, your preferences, what matters most to you, and builds out from there.
Here’s how it actually works: a certified Person-Centered Options Counselor talks with you about what’s going on. Maybe it’s trouble getting around the house. Maybe it’s meals, or bathing, or grocery shopping, or managing after a hospital stay. The counselor listens, asks questions, and helps you understand the full range of options that could fit your situation, including services you may not have known existed.
Then they help you figure out next steps. Real, actionable ones. Steps that respect what you want, not just what’s available.
What MI Options Can Help You With
Options counseling covers the full landscape of long-term care and support. That includes:
• Understanding home- and community-based services — the options that help someone stay in their own home instead of moving to a facility.
• Sorting out housing choices — from staying home with support, to assisted living, to other community settings.
• Figuring out next steps after a major life event — a stroke, a fall, a diagnosis, a hospital discharge.
• Planning ahead — even if you’re not in a crisis yet, a counselor can help you understand what’s out there before you need it.
• Answering questions about transportation, caregiver respite, meals, and more — the everyday pieces of a care plan.
• Building actionable steps — a clear path forward that respects your preferences and values.
It Includes Free Medicare Counseling, Too
Here’s something a lot of people don’t realize: MI Options also provides free, unbiased Medicare counseling through programs called SHIP and MIPPA.
If Medicare has ever made your head spin (and whose hasn’t?) this is real help. A counselor can walk you through:
• Medicare enrollment (when and how to sign up)
• How Medicare and Medicaid work together
• Cost-savings options like the Medicare Savings Program and Extra Help
• Prescription drug coverage choices
• Billing questions and figuring out what your benefits actually mean
All of it free. All of it unbiased. No one trying to sell you a specific plan.
Whether it’s long-term care or Medicare, the principle is the same: a trained counselor helps you understand your choices, so you can make the decision that’s right for you.
Who Can Use MI Options?
This is one of the best parts: the door is wide open.
MI Options is available to:
• Adults 18 and older
• Adults with disabilities
• People who need long-term services and supports
• Caregivers and family members helping someone they love
And there are no income or asset limits to participate. You don’t have to qualify financially. You don’t have to be on Medicaid. You don’t have to prove anything. If you have questions about long-term care, you can call.
It’s also available from The Information Center across Michigan’s entire Lower Peninsula, Wayne, Monroe, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, and more than 50 additional counties. Wherever you are in the Lower Peninsula, this help is for you. Do not worry if you are in the Upper Peninsula call the statewide number, or reach out to us and we can get you connected to where you need to go.
How Is This Different from MI Choice?
If you’ve read our other blogs, you know about the MI Choice Medicaid Waiver. So let’s clear up how these two are different, because they’re easy to mix up, and they do different jobs.
MI Options (PCOC) is options counseling. It helps you understand and choose. A counselor explains what’s out there, helps you weigh your choices, and points you toward next steps. Think of it as a guide who helps you read the map.
MI Choice is care coordination. It actually delivers and manages services once someone qualifies and enrolls. Think of it as the team that helps you make the trip.
Here’s a simple way to remember it:
MI Options helps you decide. MI Choice helps you do.
And they work together. A MI Options counselor might help a family understand that the MI Choice Waiver is one of their choices and then, if they decide to pursue it, they can move forward with enrollment. Options counseling is often the first step, before any decision gets made.
How to Start the Conversation
Getting started is simple, and there’s no commitment.
1. Call the statewide line. Dial 1-800-803-7174 (8 AM to 8 PM, Monday through Friday). Or call The Information Center directly at 734-282-7171 (9 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday).
2. Tell them what’s going on. You don’t need to have it figured out. Just describe the situation, yours or your loved one’s.
3. Talk with a counselor. You can meet over the phone or in person. The counselor asks about what you need and explains your options based on your specific situation.
4. Walk away with a plan. You’ll leave the conversation with a clearer understanding of your choices and real next steps, at no cost, with no pressure to choose anything.
That’s it. No applications to fill out just to ask questions. No fees. No catch.
For Hospital Social Workers and Discharge Planners
If you coordinate discharges or help patients navigate care decisions, MI Options is a referral worth keeping close.
When you have a patient or family wrestling with long-term care choices, and you want them to get unbiased guidance, not a sales pitch from a facility, MI Options is exactly that. A certified counselor helps them understand the full range of options, weigh them against their own goals, and identify next steps. It takes some of the decision-making weight off your plate, and it gives your patients a trusted, no-cost resource.
Because MI Options covers the entire Lower Peninsula, you can refer patients who live well outside Wayne County, which makes it useful no matter where your patients are heading after discharge.
How to refer: Give your patient the statewide number (1-800-803-7174), or call The Information Center at 734-282-7171 to talk through a referral. Family members can call on a patient’s behalf, too.
Community partners, churches, clinics, nonprofits, senior centers: MI Options is a free resource you can confidently share with anyone facing a long-term care decision. Keep the number handy: 1-800-803-7174.
Why Knowing Your Choices Matters
When you’re facing a long-term care decision under pressure, it’s easy to feel like you only have one option – usually the most drastic or expensive one, because it’s the one you’ve heard of.
But you almost always have more choices than you realize. The person you’re caring for might be able to stay home with the right support. There might be a cost-savings program you didn’t know about. There might be a path that fits their life better than the one in front of you.
You just have to know what’s out there. And that’s exactly what an options counselor helps you see.
Long-term care isn’t something you should have to figure out alone, in a hospital hallway, with the clock running. MI Options gives you a knowledgeable guide, a clear picture of your choices, and the time to make a decision you can feel good about.