Non-Medical Home Care Insurance: Coverage, Limits & Costs

What non-medical home care actually gets sued for

Claims against companion and personal care agencies rarely look like malpractice. They look like a client falling during a transfer, a medication reminder given at the wrong time, jewelry or cash going missing, a caregiver's own car crashing on the way to a shift, or an allegation of rough handling or abuse. Every one of those sits in a different policy, which is why agencies that buy a generic business owners policy discover the gap only after a claim.

The coverage stack a non-medical agency needs

A complete non-medical home care program is built from six parts, and carriers expect to see all of them before they will write a referral-source contract.

• •General liability — $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate is the practical floor for any agency taking referrals
• •Professional liability (errors in care) — written on the same tower so a claim isn't argued between two carriers
• •Abuse & molestation — usually a sublimit; push for a dedicated limit rather than a shared one
• •Employee dishonesty / third-party fidelity bond — covers theft from a client's home, which GL excludes
• •Hired and non-owned auto — the agency's protection when a caregiver drives a personal vehicle
• •Workers' compensation — required from the first employee in most states, and the largest line item

Why 'bonded and insured' means a fidelity bond, not GL

When a client asks whether your caregivers are bonded, they are asking about theft from the home. General liability excludes it. What answers the question is an employee dishonesty policy or third-party fidelity bond, typically written at $10,000 to $100,000. It is inexpensive relative to what it does for your marketing — being able to say bonded and insured truthfully is a closing line in home care sales.

Caregiver driving is the exposure most agencies miss

Personal auto policies contain a business-use exclusion. When a caregiver runs a client to an appointment or drives between shifts and causes an injury, the injured party's attorney names the agency. Hired and non-owned auto responds on the agency's behalf and is inexpensive because it sits excess of the caregiver's own policy. Agencies that transport clients as a service, rather than incidentally, generally need a commercial auto policy instead.

Read our guide to hired & non-owned auto for home care →

What non-medical home care insurance costs

Pricing is driven by caregiver payroll, state, services performed (companion only versus hands-on personal care) and claims history. The ranges below reflect what KTL commonly places for non-medical agencies; a skilled or Medicare-certified agency will run materially higher.

What underwriters will ask you

Expect questions about background-check procedures, whether caregivers are W-2 or 1099, supervision and care-plan documentation, whether you provide transportation, whether you perform any skilled tasks such as medication administration, and your annual caregiver payroll. Strong answers on screening and supervision move abuse pricing more than anything else you can do.

Contract and licensing requirements

Referral partners, Medicaid waiver programs and state licensing boards all set their own limits. Hospital discharge programs and managed-care organizations typically want $1M/$2M general liability, $1M professional liability, additional insured status on a primary and non-contributory basis, and a waiver of subrogation on workers' comp. Send us the requirements and we will tell you exactly which endorsements satisfy them.

Send us your contract's insurance requirements →