How to start a home care agency in Florida

Updated October 14, 2026 · CensusDesk research

Florida at a glance

Fees and forms change. Check AHCA’s pages for your path before you pay anything.

Step 1. Pick your path

This is the big decision in Florida. A homemaker and companion provider can help with housekeeping, cooking, errands, and companionship for older adults and adults with disabilities. AHCA is clear that this registration does not allow hands-on personal care, so no bathing, feeding, or changing clients.

If your caregivers will help with bathing, dressing, eating, or other hands-on care, you need a home health agency license instead. Many owners start with companion care because the registration is fast and inexpensive, then add the license later. Others go straight to the license because families often need hands-on help from day one.

Step 2. Form your business and pick a name that fits

Register your business with the Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz), and register a fictitious name there if you’ll operate under a name other than your legal one. Most owners also get a federal EIN and open a business bank account.

On the companion path, your name matters. AHCA won’t accept a name with words like home health, home health aide, personal care, patient care, health care, assisted living, nurses, nursing, or medical, because they suggest care the registration doesn’t cover.

Step 3. Get your background screening

Florida requires Level 2 background screening by scanned fingerprints. On the companion path, that covers your managing employees and financial officers when you apply, and every new homemaker or companion before you hire them. Screening fees are separate from the registration fee.

Step 4. Apply to AHCA

Companion path: apply through AHCA’s online licensing system (or on paper to the Long Term Care Services Unit in Tallahassee) and pay the $50.75 fee. AHCA reviews your application and tells you within 30 days if anything is missing. You get 21 days to answer. AHCA then approves or denies within 60 days of receiving a complete application.

Home health agency path: Florida law asks for more with your first application, including:

• A list of the services you’ll provide
• The number and kind of professional staff you’ll employ
• A signed business plan covering how you’ll get clients and keep staff
• Proof of contingency funding
• Financial statements compiled and signed by a CPA, showing you can cover your expenses
• Proof of at least $250,000 per claim in malpractice and liability insurance

Your administrator also has to qualify under state law: a licensed physician, physician assistant, or registered nurse, or someone with at least one year of supervisory or administrative experience in home health care or certain licensed facilities.

Step 5. Renew on time

A companion registration runs two years. File your renewal at least 60 days before it expires. If you’re late, there’s a $25.38 late fee, and if it lapses you have to stop operating and apply again as a new provider.

What it costs to get started

Getting your first clients

A license doesn’t bring families to you. Here’s what the research says about where clients come from, and what that means for a new Florida agency.

• Referrals lead. Current and past clients are the top referral source for private duty home care, followed by discharge planners, home health, hospice, and rehab. A new agency has no past clients yet, so the referral engine starts slow.
• Families search first. Most families looking for senior care start with a generic search like “home care near me,” and few search an agency by name. If your agency has no website, those families find someone else.
• Directories charge per lead. Lead directories and paid search often run $50 to $150 per lead, and the family may be shopping three agencies at once.
• Speed wins. On average about a third of home care inquiries become clients. A family coming home from the hospital may have only a day or two to decide.

What one client is worth in Florida

That’s why the first thing a new agency needs after its license is a front door that works when you can’t pick up the phone: a real website, a way for families to get answers at night, and every inquiry in your inbox the minute it happens.

Sources

• Florida AHCA, Homemaker and Companion Services Provider, “General Information” (fee, term, processing, services, names, screening, insurance), read October 14, 2026
• Florida Administrative Code, Rule 59A-8.025, Registration Requirements for Homemaker and Companion Services Providers
• Florida Statutes, s. 400.471 (home health agency application requirements and insurance) and s. 400.462 (definitions, administrator), flsenate.gov, read October 14, 2026
• CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025, median hourly cost of non-medical in-home care by state
• HCAOA Private Duty Benchmarking, via Activated Insights (referral sources)
• Caring.com search behavior figures, via CoreCubed (generic search)
• Home Care Pulse, via Home Health Care News (inquiry conversion benchmarks)
• Sagapixel (directory and paid search cost per lead estimates)