Home health care insurance checklist: what a home health agency should carry

The home health agency insurance checklist

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Home health care usually carry professional liability (e&o), general liability and abuse & molestation. Home health agencies send aides and nurses into clients' homes alone, drive between visits all day, handle medications and sometimes money for people who cannot check, and work under licensing and payer rules that specify the insurance. The funder and the client's vendor desk ask for proof of each. The checklist below covers who asks and how to check what you have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks a home health agency for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Grant funders & government contracts	General liability, professional and abuse coverage at stated limits, directors and officers, and a crime bond over any funds held
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Banks, lenders & SBA loans	Property or auto physical damage with the lender as loss payee, and liability proof at closing and every renewal

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

Professional liability declarations. Claims-made or occurrence, the retroactive date (it should not have moved), the limit per claim and aggregate, the deductible, and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
Abuse and molestation. A separate limit, not a sublimit of general liability; whether it is occurrence or claims-made; and whether the organisation and the individual are both covered.
Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
Hired and non-owned auto. Look for the symbols 8 and 9 or an endorsement by that name on the auto or general liability policy; without it, staff in their own cars are uninsured on company business.
Crime declarations. Employee theft, forgery, funds-transfer fraud and social engineering each have their own limit; third-party coverage if you work in clients' premises.
Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
Medical professional liability declarations. Each provider's retroactive date and limits, whether the entity is covered, consent-to-settle wording, and the cost of tail coverage when a provider leaves.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
Bonds. The obligee (board, municipality or owner), the penal sum and the expiry date; a bond is renewed with the licence or the job, not with the policy year.

What usually goes wrong for home health care agencies

Aides driving between visits in their own cars with no hired and non-owned auto.
Theft from a client's home and no crime coverage or bond.
Payer and licensing contracts that require limits higher than the policy carries, discovered at survey time.
Damage to the exact thing you are working on is excluded on most general liability forms; installation floaters and care, custody and control endorsements fill that hole.
A retroactive date reset when the practice changed carriers, leaving earlier treatment uninsured.
Tail coverage never bought for a provider who left.

What underwriters will ask a home health agency

Visits per week and how aides travel, services and medication handling, licensing and payer contracts, and staff screening
Level of care, whether any medical procedures are performed, and staff credentials
Background checks, incident reporting and any state survey findings
Residential versus commercial split of the work
Whether any work is done above three stories or below grade
Specialties, procedures performed and whether any are done under anaesthesia

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Audits at year end compare payroll, receipts and subcontractor costs with the estimate, so keep the wallet's size figures and the subcontractor certificates current. Start comparing sixty days before expiration, and ask for the limits the next contract will need rather than the ones the last one did.

Questions people actually ask

What do state licensing and payers require of a home care agency?

Professional and general liability at stated limits, abuse coverage, workers' compensation, usually a crime bond covering client funds, and often auto for client transport. Each contract's insurance section says which; the wallet's contract checker reads them.

Our aides use their own cars all day. What covers an accident?

Their personal policies first, which may exclude business use, and the agency's hired and non-owned auto for the agency's share. It is the largest uninsured exposure in home care and the cheapest to fix.

What do payers and licensing agencies usually require from a home health agency?

General liability, professional liability and abuse coverage at stated limits, workers' compensation, often auto if clients are transported, and sometimes a crime bond covering client funds. Each contract's insurance section says which; the contract checker reads them for you.

Does general liability cover damage to a customer's property while I work on it?

It covers damage to the rest of their property, not usually the part in your hands. Many forms exclude property in your care, custody or control, so a home health agency that handles valuable items or systems needs an endorsement or an installation floater. The policy explainer in the wallet flags the exclusion when it reads your policy.

What is tail coverage and when does a home health agency need it?

Malpractice is usually claims-made: it covers claims reported while the policy is in force. When a provider leaves or the policy is cancelled, a tail (extended reporting) endorsement keeps covering claims from the old treatment. Without it, a claim filed a year later has no policy to answer it.