Home care business insurance in Georgia.
Georgia's home care rules reach further into your insurance than most owners expect. Aides who handle a client's money must be bonded through you, and an aide driving a client needs a signed waiver or auto coverage that pays the client's medical bills. We build around those rules: liability, workers' comp, abuse and molestation, and the bond. Zero agency fees, ever.
Six policies, and the order Georgia makes you think about them.
Georgia writes one of these into its rules by name: the bond for aides who handle client money. The rest exist because of what happens in a client home when nobody else is watching.
Professional liability
Referral sources and payors ask for it by name, and it answers for the care itself: a care plan not followed, a medication reminder missed, a decline in condition nobody escalated.
General liability
The ordinary accidents: a lamp knocked off a side table, a client who goes down during a transfer, a family member who slips in your office. It is usually the first coverage a referral partner asks to see on a certificate.
Workers' compensation
Generally required once you regularly employ three or more people, and part-timers count. If you are incorporated or an LLC, officers and members count toward the three even when they waive coverage for themselves.
Abuse & molestation
Georgia fingerprints your administrator, your owners, and your direct care staff through GCIC and the FBI before it licenses you. Screening lowers the odds. It does nothing about an allegation. Standard forms often exclude this or hide a small sublimit, so we read the endorsement, not the certificate.
Hired & non-owned auto
Georgia aides cover real ground between clients, and the distances outside metro Atlanta are not small. If one causes a wreck on your clock, your agency gets named in the claim and their personal auto policy will not answer for your business.
Employee dishonesty & crime
Medications, jewelry, a checkbook on the counter, and your caregiver as the only person in the room. When a family says something went missing, this is what answers. Georgia also requires any aide with unlimited access to a client’s funds to be bonded through your agency.
Georgia writes the caregiver’s car into the rules.
Georgia defines transport and escort services in Rule 111-8-65-.03 as taking clients out of the house for appointments, shopping, exercise, recreation, or social activities. When the car is not the client’s and one of your employees is driving, the rule gives you two options. Get a signed waiver from the client of claims arising from the vehicle, or make reasonable efforts to confirm there is current auto insurance that will provide medical coverage for the client if the car is in a wreck.
A waiver is paperwork. It does not stop a family from calling a lawyer after a client is hurt, and it does nothing about the other driver. The insurance route is the one we build around, and it has three layers. The caregiver’s own auto policy answers first for their car. Medical payments coverage on that policy pays an injured passenger’s medical bills regardless of fault, which is the cleanest fit for the rule’s wording. Hired and non-owned auto on your agency’s policy protects the business when the claim comes to you.
In practice that means collecting a declarations page from every caregiver who drives, checking it for medical payments coverage, and tracking renewal dates so a lapsed policy does not slip through. The same rules ask your client agreement to include written authorization before a caregiver drives the client’s own car, which puts that car’s policy first in line instead. Send us your aides’ declarations pages and we will tell you which ones leave a hole.
Waiver or insurance
Rule 111-8-65-.03(s): when an employee drives a client in a vehicle the client does not own, the provider either obtains a signed waiver of claims or makes reasonable efforts to confirm current motor vehicle insurance that will provide medical coverage for the client.
What Georgia home care owners should know.
Georgia runs home care through the Private Home Care Provider license, issued by the Department of Community Health under the rules at Chapter 111-8-65. Nobody operates without one. The application has its own surprises: a registered nurse is required to open the agency even if you only plan companion care, and the administrator and every owner with 10% or more must clear a fingerprint background check through the state’s GCHEXS system. The application does not ask for an insurance certificate. The rules still reach your insurance in two places, bonding for aides who handle client money and coverage for clients your aides drive, and we walk through both on this page.
Workers' comp lands sooner in Georgia than most owners expect. Coverage is generally required once you regularly employ three or more people, and part-time staff count toward that number, which is exactly how caregiving is staffed. If your company is incorporated or an LLC, officers and members count toward the three as well, and waiving coverage for an officer does not lower the count. A caregiver you pay on a 1099 who carries nothing of their own can still land on your audit as an employee. If you also operate in South Carolina, the threshold there is four, and we cover that on our South Carolina home care insurance page.
Carrier appetite is the other thing that moves a Georgia quote, and it moves on what kind of care you actually deliver. Companion and personal care, private duty, and skilled nursing classify and price differently, and a carrier happy with non-medical work may decline the same agency the week it adds a nurse. Two things help. Tell us the service mix honestly up front, and send us any insurance requirements a payor, franchisor, or referral source has handed you, so the policy gets built to match the contract rather than the other way around. For your office, equipment, and the rest of the business, see our Georgia business insurance page.
- Bonding set up the way Rule 111-8-65 expects, for every aide who handles client money
- Abuse and molestation endorsement read line by line, not assumed
- Certificates of insurance usually issued same day for referral sources and payors
- New Georgia agencies welcome, including first-year startups
Carriers that want home care
Appetite for this class moves constantly, and a carrier happy with companion care in Georgia may decline the same agency the week it adds skilled services. Knowing who is open right now is most of the job.
Quote my agencyWhen Georgia says an aide must be bonded.
Georgia is specific about money. Any employee given unlimited access to a client’s personal funds for home management, meaning bill paying and shopping, must be bonded through your agency. Here is how that maps to what you actually buy.
| Situation | What the Georgia rules say | What we put in place |
|---|---|---|
| An aide pays bills or shops with the client’s money | Rule 111-8-65-.03(g): an employee authorized unlimited access to a client’s personal funds for home management shall be bonded through the provider. | A blanket employee dishonesty bond or crime policy in the agency’s name, so every aide who handles money is covered without buying a bond per person. |
| Proving it when the surveyor comes | Rule 111-8-65-.09: personnel records document bonding for those employees. With a universal coverage bond, you do not need a copy in every folder. | One bond or policy form kept with your personnel records and replaced at each renewal. |
| The client agreement | Rule 111-8-65-.09: written authorization from the client or responsible party before staff handle personal funds, or drive the client’s own car. | We match the coverage to what your agreements allow. If your aides never touch money, tell us, because it changes the limit worth buying. |
| A family says money or jewelry is missing | The bonding rule only reaches employees who handle funds. It says nothing about the rest of the house. | Client property coverage on the crime policy. Employee theft forms are written around your agency’s own property, so the client’s belongings usually need to be added, and we check for it by name. |
Source: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 111-8-65-.03(g) and 111-8-65-.09, Rules and Regulations for Private Home Care Providers, Georgia Department of Community Health. The rules require bonding but set no dollar amount. A sensible limit covers the most money any one aide could reach.
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You pick. We bind it.
Simpler policies often bind quickly. Larger accounts go through carrier underwriting first, and we give you the real timeline up front. Then we re-shop your rate every year and help with claims when you need us.
Licensed in Georgia and serving businesses statewide by phone, text, and email from our office in Sumter, SC. Contact us →
Georgia home care insurance questions, answered
What insurance does a home care agency need in Georgia?
Most agencies need general and professional liability, abuse and molestation coverage, workers' compensation once you regularly employ three or more people, and hired and non-owned auto if caregivers drive their own cars. Add a bond or crime policy for staff working alone in client homes. Georgia's rules require bonding for any aide with unlimited access to a client's money.
Does Georgia require insurance to get a home care license?
Not as an application document. The Department of Community Health checklist for a Private Home Care Provider license covers fingerprint background checks, a registered nurse, the administrator, and your policies, but no insurance certificate. The rules do require a bond for any aide with unlimited access to a client's funds, and a signed waiver or auto insurance with medical coverage for the client when an aide drives a client in a car the client does not own.
Do I need workers' comp for my caregivers in Georgia?
Generally yes, once you regularly employ three or more people. Part-time staff count toward the three, and if your business is incorporated or an LLC, officers and members count as well, even if they waive coverage for themselves. Home care is staffed almost entirely on part-timers, so most agencies reach three sooner than they expect.
Is abuse and molestation coverage really necessary?
It is the coverage we check first on a Georgia agency, and the one most often missing. Georgia already requires GCIC and FBI background checks on your direct care staff, which helps with hiring and does nothing once an allegation is made. Many liability policies exclude the exposure outright or cap it far below the policy limit. Send us your current policy and we will tell you what the real limit is.
My caregivers drive their own cars between clients. Am I covered?
Not automatically, and this is the gap Georgia owners are most often surprised by. A caregiver driving between clients is working, so an at-fault wreck can pull your agency into the claim, and their personal policy protects them rather than your business. Hired and non-owned auto closes it, costs little, and we include it in Georgia home care quotes by default.
I am just starting my agency in Georgia. Can I get coverage?
Yes. Several of our carriers write first-year home care agencies. The license file does not wait on a policy, but your first referral source will likely ask for a certificate, so bind before your first client rather than after. Call or text 803-848-0089 and we will build it around your actual plan.
Are you licensed in Georgia?
Yes. Griffin Insurance Agency is licensed for property, casualty, and commercial lines in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and we place Georgia home care agencies with carriers appointed in the state. We are based in Sumter, South Carolina, and quotes, certificates, and policy changes are handled by phone, text, or online.
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