She’s desperate to get home care for her mom. In Maryland, 21,000 are on the wait list.

Tiffanie Rivers was running out of time. Over the past year, as the coronavirus swept through nursing homes across the country and as dementia deepened its hold on her mother, she had promised herself that she would do everything possible to keep Gayle Love, 75, at home with her in Hyattsville, Md. She had pestered state employees about her paperwork for a Medicaid waiver, filed two years ago, that would help her afford home-based care.