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Insurance for home-health agencies — what to carry, and what it costs

Published 2026-06-11 · by Brokly

Direct answer: insurance for home-health agencies starts with workers’ comp — required in nearly all states — with 4 more coverages matched to the trade below. For a typical home-health agency that’s ≈$640 to ≈$22k/yr depending on the state (filed rates $0.33–$4.58/$100 payroll, 2024).
Pick your state — the statute, modeled costs, and the full coverage guide ↓

What home-health agencies carry — at a glance

Workers’ comp is governed state by state — pick your state in the table below for the statute and the modeled cost. The rest is the trade’s exposure map.

Workers' compensation

Covers medical care and part of lost wages when nurses, aides, and therapists get hurt on the job.

Typically covers

  • Medical bills for a work injury, at rates the state sets
  • Part of the injured employee's lost wages
  • The employer too: covered employees generally can't sue over the injury

Typically doesn’t

  • Injuries outside work
  • Independent contractors, in most states
  • Lawsuits that get around the can't-sue trade-off — that's the employer's liability part of the same policy
Required in nearly all states≈$1.5k/yrtypical home-health agency · median stateCosts by state →
Professional liability

Errors in care delivery become claims against the agency — and several states condition the home-health agency license itself on liability coverage.

Typically covers

  • Financial harm from advice, designs, or specs that turn out wrong
  • Client claims that work failed inspection or missed a professional standard
  • Legal defense for those claims — often the largest cost

Typically doesn’t

  • Bodily injury or property damage — that's general liability
  • Intentional wrongdoing
  • Work redone purely as warranty or goodwill
Required if…When it's required →
Commercial auto

Visiting care runs on cars — liability and property-damage protection for the vehicles that carry nurses and aides from client to client.

Typically covers

  • Liability when a business vehicle injures someone or damages property
  • Accidents in vehicles titled to the business, driven by employees for work
  • The liability minimums states set for business vehicles

Typically doesn’t

  • Your liability when employees drive their own cars for work — that's hired and non-owned auto; the employee's own car stays on their personal policy
  • The freight or goods being hauled — that's cargo or inland marine coverage
  • Damage to your own vehicle, unless physical damage coverage is added
Required if…Requirements by state →
General liability

Working in clients' homes every day, injury or damage to others — and to their property — becomes a claim against the agency.

Typically covers

  • Injuries to customers, visitors, and other third parties
  • Damage your operations cause to someone else's property
  • Legal defense for covered claims

Typically doesn’t

  • Your employees' injuries — that's workers' compensation
  • Mistakes in professional advice or design — that's professional liability
  • Redoing your own faulty workmanship itself
Worth a lookWhat it covers →
Cyber insurance

Patient records travel into the field with every visit — and HIPAA's breach-notification duties travel with them.

Typically covers

  • The fallout of a hack or data breach — notifying customers, restoring data and systems
  • Claims from customers whose data was exposed
  • Often the income lost while systems are down

Typically doesn’t

  • Physical damage to property — that's commercial property
  • Tricked-into-wiring-money losses on many forms — social-engineering coverage is its own add-on
  • Breaches at your vendors, unless the policy extends to them
Worth a lookWhat it covers →

Exact terms live in the policy — these are the typical boundaries.

Sources: NAIC — Small Business Insurance (retrieved 2026-06-11) · Florida Statutes §400.471(3) — home health agency licensure (malpractice and liability insurance) (as of 2025 Florida Statutes, retrieved 2026-06-11) · U.S. Department of Labor — Fact Sheet #79D: Hours Worked Applicable to Domestic Service Employment Under the FLSA (retrieved 2026-06-11) · Oregon DAS Risk Management — Insurance Clauses: Physical Abuse and Sexual Molestation (retrieved 2026-06-11) · NAIC — Cybersecurity topic (as of last updated 2024-05-09, retrieved 2026-06-11)

Workers’ compProfessional liability · benchmark comingCommercial auto · benchmark comingGeneral liability · benchmark comingCyber insurance · benchmark coming

What workers’ comp costs a typical home-health agency

Modeled annual premium for each state’s most common home-health agency size, from that state’s own filed rate and observed payroll. All 51 states: rates & costs →

Least expensive states

Most expensive states

Modeled — not quotes: each figure prices that state’s most common home-health agency size band from the state’s own observed payroll (CBP 2023), so dollar order can differ from rate rank.

Pick your state — what’s required there, and what it costs

Every linked state has the full guide: what the law requires there, the coverages that fit, and modeled costs — built from 29,576 home-health agencies across 23 states (CBP 2023).

† state-fund jurisdiction — workers’ comp is purchased through the state, not a private market. Unlinked states lack a published rate or a defensible business-size cohort.

Sources: Oregon DCBS workers' compensation premium rate ranking study, June 2025 (calendar-year 2024 rates) (as of calendar year 2024, retrieved 2026-06-04) · US Census County Business Patterns 2023, state file (Home health care services (NAICS 621610)) (as of 2023, retrieved 2026-06-05)

Frequently asked questions

What work does class 8835 cover?

Home-health work is NCCI class 8835 (Home Healthcare) — nurses, aides, and other staff delivering care in patients' homes; office-based healthcare classes like 8832 (Physician & Clerical) are rated separately.

Why does my state matter so much?

Workers’ comp is state law — the employee threshold that triggers it, the rates, and the market structure all differ by state. That’s why every state above gets its own guide.

Someone asked me for a certificate of insurance — what is it?

The one-page proof your coverage exists — landlords, general contractors, and client contracts ask for it routinely, and it’s often the reason home-health agencies buy insurance in the first place. Certificate of insurance, explained →

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