Home Care vs. Home Health in Georgia (2026)

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.1

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.1 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.1 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.1,3 The two that trip families up most:

• Homebound. The person must be homebound, and the doctor or allowed practitioner who certifies the plan of care confirms it.
• 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.

To start Medicare home health, the first move is to ask the doctor managing the condition to order it and certify the plan of care. Medicare home health begins with a physician (or allowed practitioner) order and a face-to-face certification that the person is homebound and needs intermittent skilled care; the doctor's office then refers the case to a Medicare-certified Home Health Agency, which handles enrollment and scheduling. If a hospital is discharging the person, the discharge planner can set this up before they leave.1,3

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.1 A PHCP supplies the aides and personal-care workers who handle bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, and companionship; Georgia's definition of private home care also covers nursing services and companion or sitter tasks provided at the person's residence. Services provided by a licensed home health agency are exempt from the Private Home Care Provider license, so the two are licensed separately: families usually turn to a PHCP for non-medical help, and to a Home Health Agency for skilled, doctor-ordered home health.

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.1 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 when that is the only care a person needs.1 A family expecting Medicare to cover an aide for daily help, with no skilled nursing or therapy in the picture, 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.

To find a licensed PHCP in Georgia, start with the agency that licenses them: the Georgia DCH Healthcare Facility Regulation Division (HFRD), which licenses and inspects every Private Home Care Provider in the state. Confirm that any provider you're considering holds a current PHCP license before you sign on, ask whether it is private-pay only or also bills Medicaid waivers, and check whether it has had recent inspection or enforcement findings. Hiring a licensed PHCP, rather than an unlicensed individual, is also what keeps the door open to Medicaid-waiver payment, since CCSP and SOURCE pay licensed providers.1

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.1

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.1,3 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, the median rate is about $32 an hour, according to the 2025 CareScout Cost of Care Survey (released March 2, 2026, from rates collected July through November 2025), which works out to about $73,216 a year on the survey's basis of 44 hours a week for 52 weeks.2 That 2025 survey replaced the separate homemaker and home health aide lines it used through 2024 with this one "non-medical caregiver" category, so a Georgia figure that still splits the two is older data. 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, and a family buying fewer hours than the full-week assumption will pay far less than the annual figure suggests. Georgia sits below the national median for this category: $73,216 a year in Georgia against the $80,080 national figure, or $32 an hour against $35.2

Skilled nursing brought into the home is priced separately and runs the other way. The 2025 survey put Georgia's private duty nurse rate at about $98 an hour, above the $90 national median, and about $135 a visit, below the $160 national per-visit median.2 The survey also publishes an annual private duty nursing figure for Georgia of about $5,096, but read that carefully: it assumes only one hour of nursing a week for 52 weeks, so it is not what a family paying for regular in-home skilled nursing would spend.2

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.1

Learn More

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.