50-State Regulatory Atlas Kentucky
State licensing summary
Kentucky: healthcare licensing and regulation
Kentucky: state license; branch rule not confirmed; certificate of need required; compact member. Regulator: Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Educational summary, last reviewed October 17, 2026. Not legal advice — confirm with the state licensing agency or counsel.
12 findings: 8 verified, 4 provisional. How findings are sourced and labelled.
At a glance
- License
- State license requiredVerified
- Regulator
- Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
- Branch offices
- State license; branch rule not confirmedProvisional
- Certificate of need
- Certificate of need requiredVerified
- Service area
- Confirm with the state agencyProvisional
- 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. Home health agencies are licensed under KRS 216B and 902 KAR 20:081.
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: 902 KAR 20:081
Certificate of need
VerifiedYes.
In practice: The certificate of need comes before the license and can limit where the agency may serve.
Source: 902 KAR 20:081
Branch offices
ProvisionalThe rule does not address branches; a subdivision such as a hospital home care department is licensed separately. Confirm with the state agency
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: 902 KAR 20:081
Service area
ProvisionalConfirm with the state agency Not established in this review.
In practice: Check the patient’s address against the approved service area before accepting a referral.
Source: 902 KAR 20:081
Out-of-state agencies
ProvisionalConfirm with the state agency Not established in this review.
In practice: A license in one state does not authorize care in another; the patient’s state decides.
Source: 902 KAR 20:081
Home infusion nursing
Home infusion nursing
ProvisionalConfirm with the state agency Not established in this review.
In practice: Confirm the license category before staffing infusion visits in this state.
Source: 902 KAR 20:081
Kentucky licenses “ambulatory infusion agencies” under 902 KAR 20:450, a license specific to infusion that covers both home infusion and ambulatory infusion centers. Applications go to the Office of Inspector General with a $500 fee. Off-campus infusion centers owned by a qualifying Kentucky hospital are excluded from the center definition.
In practice: Infusion here is service-specific licensing, separate from the general home health license under 902 KAR 20:081.
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.
Health care services agencies may not use non-competes against temporary direct care staff, and conversion fees are limited (KRS 216.724(1), as amended by 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 61). Whether Kentucky also requires agency registration was not established here.
In practice: Review staff and client contracts for non-compete and conversion terms.
Source: 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 61 (HB 502)
State coverage for healthcare staffing is partial; more states are being reviewed.
Medicare, hospice and VA programs in this state
Kentucky 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
Kentucky 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
VerifiedKentucky is in Community Care Network Region 2, 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
Certificate of need applies. Aides are supervised every 2 weeks with skilled care and every 60 days without.
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
- OIG Health Care Facilities directories VerifiedKentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Office of Inspector General, Division of Health Care
Monthly PDF and Excel directories covering home health agencies, hospices, ambulatory infusion agencies, health care service agencies (staffing) and personal services agencies.
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
- Kentucky Home Care Association (KHCA)home health
Provides communications, networking, trainings, webinars, dementia education, an annual conference, a career center and a member directory.
- Kentucky Association of Hospice & Palliative Care (KAHPC)hospice, palliative care
A nonprofit representing hospices and palliative care organizations in Kentucky, offering education, events, membership and a provider finder.
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.