50-State Regulatory Atlas Florida
State licensing summary
Florida: healthcare licensing and regulation
Florida: one license, branches listed or approved; no certificate of need; compact member. Regulator: Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).
Educational summary, last reviewed October 17, 2026. Not legal advice — confirm with the state licensing agency or counsel.
12 findings: 11 verified, 1 provisional. How findings are sourced and labelled.
At a glance
- License
- State license requiredVerified
- Regulator
- Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)
- Branch offices
- One license, branches listed or approvedVerified
- Certificate of need
- No certificate of needVerified
- Service area
- The license lists counties, and the agency may not serve patients who live in a county not on its license.Verified
- In-state office
- See out-of-state rules below
- Medicare certification
- Separate federal step, only for agencies that bill MedicareVerified
Home health licensing
State license
VerifiedYes. A license or registration from the Agency for Health Care Administration is required to operate a home health agency (Fla. Stat. § 400.464). Nurse registries and homemaker/companion registrations are separate categories.
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: Fla. Stat. § 400.464
Certificate of need
VerifiedNo.
In practice: No certificate of need step for home health.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 400.464Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.003Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.007
Branch offices
VerifiedA satellite office in the same geographic service area as the main office is not separately licensed. An office outside that area, or outside the main office’s health service planning district, must be separately licensed. Drop-off sites need no license but allow no patient contact or billing.
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: Fla. Stat. § 400.464Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.003Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.007
Service area
VerifiedThe license lists counties, and the agency may not serve patients who live in a county not on its license. Adding counties requires a staffing and supervision plan.
In practice: Check the patient’s address against the approved service area before accepting a referral.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 400.464Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.003Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.007
Out-of-state agencies
VerifiedService is limited to the Florida counties listed on the license.
In practice: A license in one state does not authorize care in another; the patient’s state decides.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 400.464Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.003Fla. Admin. Code 59A-8.007
Home infusion nursing
Home infusion nursing
Verified“A home infusion therapy provider must be licensed as a home health agency or nurse registry” (§ 400.464(3)).
In practice: Confirm the license category before staffing infusion visits in this state.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 400.464
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.
Nurse registry license
VerifiedA nurse registry is licensed by AHCA, one license per operational site (Fla. Stat. § 400.506). Caregivers it refers are independent contractors, and patients must be told the registry may not supervise or train them.
In practice: A home infusion therapy provider in Florida must hold a home health agency or nurse registry license.
Source: Fla. Stat. § 400.506
State coverage for healthcare staffing is partial; more states are being reviewed.
Medicare, hospice and VA programs in this state
Florida is one of the six states in CMS’s Review Choice Demonstration for home health (Illinois, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma). Medicare home health agencies here choose pre-claim review or postpayment review; an agency that reaches a 90% provisional affirmation rate may move to lighter review options. The earlier minimal-review choice with a 25% payment reduction was removed. The demonstration was extended five years from June 1, 2024.
Source: CMS: Review Choice Demonstration for Home Health Services
Florida 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
Certificate of need (hospice)
ProvisionalThe Agency for Health Care Administration runs hospice need determinations and certificate-of-need awards; the source found is a news report.
Source: Tampa Bay Times, June 22, 2021
VA Community Care Network region
VerifiedFlorida is in Community Care Network Region 3, 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
Counties are named on the license. Nearby offices share one license; distant ones need their own. Surveys at least every 36.9 months.
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
- FloridaHealthFinder Facility Search VerifiedFlorida Agency for Health Care Administration
Home health agencies, homemaker and companion services, nurse registries, hospices and health care services pools (staffing), with license status, inspection reports, final orders and legal actions.
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
- Home Care Association of Florida (HCAF)home health, home care (private duty and personal care)
Has offered Florida home care providers resources, education and advocacy since 1989.
- Florida Hospice & Palliative Care Association (FHPCA)hospice, palliative care
Florida’s hospice and palliative care association, listed in the National Alliance for Care at Home’s Assembly of State Associations.
- Home Care Association of America (HCAOA), Florida chapterhome care (private duty and personal care)
The state chapter of the national home care association; HCAOA chapters handle state advocacy, networking and legislative tracking.
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.