In Georgia, "home health" and "home care" are two different services, licensed differently and paid for differently, even though families use the names interchangeably. Home health is skilled, doctor-ordered care from a Home Health Agency that Medicare covers when someone is homebound and needs intermittent skilled care; home care is non-medical help that families pay for privately or, on Medicaid, cover through the CCSP and SOURCE waivers.
This guide draws the line between the two. The label decides who can provide the care, which Georgia license that provider holds, and which program pays the bill. Getting it right is how a family avoids paying out of pocket for care a program would have covered, or waiting on Medicare coverage that was never going to come.
In This Guide
- Key Takeaways
- The Core Difference
- Home Health: The Home Health Agency and What Medicare Covers
- Home Care: The Private Home Care Provider and Who Pays
- Which One Do You Need?
- What It Costs
- Frequently Asked Questions
The Core Difference
The split is medical versus non-medical, and in Georgia it settles three things at once: who provides the care, which DCH license that provider holds, and which program pays.
Home health is skilled care. A doctor orders it because the person has a medical need that requires a licensed professional, a nurse or a physical, occupational, or speech therapist. Wound care after surgery, IV medication, injections a patient can't manage alone, therapy to rebuild strength after a stroke or a fall: those are skilled needs.
Home care is non-medical. No clinical license is involved in the hands-on work. An aide helps with the activities of daily living, bathing, dressing, getting to the bathroom, preparing meals, light housekeeping, and companionship. The person can be medically stable and still need this help every day.
The same person often needs both. Someone discharged after hip surgery might get home health (a nurse and a physical therapist for a few weeks) and also need home care (an aide for bathing and meals for months). The two run on separate tracks with separate payers, which is exactly why the Georgia provider labels, Home Health Agency and Private Home Care Provider, are worth knowing before you start making calls.
Home Health: The Home Health Agency and What Medicare Covers
Skilled home health in Georgia is delivered by a Home Health Agency licensed by DCH through its Healthcare Facility Regulation Division. The agency employs the clinical staff, registered nurses and therapists, who carry out the plan of care a physician has ordered. A Home Health Agency can bill Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance for the skilled services it provides.
Medicare's home health benefit covers this Home Health Agency care when a beneficiary meets the conditions. The two that trip families up most:
- Homebound. Leaving home takes considerable, taxing effort, and the person generally needs help or an assistive device to do it. Short, occasional trips out, to a medical appointment or to religious services, don't disqualify someone.
- Intermittent skilled need. A doctor certifies that the person needs skilled nursing or therapy on a part-time or intermittent basis, under a plan of care the doctor reviews. Home health is not round-the-clock care.
When those conditions are met, Medicare pays for the covered skilled services: the nursing visits, the therapy, and the home health aide help that's attached to that skilled care. What Medicare home health will not do is staff an aide in the home for general daily help with no skilled-care purpose. That's home care, and it's the next section.
Home Care: The Private Home Care Provider and Who Pays
Non-medical home care in Georgia comes from a Private Home Care Provider (PHCP), also licensed by DCH. A PHCP supplies the aides and personal-care workers who handle bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, and companionship. Georgia's rules expressly exclude services provided by a licensed home health agency from the Private Home Care Provider category, so the two licenses cover genuinely different work: a PHCP is the non-medical side, the Home Health Agency is the skilled side.
Who pays for PHCP home care comes down to three routes:
- Private pay. Most families pay out of pocket, by the hour. This is the default when no one is on Medicaid and the need is non-medical.
- Medicaid waivers. For low-income older Georgians, Medicaid funds in-home personal care and supports through the Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program, delivered as the Community Care Services Program (CCSP) and SOURCE. These waivers can pay for personal-support services in the home for people who would otherwise need a nursing-home level of care but want to stay at home. Eligibility, the assessment, and the enrollment steps have their own rules, so the mechanics live in our dedicated Georgia Medicaid CCSP Waiver and Georgia Medicaid SOURCE Waiver guides; the point here is that these waivers fund home care, the non-medical help, not skilled home health.
- Long-term care insurance. A private policy, if the person holds one, may reimburse home care hours.
One line is worth stating plainly. Medicare does not pay for non-medical home care. A family expecting Medicare to cover an aide for daily help will find it won't, no matter how much that help is needed. The ways to pay for home care are private funds, long-term care insurance, or Medicaid through CCSP or SOURCE for those who qualify.
Which One Do You Need?
Start with the need, not the brochure. The table maps the two services across the dimensions that decide who provides the care and who pays.
| Home Health (Home Health Agency) | Home Care (Private Home Care Provider) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Skilled, doctor-ordered medical care: nursing; physical, occupational, or speech therapy; home health aide tied to skilled care | Non-medical help with daily living: bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, companionship |
| Who provides it | A Home Health Agency and its clinical staff | A Private Home Care Provider (PHCP) and its aides and personal-care workers |
| Licensed by | Georgia DCH (Healthcare Facility Regulation Division) | Georgia DCH (Healthcare Facility Regulation Division); HHA services are excluded from this category |
| Who pays | Medicare (when homebound + intermittent skilled need), Medicaid, or private insurance | Private pay, long-term care insurance, or Medicaid via CCSP / SOURCE |
A quick way to place a situation: if a doctor has ordered skilled care and the person is homebound, you're looking at home health from a Home Health Agency, and Medicare is the payer to check first. If the need is ongoing help with everyday tasks and there's no skilled medical component, you're looking at home care from a Private Home Care Provider, and the question becomes whether to pay privately or use Medicaid through CCSP or SOURCE. Plenty of families arrange both at once.
What It Costs
Home health, when Medicare covers it, costs the beneficiary nothing for the covered skilled services. The cost question really lives on the home care side, where families pay out of pocket unless Medicaid covers it.
For non-medical home care in Georgia, costs ran roughly $28 to $29 an hour in 2024, according to the Genworth/CareScout Cost of Care Survey, which put homemaker services at about $64,064 a year and a home health aide at about $66,352 a year on a basis of 44 hours a week. Those are industry survey medians, not government rates and not a maximum, so what a specific Georgia agency charges can land above or below them. Georgia runs below the national median in every care category, by more than $11,000 a year for in-home care, but a family using fewer hours than the full-week assumption will of course pay less than the annual figure suggests.
For older Georgians who qualify for Medicaid, that private cost can be covered instead through CCSP or SOURCE, which pay for in-home personal support for people who meet the income, asset, and level-of-care tests.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Medicare does not pay for non-medical home care, the help with bathing, dressing, meals, and supervision that an aide provides. Medicare's home health benefit covers skilled, doctor-ordered care (nursing and therapy) from a Home Health Agency for people who are homebound and need it on an intermittent basis. For non-medical home care, the options are private pay, long-term care insurance, or, for those who qualify, Medicaid through CCSP or SOURCE.
A Home Health Agency provides skilled home health, nursing and therapy and the home health aide services tied to that skilled care; DCH licenses it, and its care is reimbursable by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance. A Private Home Care Provider (PHCP) provides non-medical home care, also DCH-licensed, usually paid privately or through a Medicaid waiver. The simplest test is whether a doctor's order and a licensed clinician are involved: if yes, it's a Home Health Agency; if not, it's a PHCP.
Home health is skilled medical care a doctor orders and a licensed clinician delivers, covered by Medicare when the person is homebound and needs intermittent skilled care. Home care is non-medical help with daily living that Medicare does not cover. In Georgia the two come from differently licensed providers, a Home Health Agency for home health, a Private Home Care Provider for home care.
CCSP and SOURCE are Georgia Medicaid's routes to home care, not home health. Delivered under the state's Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program, they fund in-home personal support and other services for low-income older Georgians who would otherwise need a nursing-home level of care. They do not provide skilled nursing or therapy; for that you need a Home Health Agency. The eligibility and enrollment details live in our Georgia Medicaid CCSP Waiver and Georgia Medicaid SOURCE Waiver guides.
Yes, and many do. A person recovering from surgery might receive Medicare-covered Home Health Agency care (a nurse and a therapist for a set period) while also needing ongoing non-medical home care (an aide for bathing and meals). The two run on separate tracks with separate payers, so arranging one does not arrange or pay for the other.
Learn More
- Georgia Medicaid CCSP Waiver
- Georgia Medicaid SOURCE Waiver
- Georgia Medicaid Home Health Coverage
- Georgia Medicaid (the full guide)
Find personalized help arranging care at home in Georgia at brevy.com.
The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.