50-State Regulatory Atlas Ohio
State licensing summary
Ohio: healthcare licensing and regulation
Ohio: one license, branches listed or approved; no certificate of need; compact member. Regulator: Ohio Department of Health.
Educational summary, last reviewed October 17, 2026. Not legal advice — confirm with the state licensing agency or counsel.
11 findings: 10 verified, 1 provisional. How findings are sourced and labelled.
At a glance
- License
- State license requiredVerified
- Regulator
- Ohio Department of Health
- Branch offices
- One license, branches listed or approvedVerified
- Certificate of need
- No certificate of needVerified
- Service area
- The geographic area served is described in the application.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, since 2022 (ORC ch. 3740): a skilled home health license (which also covers nonmedical services) and a nonmedical license, each for three years. The skilled application shows Medicare certification, accreditation (ACHC, CHAP or The Joint Commission), Department of Aging certification, or a notarized attestation; new entrants post a surety bond.
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: OAC 3701-60-03
Certificate of need
VerifiedNo.
In practice: No certificate of need step for home health.
Source: OAC 3701-60-03
Branch offices
VerifiedThe application lists each operating location; there is no separate branch license provision.
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: OAC 3701-60-03
Service area
VerifiedThe geographic area served is described in the application.
In practice: Check the patient’s address against the approved service area before accepting a referral.
Source: OAC 3701-60-03
Out-of-state agencies
VerifiedAn out-of-state agency must establish an Ohio administrative office before applying, and all Ohio patients’ clinical records are kept there.
In practice: A license in one state does not authorize care in another; the patient’s state decides.
Source: OAC 3701-60-03
ACHC, CHAP or Joint Commission accreditation, or Medicare certification, satisfies the skilled home health license application, and renewal may align with the accreditation cycle (OAC 3701-60-03).
In practice: The state usually keeps its complaint authority.
Source: OAC 3701-60-03
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: OAC 3701-60-03
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.
Detailed state rules for staffing agencies in this state are being added.
Medicare, hospice and VA programs in this state
Ohio 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
Hospices newly enrolling in Medicare in Ohio, changing ownership or reactivating are placed in CMS’s provisional period of enhanced oversight, in effect here since December 30, 2025. This is separate from CMS’s expanded prepayment review of existing hospices in the same states.
Source: CMS Medical Review: Hospice
VA Community Care Network region
VerifiedOhio 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
Three-year term like Texas, but locations are listed on one license and accreditation can support the application.
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
- Enhanced Information Dissemination (EID) VerifiedOhio Department of Health, Office of Health Assurance and Licensing
Real-time license status and last Medicare/Medicaid survey date for hospices, home health agencies and other licensed providers, with PDF/Word/Excel/CSV/XML extracts.
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
- Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice (OCHCH)home health, hospice, home care (private duty and personal care)
Offers a staffed regulatory help desk, a member forum, an education pass and aide training, advocacy, savings programs and a provider search.
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.