Home Care Agency Licensure in Illinois

Licensing agency. The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) licenses home health agencies, home services agencies (non-medical), and home nursing agencies under 210 ILCS 55 and 77 Ill. Adm. Code 245. Source ↗

Home Services Agency license. Non-medical personal care, homemaker, and companion agencies (and placement registries, licensed as home services placement agencies) must hold IDPH licenses, renewed annually with statutory fees. Source ↗

Worker background checks. All home services workers are subject to the Health Care Worker Background Check Act (225 ILCS 46), with fingerprint checks and disqualifying-offense waiver procedures tracked in the state registry. Source ↗

Surveys. IDPH conducts initial licensure surveys and periodic/complaint surveys with plan-of-correction enforcement; Medicare-certified home health agencies also undergo certification surveys, and Illinois maintains CON review (Health Facilities & Services Review Board) for certain home health establishments. Source ↗

No federal home care license. There is no federal license for home care or home health agencies. Licensure is a state function: each state (and DC) decides whether and how to license home health agencies and non-medical personal care/companion agencies, so requirements vary dramatically by jurisdiction. Source ↗

Medicare certification (42 CFR Part 484). Agencies that bill Medicare for skilled home health must be certified as meeting the Medicare Conditions of Participation at 42 CFR Part 484 (patient rights, comprehensive assessment, QAPI, skilled professional services, home health aide standards, and more), on top of any state license. Source ↗

Accreditation with deemed status. Most new Medicare home health agencies obtain certification through a CMS-approved accrediting organization with deeming authority — ACHC, CHAP, or The Joint Commission — whose surveys substitute for the state agency's Medicare certification survey. Source ↗

State survey agencies enforce both. State survey agencies (usually the state health department) operate under agreements with CMS to survey Medicare-certified agencies, and most also run the state licensure survey program — initial surveys, renewal/recertification surveys, complaint investigations, and plan-of-correction enforcement per the CMS State Operations Manual. Source ↗