50-State Regulatory Atlas Delaware
State licensing summary
Delaware: healthcare licensing and regulation
Delaware: separate license per office; certificate of need: confirm with the state agency; compact member. Regulator: Delaware Division of Health Care Quality.
Educational summary, last reviewed October 17, 2026. Not legal advice — confirm with the state licensing agency or counsel.
11 findings: 7 verified, 4 provisional. How findings are sourced and labelled.
At a glance
- License
- State license requiredVerified
- Regulator
- Delaware Division of Health Care Quality
- Branch offices
- Separate license per officeProvisional
- Certificate of need
- Certificate of need: confirm with the state agencyProvisional
- Service area
- The Delaware county where the office sits plus immediately adjacent Delaware counties, and the agency may serve only in that area, except during a patient’s time-limited travel.Verified
- In-state office
- Required: an in-state office or licensed parentVerified
- Medicare certification
- Separate federal step, only for agencies that bill MedicareVerified
Home health licensing
State license
VerifiedYes. Skilled Home Health Agencies are licensed by the Division of Health Care Quality under 16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 (revised July 11, 2023). Aide-only agencies have a separate license under 3351.
In practice: Hold the authority the state requires before the first patient is admitted there, and keep its number, category and expiry with the office it covers.
Source: 16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 (27 DE Reg 44)3351 Aide Only (25 DE Reg 774)
Certificate of need
ProvisionalNot confirmed. Confirm with the state agency
In practice: Ask the state planning agency whether a certificate of need applies before applying for the license.
Source: 16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 (27 DE Reg 44)3351 Aide Only (25 DE Reg 774)
Branch offices
Provisional“A separate license shall be required for each office maintained by a home health agency.” A 90-day, non-renewable initial license with an on-site survey is followed by an annual license running 12 months from issue. Whether each office’s license keeps its own expiry date: Confirm with the state agency A change of ownership voids the license.
In practice: Track each office’s authority on its own where the state licenses offices separately, and with the parent where it lists them.
Source: 16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 (27 DE Reg 44)3351 Aide Only (25 DE Reg 774)
Service area
VerifiedThe Delaware county where the office sits plus immediately adjacent Delaware counties, and the agency may serve only in that area, except during a patient’s time-limited travel. New Castle and Sussex counties do not border each other.
In practice: Check the patient’s address against the approved service area before accepting a referral.
Source: 16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 (27 DE Reg 44)3351 Aide Only (25 DE Reg 774)
Out-of-state agencies
VerifiedThe office must be located in Delaware.
In practice: A license in one state does not authorize care in another; the patient’s state decides.
Source: 16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 (27 DE Reg 44)3351 Aide Only (25 DE Reg 774)
Home infusion nursing
Home infusion nursing
ProvisionalRule 3350 has no infusion-specific provisions. A home health agency must provide two or more home care services, one of them nursing or aide services. Whether a nursing-only infusion agency meets that definition needs a written answer from the Division of Health Care Quality. Confirm with the state agency
In practice: Confirm the license category before staffing infusion visits in this state.
Staffing and nurse licensure
Nurse licensure (compact)
VerifiedMember of the Nurse Licensure Compact, implemented. A nurse with a multistate license from another compact state may practice here; the agency still needs this state’s own authority to operate.
In practice: Check each nurse’s license against the patient’s state, not the agency’s.
Staffing agency license
ProvisionalNo Delaware license or registration for nurse staffing agencies was found; a 2023 bill to require registration for long-term care staffing (HB 199) was stricken. Staffing supplied to licensed home health agencies is exempt from the home health license only when the staffing firm makes no direct agreements with patients (16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 § 2.9.3).
In practice: Nurses sent into homes under contracts with pharmacies are not covered by the staffing exemption.
Source: HB 199 (2023)16 Del. Admin. Code 3350 (27 DE Reg 44)
State coverage for healthcare staffing is partial; more states are being reviewed.
Medicare, hospice and VA programs in this state
Delaware is not one of the six states in CMS’s Review Choice Demonstration for home health (Illinois, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma).
Source: CMS: Review Choice Demonstration for Home Health Services
Delaware is not one of the six states (Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Georgia, Ohio) where CMS applies its provisional period of enhanced oversight to newly enrolling hospices.
Source: CMS Medical Review: Hospice
VA Community Care Network region
VerifiedDelaware is in Community Care Network Region 1, administered by Optum. Agencies join by contracting with the regional third-party administrator, not with VA. VA has re-procured the network as CCN Next Generation with two regions, East and West; which administrator serves which region from 2027 was not announced in the sources reviewed.
Time-sensitive. Region assignments change with CCN Next Generation; recheck VA’s announcements during 2027.
Source: VA: Community Care Network
Federal rules that apply in every state
Medicare certification
VerifiedMedicare certification under the home health Conditions of Participation (42 CFR Part 484) is a federal step for agencies that bill Medicare home health. It is separate from the state license. Where a state ties entry to certification, that state’s findings say so.
In practice: A branch serving a portion of the parent’s area is supervised and administered by the parent agency (42 CFR 484.2).
Source: 42 CFR 484.2
For a Medicare-certified agency, “its personnel must be qualified in all States in which they provide services” (State Operations Manual § 2184).
In practice: Nurse licensure follows the patient’s state.
Medicare’s home infusion therapy benefit is a separate Part B supplier benefit, not a home health benefit. It pays an accredited, qualified home infusion therapy supplier for professional services tied to specific parenteral drugs given through a pump that is durable medical equipment (42 CFR Part 486, Subpart I).
In practice: Most pharmacy-dispensed home infusion is not billable under this benefit; nursing for those patients is usually paid by other payers or under contract.
Compared with Texas
Like Texas, every office is licensed. Unlike Texas, the license is annual, service is limited to adjacent counties, aides are supervised every 2 weeks with skilled care (alternate visits may be by telehealth), and records are kept 6 years.
Other service lines
State rules for these lines are being added to the guide: Medicare home health, Medicare home infusion therapy benefit, Infusion pharmacy, Hospice, Private duty nursing, Personal care and Medicaid HCBS, VA community care, Infusion suites.
Look up a licensed provider
- DHCQ provider lists VerifiedDelaware DHSS, Division of Health Care Quality, Office of Health Facilities Licensing & Certification
PDF lists of skilled and aides-only home health agencies, hospices and personal assistance services agencies, with license ID and expiration.
National lookups
- Medicare Care Compare — Home health
Medicare-certified home health agencies with quality ratings and services offered.
- Medicare Care Compare — Hospice
Medicare-certified hospices with quality measures.
- CMS Provider Data Catalog — Home Health Care Agencies (6jpm-sxkc)
All Medicare-registered home health agencies with CCN, address, ownership, services, certification date and quality measures, as CSV and an unauthenticated API.
- CMS Provider Data Catalog — Hospice – General Information (yc9t-dgbk)
Medicare-certified hospices with CCN, address, county, ownership type and certification date, as CSV and an unauthenticated API.
- CMS QCOR — HHA 2567 Statements of Deficiencies
Federal survey statements of deficiencies for home health agencies, filterable by state, survey type, tag and CCN, with a full-dataset XLSX download.
- CMS QCOR — Hospice 2567s
Federal survey statements of deficiencies for hospices.
- NPPES NPI Registry
National Provider Identifier records with addresses, authorized official and taxonomies, with a public API.
- HHS-OIG List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE)
Individuals and entities excluded from federal health care programs, with a monthly downloadable database.
- SAM.gov Exclusions
Federal exclusion records across agencies.
- Nursys QuickConfirm
Nurse license status, discipline / board-issued alerts and expiry, free to employers and the public.
Associations
- Delaware Association for Home & Community Care (DAHCC)home health, Medicaid HCBS
Represents Delaware home care agencies, with a mission of communication, collaboration and education for home and community-based health services.
Official sources
About this guide. Published and maintained by Paloma Health Technologies; Findings are cited to official sources, dated and status-labelled; see the editorial policy. Educational summary, last reviewed October 17, 2026. Not legal advice — confirm with the state licensing agency or counsel.