Starting an Idaho Home Health or Personal Care Agency?

• Medicare-certified Home Health Agency — provides skilled nursing and at least one additional qualifying home health service and completes federal enrollment, survey, and certification.
• Medicaid Personal Assistance Agency — directs and supervises personal assistants under Idaho Medicaid provider agreements for approved State Plan PCS and Aged and Disabled Waiver services.
• Private-pay personal care business — should separately verify business, professional-scope, local, payer, and any service-specific requirements before operating.

Home Health and personal assistance have different enrollment, service-scope, personnel, oversight, and continuing-compliance requirements.

No new Idaho HHA licenses are issued after July 1, 2025, and Medicare-certified HHAs no longer need a separate Idaho license. Medicare enrollment, certification, survey, and federal compliance still apply.

The agency completes Medicare enrollment through CMS-855A or PECOS, prepares the required certification documents, establishes compliant operations and staffing, and becomes ready for a state-agency or approved accreditation survey.

An HHA is an organization primarily providing skilled nursing by licensed nurses and at least one additional service such as physical therapy, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, medical social services, or home health aide services.

Only after the agency completes enrollment and certification requirements and receives an effective Medicare certification date. IDHW warns that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement is not retroactive.

No. It removed the separate Idaho HHA license for Medicare-certified agencies and ended new state licenses. CMS enrollment, surveys, complaint oversight, certification, and the Medicare Conditions of Participation remain.

A prospective provider completes the IDHW HCBS Provider Toolkit, Medicaid provider enrollment, required Quality Assurance Specialist training, and the applicable provider agreements and additional terms before approval and service delivery.

A PAA may provide only the State Plan Personal Care Services and Aged and Disabled Waiver services for which it is qualified, enrolled, and authorized, which may include personal assistance, homemaker, respite, attendant care, chore, and companion services.

No. A PAA furnishes approved personal-assistance and HCBS services. A Medicare HHA furnishes skilled nursing and qualifying clinical home health services under a separate federal certification framework.

The PAA recruits, hires, trains, supervises, schedules, and pays personal assistants. It must provide an RN or, when applicable, a QIDP supervisor for plans of care and ongoing supervision and must meet the current provider training matrix.

Yes. Personal assistants and applicable service coordinators and supervisors must complete the required IDHW criminal-history and background-check process. Personal assistants also complete a health questionnaire.

Yes. IDHW states that new Aged and Disabled Waiver and State Plan PCS providers must be trained by a Quality Assurance Specialist before application approval and before providing services.

• Logo creation and a customized WordPress website.
• One year of website hosting and domain registration.
• 500 business cards and 500 tri-fold brochures.
• Idaho-specific policy manuals, human-resources documents, admission documents, and operational forms.
• CMS HHA certification preparation or Idaho Medicaid PAA enrollment preparation applicable to the selected package.
• Members' area access, customization, ongoing guidance, and applicable updates.

No. State and federal filing fees, entity and business licensing, Medicare or Medicaid enrollment, accreditation, background checks, insurance, office, personnel, survey expenses, software, mailing, and other government or third-party costs are separate unless expressly included in writing.

Home Health Forms provides customized documents, startup guidance, and preparation assistance. IDHW, CMS, survey organizations, accreditors, enrollment vendors, and payers make their own decisions. Applicants remain responsible for accurate information, qualified personnel, fees, operational readiness, service delivery, billing, and ongoing compliance. Home Health Foms provides guidance and documents that meet regulatory requirements to ensure your success.

Customized policy manuals, forms, and related digital documents are generally emailed within five business days after all information needed for customization is received. Website development, printing, shipping, and other package components may have separate timelines.

Eligibility depends on work completed, customized materials produced, digital products delivered, third-party expenses paid, printing ordered, and other services already performed.