50-State Regulatory Atlas Wisconsin
State licensing summary
Wisconsin: healthcare licensing and regulation
Wisconsin: one license, branches listed or approved; no certificate of need; compact member. Regulator: Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
Educational summary, last reviewed October 17, 2026. Not legal advice — confirm with the state licensing agency or counsel.
11 findings: 9 verified, 2 provisional. How findings are sourced and labelled.
At a glance
- License
- State license requiredVerified
- Regulator
- Wisconsin Department of Health Services
- Branch offices
- One license, branches listed or approvedVerified
- Certificate of need
- No certificate of needVerified
- Service area
- A volume and distance test, with no fixed number.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 (DHS 133). The regular license is valid indefinitely, with an annual report and a fee of 0.25% of patient revenue (minimum $500, maximum $2,500).
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: Wis. Admin. Code DHS 133.03
Certificate of need
VerifiedNo.
In practice: No certificate of need step for home health.
Source: Wis. Admin. Code DHS 133.03
Branch offices
VerifiedBranches operate under the parent license, but units must be separately licensed if the department finds that volume or distance prevents them from sharing supervision and administration.
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: Wis. Admin. Code DHS 133.03
Service area
VerifiedA volume and distance test, with no fixed number.
In practice: Check the patient’s address against the approved service area before accepting a referral.
Source: Wis. Admin. Code DHS 133.03
Out-of-state agencies
VerifiedA foreign corporation must show authority to do business in Wisconsin.
In practice: A license in one state does not authorize care in another; the patient’s state decides.
Source: Wis. Admin. Code DHS 133.03
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: Wis. Admin. Code DHS 133.03
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.
Staffing agency license
ProvisionalNo Wisconsin statute specific to health care staffing agencies was found.
In practice: An absence of a finding is not a confirmed absence of a rule.
State coverage for healthcare staffing is partial; more states are being reviewed.
Medicare, hospice and VA programs in this state
Wisconsin 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
Wisconsin 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
VerifiedWisconsin 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
An indefinite license instead of a three-year term; separate licensing only by determination.
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
- DQA Provider Search VerifiedWisconsin DHS, Division of Quality Assurance, Bureau of Health Services
Home health, hospice and personal care agencies with three-year survey history and an Excel export.
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
- Wisconsin Association for Home Health Care (WiAHC)home health
Offers an advocacy action center, a legislative key-contact program, conferences, a fall clinical workshop and on-demand webinars.
- Wisconsin Hospice and Palliative Care Association (WiHPCA)hospice, palliative care
Offers a monthly newsletter, a webinar series, an annual conference, town halls, quarterly DQA meetings and legislative updates.
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.