Mississippi · Checked October 22, 2026
Non-medical home care is not state-licensed in Mississippi — but the lanes around it are regulated, and the skilled door is a different license.
Checked in part. CON requirement and the $500 home health license fee are primary-verified. The moratorium's current status is genuinely unsettled: the State Health Plan text still carries the moratorium framing, while a 2025 federal court ruling (reported in trade press, not re-read in the opinion itself in this pass) struck it down — flagged as a gate with both facts stated. No-license status for non-medical care follows from the absence of any in-home personal care category in MSDH licensure (the similarly named 'personal care home' license is residential). 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 | Mississippi |
|---|---|
| License / registration | No state license for a standalone non-medical / personal care agency. Mississippi licenses Home Health Agencies (Miss. Code § 41-71-1 et seq.; MSDH Minimum Standards for Home Health Agencies) — and that skilled license sits behind a Certificate of Need. 'Personal care home' in Mississippi law (§ 43-11-1 et seq.) is a residential facility license, not in-home care — do not confuse the two. |
| Issued by | Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), Office of Health Facilities Licensure and Certification (licensure/CON); Division of Medicaid (DOM) for waiver personal care enrollment — official page |
| Application / initial fee | Not published — No license fee for non-medical agencies (no license exists). For the licensed home health category, MSDH Minimum Standards for Home Health Agencies set the initial licensure fee at $500 (Rule 107.02), prorated if the licensure period (July 1-June 30) is partial. |
| Renewal | Not applicable for the non-medical lane. Home health renewal fee is $500 per year under the same Minimum Standards rule. |
| Surety bond | No state bond minimum found in the published rules |
| Liability insurance | State sets no minimum |
| Timeline | State does not publish a processing time — and for the skilled lane the CON process, not licensure paperwork, is the controlling timeline (see gates). |
| Administrator | No administrator standard for unlicensed non-medical agencies. Licensed home health agencies operate under MSDH Minimum Standards requiring an organized governing body/administrator structure and RN-supervised skilled and aide services; the application must state ownership, geographic service area, services, personnel, branch/subunit locations and evidence of Certificate of Need (Minimum Standards Rule 107.01). |
| State extras | Skilled lane: CON application and hearing costs (legal/consultant costs typically dwarf the $500 license fee), plus the $500 initial and $500 annual license fees. Non-medical lane: no state agency fee found; Medicaid enrollment and EVV system costs are operating costs. |
| Service | Under this license |
|---|---|
| Companionship & supervision | Covered |
| 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 + a gate (see below) |
Coverage shown is descriptive of an unlicensed private-pay agency, not a licensed scope. There is no licensed non-medical scope in Mississippi. Personal care for eligible members is a Medicaid service (Elderly & Disabled Waiver / Independent Living Waiver personal care attendant services) delivered by DOM-enrolled providers. An agency may not offer 'home health services' — a CON-reviewable health service under § 41-7-191(1)(d)(ix) — without MSDH licensure and a CON.
Home Health Agency license from MSDH ($500 initial / $500 annual renewal per Minimum Standards) PLUS a Certificate of Need: Miss. Code § 41-7-191 requires a CON for the establishment of a home health agency and for offering home health services not provided regularly in the prior 12 months, and MSDH's State Health Plan criteria (15 Miss. Code R. 8-90-07-703.02) require documented unmet need of at least 50 patients per county. See the moratorium gate — this lane has been effectively closed for decades and its legal status changed in court in 2025-2026.
Certificate of Need required to establish a home health agency or offer home health services (Miss. Code § 41-7-191(1)(d)(ix)); MSDH CON criteria require documented unmet need of 50+ patients in each county proposed to be served (15 Miss. Code R. 8-90-07-703.02).
Mississippi's State Health Plan imposed a moratorium on new home health agencies dating to the 1980s — the CON standards text itself opens 'If the present moratorium were removed or partially lifted, MSDH would review applications…' In 2025 a federal district judge (Slaughter litigation) struck the decades-old moratorium down as violating due process and equal protection, because the plaintiff 'cannot offer home health services without a Certificate (of Need), and he cannot receive a Certificate because of the four-decades-long moratorium.' Post-judgment MSDH CON practice for new home health agencies was unsettled when checked — verify with MSDH before launch and do not present the skilled lane as simply open or simply closed.
Enroll with the Mississippi Division of Medicaid as a personal care / waiver provider (Elderly & Disabled Waiver and other HCBS waivers) to deliver personal care attendant services; no MSDH facility license is required for that non-medical enrollment, but the provider must meet DOM provider qualifications.
EVV is required for Medicaid personal care services under the federal 21st Century Cures Act as implemented by Mississippi Medicaid.
The state fee above is one line of the real total. Run the true-cost calculator with Mississippi 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
