Who We Serve
Home care is not one business, it is many. A skilled home health agency, a companion-care service, a solo caregiver, and an adult day center face very different risks. We insure each for what it actually does, and this page helps you find where you fit.
People say home care as though it were a single thing. It is not. Under that one label sits a skilled nurse managing a ventilator for a fragile child, a companion helping an older man with his meals and his mail, a CNA bathing and transferring a stroke survivor, a delivery tech setting up a hospital bed, and a day center feeding and entertaining two dozen seniors at once. The work, the training, the funding, and the risk look completely different across those examples.
That diversity is exactly why provider-specific insurance matters. The exposures do not line up the same way from one provider to the next. A home health agency lives or dies on professional liability, because its claims are clinical. A personal care provider is dominated by workers comp and abuse exposure, because the work is physical and intimate. A medical equipment supplier needs product liability that no caregiving provider carries. An adult day center has a building full of people and a fleet of vans, which no in-home provider does. Insure them all the same way and someone ends up with a dangerous gap.
Insurance in home care also protects more than the business. It protects the vulnerable client who is harmed and needs their care paid for, the caregiver injured on the job who depends on wage replacement, and the families and referral sources who trust a provider with someone they love. Hospitals, case managers, registries, and facilities increasingly will not work with a provider who cannot show the right coverage for their specific kind of care. The program is both protection and permission to operate.
The pages below break down each provider type we serve, what defines it, the risks it faces, and the coverage it needs. If you already know your category, go straight to your page. If the categories blur together, which they often do, the guide that follows is built to sort them out.
The single most useful question is whether you provide skilled medical care or non-medical support. Almost everything else follows from that one fork. Skilled care means licensed clinical services, nursing and therapy, usually ordered by a physician. Non-medical care means help with daily living and supervision, no clinical treatment. Get that right and you are most of the way to your category.
If you deliver skilled nursing or therapy under a doctor plan of care, and especially if you are Medicare-certified, you are a home health agency. The tell is clinical care on intermittent visits: wound care, medication management, physical or occupational therapy. Your exposure is clinical, so professional liability leads, and your records put cyber coverage in the mix.
If your nurses care for a single client for hours at a time, often private pay or long-term care insurance, managing high-acuity needs like ventilators or pediatric care, you are private duty nursing rather than home health. The difference from home health is continuous one-on-one care instead of intermittent visits. The acuity drives high professional liability limits and an umbrella.
If you help clients with daily living, bathing, dressing, meals, errands, companionship, but provide no skilled medical care, you are a non-medical home care agency. You are usually state-licensed rather than Medicare-certified, and often private pay or Medicaid waiver. General liability, abuse coverage, and workers comp lead, with professional liability still needed for care-related claims.
Personal care is the hands-on subset of non-medical care, the bathing, toileting, transferring, and feeding, as opposed to companion-only supervision. If your aides are physically assisting clients with their bodies, the lifting and the intimate contact make workers comp and abuse and molestation your two biggest exposures, more so than for companion-focused agencies.
Some providers are defined by who or how they serve. Home health aides are the CNA workforce delivering hands-on care, insured through an agency or in their own name. Senior care providers focus on elder and dementia care, where cognitive impairment raises supervision and abuse risk. Medical equipment providers supply and service DME, a product and delivery business. Adult day care centers run a facility, with premises and property exposure no in-home provider has.
Two points of confusion come up again and again. The first is home health versus home care: home health is skilled and medical, home care is not, and the words sound interchangeable but mean very different things to a regulator and a carrier. The second is personal care versus companionship: both are non-medical, but hands-on personal care carries the lifting and abuse exposure that light companion work does not. If your business spans more than one of these, that is common, and the answer is a program that covers each exposure rather than only the label on the door.
Nine provider types, each with its own risk profile. Follow any card to the full breakdown of the coverage, costs, and claims for that type.
Skilled, Medicare-certified agencies delivering nursing and therapy under a physician plan of care. The highest clinical exposure of any provider type, which puts professional liability at the center and adds cyber coverage for the records they keep.
Home Health Agencies insuranceNon-medical agencies providing personal care and companionship. Lower clinical risk than home health, but high general liability and abuse exposure because caregivers work alone in client homes, plus non-owned auto for staff who drive their own cars.
Home Care Agencies insuranceResidential group homes and adult family homes that house and care for multiple residents in a shared setting. The combination of a residential facility, around-the-clock staffing, and vulnerable residents creates premises, abuse, and professional liability exposures that differ from in-home care, and the coverage is built around them.
Group Home Care insuranceSkilled nurses caring for medically fragile clients one-on-one over extended shifts, often private pay. Very high acuity, from ventilators to pediatric care, which drives high-limit professional liability and an umbrella to match the claim severity.
Private Duty Nursing insuranceHands-on help with bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, and feeding. The physical, intimate contact drives two exposures hard: workers compensation for lifting injuries and abuse and molestation coverage for intimate care of vulnerable clients.
Personal Care Services insuranceCNAs and certified aides who deliver the bulk of hands-on care. Central to most home care claims, with scope-of-practice and lifting exposure leading. Whether they are covered depends on the agency policy structure, and aides working privately need their own.
Home Health Aides insuranceProviders focused on elder care, including dementia and Alzheimer support. Cognitive impairment raises specific exposures, wandering, falls, and a heightened abuse concern for clients who cannot consent or report, so supervision and abuse coverage matter most.
Senior Care Providers insuranceDME suppliers that deliver, set up, and service home medical equipment. A product and delivery business, not a caregiving one, so it needs product liability and a fleet of commercial auto that caregiving providers do not carry.
Medical Equipment Providers insuranceFacility-based day programs for aging adults who return home at night. The one provider type with significant premises and property exposure, plus a transport fleet, on top of the care and abuse risks home care shares.
Adult Day Care Centers insuranceIf the guide above still leaves you unsure, work through these questions in order. They are the same ones we ask when we place a new account, and they resolve most cases quickly.
First, do you provide skilled medical care, the kind that requires a nurse or therapist license, ordered by a physician? If yes, you are home health or private duty nursing, and the difference is intermittent visits versus continuous one-on-one shifts. If no, you are in the non-medical family. Second, within non-medical care, do your staff physically assist clients with bathing, toileting, and transfers, or mainly supervise and provide companionship? Hands-on assistance points to personal care, with its heavier lifting and abuse exposure.
Third, look at your setting and your model. Do you operate a facility where clients come to you, or do you send caregivers into clients homes? A facility means you are an adult day center, with premises and property exposure. Do you house and care for residents in a residential home rather than visiting them in their own homes? That makes you a group home care provider, with premises and round-the-clock supervision exposure. And if you supply and service physical equipment rather than provide care, you are a medical equipment provider, with product liability at the center.
Finally, consider your clients and your funding. A focus on seniors with dementia points to senior care, with its supervision and abuse concerns. Medicare certification points to home health. Private pay and long-term care insurance often signal private duty nursing or non-medical care. If your answers point to more than one category, you likely operate across types, and we will build a program that covers all of them. When in doubt, call us and we will help you place your business correctly before you buy anything.
Questions owners ask about the categories themselves, before they get into any one provider page.
Start with one question: do you provide skilled medical care, or non-medical support? Skilled care, nursing and therapy ordered by a physician, points to home health or private duty nursing. Non-medical help with daily living points to home care, personal care, or senior care. From there, your funding source, your staff, and your setting narrow it down. The classification guide above walks through the distinctions, and if you still are not sure, we can help you place your business correctly.
Many do, and that is normal. An agency might provide both skilled home health and non-medical personal care, or a senior care provider might also run an adult day program. When a business spans categories, it needs a program that covers each exposure rather than only the dominant one. We insure to the full scope of what you actually do, not to a single label.
Yes, more than most owners expect. A home health agency leads with professional liability for clinical claims. A personal care provider leads with workers comp and abuse coverage. A DME supplier needs product liability. An adult day center needs premises and property coverage. The core policies overlap, but the weighting, the limits, and the specialty coverages differ enough that a one-size program leaves gaps.
Because a generic business policy is written for businesses that do not send caregivers into homes or care for vulnerable people. It tends to miss the exposures specific to home care, like abuse and molestation, non-owned auto, and professional liability for non-medical providers. A program built for your provider type closes those gaps. That is the whole reason to work with a broker who does only home care.
A group home cares for multiple residents under one roof, around the clock, which adds exposures in-home providers do not face. There is a residential building to insure, premises liability for on-site injuries, and the heightened supervision and abuse concerns that come with housing vulnerable residents. The core liability and workers compensation coverages still apply, but a group home program is built around the facility as much as the care.
A specialist can, and that is the advantage of working with one. Because we focus on home care, we understand the differences between a home health agency, a personal care provider, a DME supplier, and an adult day center, and we have carrier access for each. Whether you are one provider type or several at once, the same team builds and coordinates the program.
Once you know your provider type, these pages cover what to buy and how to learn more.
The full set of coverages, from general and professional liability to workers comp, auto, cyber, and abuse, and how they fit together into one program.
Explore coveragesLicensing rules, insurance minimums, and malpractice caps change at the state line. Find the requirements where your business operates.
Find your statePlain-language answers on coverage, cost, and compliance, from our insurance FAQ to a glossary and a claims process guide.
Browse resourcesStraight answers to the questions providers ask most before they buy coverage.
Read the FAQThe terms on your policy, defined without the jargon, so you know what you are buying.
Open the glossaryTell us your provider type and a specialist will build a program sized to your risk. A few minutes, no obligation.
Start your quoteTell us what your business does, who you care for, and how you operate. A specialist will identify your provider type and build a program that covers what you actually do. It takes a few minutes and there is no obligation.
