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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

If a nurse, aide, or therapist is hurt lifting a patient or driving between clients.

What it covers, and what it doesn’t

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

If a patient says your care fell short and caused harm.

What it covers, and what it doesn’t

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

If you crash a vehicle carrying nurses and aides from one client's home to the next.

What it covers, and what it doesn’t

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

If your staff damages a client's home or hurts someone while working there, and a claim lands on the agency.

What it covers, and what it doesn’t

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

If patient records carried into the field are breached — HIPAA's notification duties travel with every visit.

What it covers, and what it doesn’t

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).

† monopolistic state — workers’ comp must be bought from the state fund; a private policy can’t satisfy the requirement there. Other 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 →

Stay informed

Coverage rules change.

We’ll send the updates that affect your business.