What Michigan does and does not regulate
Michigan has no statute licensing non-medical home care — personal care, companion and homemaker agencies operate without a state license. Michigan also does not issue its own home health agency license; skilled providers instead obtain federal Medicare certification under 42 CFR Part 484, with LARA's Bureau of Community and Health Systems acting as the CMS survey agency. Because no licensing body imposes insurance conditions, your program is driven entirely by contracts and by exposure.
The absence of licensure raises your risk, not lowers it
Two consequences follow directly. First, referral sources and families cannot rely on a license as a quality signal, so they ask for the certificate of insurance instead — carrying $1M/$2M general liability with professional liability is effectively your credential in Michigan. Second, Michigan's fingerprint background check statute, MCL 333.20173a, reaches nursing homes, Medicare-certified home health agencies and hospices, but not unlicensed non-medical agencies. Underwriters know this, and they price abuse and molestation coverage based on whether you screen voluntarily.
Workers' compensation thresholds
Under the Worker's Disability Compensation Act, MCL 418.115, a private Michigan employer must carry coverage once it has three or more employees at one time — or even one employee working 35 or more hours a week for 13 or more weeks in the preceding 52. A home care agency running a handful of part-time caregivers can cross that second test without noticing. Coverage should be bound before your first shift, not after the third hire.
No-fault auto and caregiver driving
Michigan's no-fault system, as reformed in 2020 with tiered PIP choices, means a caregiver's injuries in a car accident route through their own PIP coverage — but liability for injuries to others, and the agency's own exposure when a caregiver is driving on agency business, does not disappear. Personal auto policies exclude business use. Hired and non-owned auto liability is the agency's coverage for that gap, and it belongs on every Michigan home care program where caregivers drive. Separately, Michigan no-fault attendant care benefits pay for in-home caregiving for auto accident victims, which is a real revenue line for Michigan agencies and worth discussing when you set limits.
What Michigan payers require
The MI Choice Waiver (a combined 1915(b)/(c) program for nursing-facility-level care) and the MDHHS Home Help Program, Michigan's state-plan personal care channel, are the two main Medicaid routes for home care. Provider agreements and the waiver agencies that administer them set the insurance conditions. Send us the agreement and we will read the insurance exhibit rather than guess at it.
A sensible Michigan program
For an unlicensed non-medical agency, the practical baseline is $1M/$2M general liability written with professional liability on the same tower, a dedicated abuse and molestation limit, an employee dishonesty bond with third-party coverage so you can say bonded and insured truthfully, hired and non-owned auto, and workers' compensation from the first hires. Medicare-certified agencies add cyber liability and generally an umbrella to satisfy hospital discharge partners.
Have Insurance Requirements From a Client?
Send us the insurance requirements from your contract, lease, vendor agreement, or licensing agency. A KTL commercial insurance specialist will review the requirements and help determine the coverage, limits, and endorsements you need.
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