NAICS code for home health care: 621610, and 624120 for non-medical home care

This page is for home health and home care agencies filling in a form that asks for a NAICS or SIC code (SAM.gov, a loan or insurance application, a tax return) and for sellers listing these agencies by code.

The NAICS codes for home health and home care

The first two are the ones that matter for most agencies. 621610 sits in Sector 62's ambulatory health care subsector; 624120 sits in social assistance, in the same sector but a different subsector.

How to choose: is there skilled nursing?

The Census definition of 621610 starts with "skilled nursing services in the home," and the other services are listed as additions to it. The cross-reference for 624120 sends "non-medical home care or homemaker services" there. So the test is whether licensed nurses deliver care as the core of the business.

If you do both skilled and non-medical care, the code with more revenue is your primary one: the IRS asks for "the principal source of your sales or receipts." A licensed home health agency whose private-pay personal care outearns its Medicare nursing visits belongs in 624120 for its primary code, and lists 621610 as a second code where a form allows it (our reading).

SIC codes for home health care

SIC 8082 is one of the few codes that maps to a single NAICS code. Non-medical home care has no SIC code of its own: it shares 8322 with youth services, family counseling and other social services. To convert other codes, use the NAICS to SIC converter.

How many home health and home care businesses there are

Two federal sources count them differently.

In the CMS file, California has 3,196 agencies, Texas 1,831, Florida 1,157, Ohio 826 and Illinois 531. 8,954 agencies list proprietary ownership, 1,049 nonprofit and 239 government; 2,167 give no ownership type.

County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, the Census Bureau's count of establishments with paid employees:

Home health locations are larger than most health care offices: 3,200 of them have 100 or more employees. Payroll per employee is about $38,100 in 621610 and $29,100 in 624120 (our calculation; part-time aides count as whole employees). The top states for 621610 are California (5,577), Texas (4,550), Florida (3,476), Ohio (1,729) and Georgia (1,554); Texas has the most employees, 224,946. For 624120, California leads (4,324), then Missouri (3,454), New York (2,729), Pennsylvania (2,455) and Texas (2,233).

CBP counts locations, not companies, and leaves out caregivers who work for themselves without employees. CBP 2023 uses NAICS 2017; neither code changed in 2022.

SBA size standards

For federal contracts, the SBA compares your average annual receipts over your last five completed fiscal years, affiliates included, with the standard for the contract's code. From 13 CFR 121.201 on the eCFR (last amended March 17, 2023):

The small business size standards page explains how receipts and affiliates are counted.

Where the code is used and what a wrong one costs

• Federal contracts. The contracting officer picks one code per solicitation. An agency averaging $17 million is small for a 621610 contract but not for a 624120 one. An adversely affected party can appeal the code to the SBA's Office of Hearings and Appeals within 10 calendar days of the solicitation.
• Tax returns. The IRS Schedule C list has 621610 for home health care services, but non-medical home care falls under 624100, Individual and family services.
• Lists. A personal care agency coded 621610 lands on lists for skilled nursing products (clinical software, infusion supplies) it will never buy.

Finding home health companies by code

EDGAR lists public companies by SIC: SIC 8082. The largest, with total revenue from each company's latest 10-K:

EDGAR's SIC is not a NAICS code. Addus files under 8082, but $1.09 billion of its $1.42 billion came from personal care, which its 10-K calls "non-medical assistance with activities of daily living." For private agencies, the CMS file gives every Medicare-registered agency with address, phone and services offered, and a Bebop search takes plain-language criteria (skilled or non-medical, Medicare-certified or private pay, state) and returns agencies and contacts with the reason each fits.

Worked example: coding a mixed agency

Illustrative example. The company and figures are invented.

Maple Lane Care (maplelane.example) in Pennsylvania is a licensed home health agency. Last year Medicare and insurer-paid skilled nursing and therapy brought in $4.8 million, and private-pay and Medicaid waiver personal care $6.1 million. Average annual receipts over five fiscal years: $9.2 million.

1. Primary code. Personal care is 56% of revenue ($6.1 million of $10.9 million): 624120.
2. Extra code. It adds 621610 in SAM.gov for skilled nursing solicitations.
3. Size check. $9.2 million is under both the $15.0 million and $19.0 million limits; 624120 is the one growth crosses first.
4. Other forms. A bank asking for SIC gets 8322 as primary and 8082 as secondary. On a Schedule C it would be 624100.

Next step: for residential care rather than care at home, see the NAICS code for a nursing home, which covers skilled nursing facilities, assisted living and continuing care communities.