Hawaii · Checked October 22, 2026
Your license is the Home Care Agency License, issued by Hawaii Department of Health, Office of Health Care Assurance (OHCA), State Licensing Section.
Checked in part. Model, agency, statutory authority, service scope and exclusions are primary and solid. Two corrections to the task brief: (1) the licensing authority OHCA cites is HRS §321-14.8, not §321-481 — §321-481 is the definitions section for community care foster family homes/case management; (2) the licence scheme is implemented in HAR 11-700 (the '700' in OHCA's table). Marked partial solely because the 11-103.1 dollar fee was not read from the fee table itself. Anything the state does not publish is printed as "Not published" below — never filled from blogs or consultancy tables. Confirm on the agency page before you budget.
| Item | Hawaii |
|---|---|
| License / registration | Home Care Agency License |
| Issued by | Hawaii Department of Health, Office of Health Care Assurance (OHCA), State Licensing Section — official page |
| Application / initial fee | Not published — A fee is unquestionably due — OHCA states initial and renewal fees are due before issuance under HAR Ch. 11-103.1 — but the dollar amount for Home Care Agencies in the adopted Ch. 11-103.1 fee table (adopted 16 Sep 2022, repealing Ch. 11-103) was not extracted in this pass: the OHCA page refers out to the chapter and the chapter PDF retrieved contained the adoption summary, not the fee table. Null is deliberate; do not publish a Hawaii fee until the 11-103.1 table itself is read. |
| Renewal | Renewal fee likewise due before renewal issuance under HAR 11-103.1; amount not extracted — see feeInitialNote. |
| Surety bond | No state bond minimum found in the published rules |
| Liability insurance | State sets no minimum on the OHCA home care page reviewed; the application process expects liability insurance arrangements as part of agency policies/administration under HAR 11-700, but no dollar minimum was published in the sources retrieved. |
| Timeline | Not published |
| Administrator | HAR 11-700 sets administration and standards, scope of services and service-plan requirements, and policies and procedures for licensed home care agencies; the application requires agency administrator information and operational policies. No specific administrator degree/experience figure was published on the OHCA page retrieved, so no credential is asserted here. |
| State extras | Hawaii General Excise Tax (GET) licence and GET on gross receipts is a material Hawaii-specific operating cost for service businesses (general state tax, not a licence fee); budget also for unannounced-inspection readiness and policy/manual preparation under HAR 11-700. |
| Service | Under this license |
|---|---|
| Companionship & supervision | Not covered by this license |
| Homemaker help | Covered |
| Hands-on personal care | Covered |
| Live-in / 24-hour care | Not covered by this license |
| Transportation | Not covered by this license |
| Skilled nursing or therapy | Home health license required |
OHCA definition is explicit: home care services are (1) personal care — assistance with dressing, feeding and personal hygiene to facilitate self-care, (2) homemaker assistance — housekeeping, shopping, meal planning and preparation, and (3) respite care and support to the family. Personal/homemaker assistance does NOT include management of the client's money or finances or balancing the client's checkbook, and does NOT include nursing or other clinical professional services normally provided by home health agencies or private duty nursing. The term Home Care Agency does not apply to an individual, including an incorporated individual or a volunteer.
Home Health Agencies are a separate OHCA licence/certification type under HAR 11-97.1 and 42 CFR 484.1-484.265 (OHCA facility-type table: Home Care Agencies = HAR Ch. 700; Home Health Agencies = HAR 97.1). A home care licence does not authorise nursing/clinical services.
Licence first with OHCA, then enrol with Hawaii Med-QUEST (Department of Human Services) to deliver Medicaid home and community-based personal care/homemaker services; licensure and Medicaid enrolment are separate steps.
EVV required for Medicaid personal care / home health visits under the federal Cures Act; Hawaii is an open model (Sandata aggregator in national EVV listings).
The state fee above is one line of the real total. Run the true-cost calculator with Hawaii selected — it adds the bond premium, insurance class, screening and the payroll runway your first hires create.
This page is information, not legal advice. Confirm before you file: the agency — not this page — decides your application.
The free checkers give you the verdict and the number. The Kit gives you the working papers: your state's application packet walked through in filing order, the policies-and-procedures binder spec (what your binder must contain — never a boilerplate binder), the administrator self-audit, the insurance & bond spec sheet, the Medicaid gate map, the franchise-vs-independent 10-year worksheets, and the payroll-runway planner.
$49 one-time payment
Included in the $49 HomeCareLicenseCheck Kit
