Medicare home health care is skilled, part-time care delivered at home by a Medicare-certified agency. CMS lists 12,392 such agencies. It is not the same as non-medical “home care” — help with bathing or meals — and Medicare does not pay for round-the-clock 24-hour care at home.
What Medicare home health care is
Home health care brings clinical services into a patient's home instead of a hospital or skilled nursing facility. The covered services are skilled: intermittent nursing, physical and occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, medical social work, and home health aide support that is tied to one of those skilled needs. A physician orders the care and signs off on a plan that the agency follows.
The model exists because many patients recover faster, and at lower cost, at home than in a facility. A nurse visiting twice a week to manage a wound or adjust medication is home health care; an aide living in the home to help around the clock is not.
Home health care vs. non-medical home care
Clinical services from licensed professionals, ordered by a physician. Skilled nursing, therapy, wound and IV care. Covered by Medicare when eligibility rules are met.
Personal and custodial help — bathing, dressing, meals, companionship, 24-hour supervision. No licensed clinician required. Not covered by Medicare when it is the only care needed.
People searching for “24-hour home care” or “non-medical home care” usually want this second category. It is real and valuable, but it is funded differently — privately, by long-term-care insurance, or by Medicaid in qualifying cases — not by Medicare home health benefits.
What Medicare actually covers
For a beneficiary who qualifies, Medicare Part A and Part B cover home health with no copay for the covered services: part-time or intermittent skilled nursing, therapy, medical social services, and a home health aide tied to a skilled need. Eligibility hinges on three things — the patient is homebound, needs intermittent skilled care, and is under a physician's plan of care delivered by a Medicare-certified agency.
- Covered: skilled nursing visits, physical/occupational/speech therapy, medical social work
- Covered: a home health aide, only alongside a skilled service
- Not covered: 24-hour-a-day care at home
- Not covered: meal delivery, homemaker services, or custodial care when that is the only need
US home health agencies by the numbers
Every figure is read from the CMS Care Compare Home Health file and stamped with its snapshot date.
Find a home health agency
Browse loaded Medicare-certified home health agencies by state with available quality-of-patient-care star ratings, ownership type, and certification status. Supported fields display available CMS source and snapshot metadata.
Home health compare →How home health agencies are certified
To bill Medicare, an agency must meet the federal Conditions of Participation and pass a CMS survey. Each certified agency receives a CMS Certification Number (CCN) and appears in the Care Compare Home Health file. CMS publishes the file on its own cadence. Fonteum shows the loaded snapshot date and available provenance metadata; check the CMS source for a newer release before relying on a rating or certification flag.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Medicare home health care?
- Medicare home health care is skilled, part-time care delivered in a patient's home by a Medicare-certified home health agency — skilled nursing, physical or occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and home health aide support tied to a skilled need. CMS lists 12,392 Medicare-certified home health agencies in its Care Compare file.
- Does Medicare pay for 24-hour home care?
- No. Medicare home health covers part-time or intermittent skilled care — not around-the-clock supervision. Medicare does not pay for 24-hour-a-day care at home, meal delivery, or homemaker services when those are the only care needed. Continuous 24-hour home care is generally paid privately, by long-term-care insurance, or in some cases by Medicaid.
- What is the difference between home health care and non-medical home care?
- Home health care is clinical: skilled services ordered by a physician and delivered by licensed professionals. Non-medical home care — also called personal care or custodial care — is help with daily living such as bathing, dressing, meals, and companionship. Non-medical home care does not require a licensed clinician and is not covered by Medicare.
- Who qualifies for Medicare home health care?
- A patient generally qualifies when a physician certifies they are homebound, need intermittent skilled nursing or therapy, and are under a physician-established plan of care, and when the services are provided by a Medicare-certified agency. The homebound requirement means leaving home takes considerable effort; it does not mean the patient can never leave.
- What does Medicare home health certification mean?
- Medicare certification means an agency has met federal Conditions of Participation and may bill Medicare for home health services. CMS surveys agencies and publishes each one in the Care Compare Home Health file with its quality-of-patient-care star rating, ownership type, and services offered — the dataset Fonteum tracks per agency.
- How are home health agencies rated?
- CMS publishes a quality-of-patient-care star rating for home health agencies with enough data. In the current file, 7,961 of 12,392 agencies carry a rating; the rest are unrated for lack of sufficient episodes. Fonteum surfaces the rating per agency with its CMS source and snapshot date, and flags suppressed measures rather than hiding them.
- How can I check a home health agency's record?
- Fonteum's home health compare pages list loaded Medicare-certified agencies by state with available quality-of-patient-care star ratings, ownership type, and Medicare certification status. Supported fields display the available CMS source and snapshot date. You can also screen an agency's NPI against the OIG exclusion list.
Related
- Home health agency quality data — per-agency CMS quality-of-patient-care ratings, ownership, and certification status by state.
- Skilled nursing facilities explained — what an SNF is and how short-term facility rehab compares to care at home.
- Hospice care under Medicare — the end-of-life benefit that, unlike home health, is paid as a per-day rate.
- Compare loaded CMS Care Compare facilities — nursing homes, home health, hospice, dialysis, and more, resolved to one record each.
- Look up an agency by NPI — search any provider or organization and check its federal records.