Renewing and changing a PA home care license

The renewal deadline is 60 days before expiry

File the renewal form at least 60 days before the expiration date on your license, with the same $100 fee the initial application carried.

Sixty days is a long runway, and it is there because the Department may inspect before it renews. Treat the expiration date on the license as the day your ability to serve clients ends, and the renewal date as two months earlier.

Renewals go through the same online system as new applications. The Department's home care page lists renewals alongside initial applications and ownership changes as part of the move online.

60 daysPennsylvania requires a home care license renewal form at least 60 days before the license expiration date. — 28 Pa. Code § 611.2, Pennsylvania Code, retrieved 2026-09-27

$100The home care renewal fee is $100 per licensed location. — 28 Pa. Code § 611.2, Pennsylvania Code, retrieved 2026-09-27

What the renewal form asks that confuses owners

One field catches almost every home care owner: requested capacity. The Department's answer is zero, because home care has no beds or slots to license.

That odd field exists because the renewal form is shared with facility types that do have capacity. Enter zero and move on. Everything else on the renewal reflects your current operation, so check that the address, administrator and service counties it shows are still true before signing.

Anything that has changed since the last renewal should already have been reported by letter, as the next sections cover. The renewal is not the place to announce a move for the first time.

0The Department of Health's FAQ says home care agencies should enter zero for Requested Capacity on the renewal application. — Pennsylvania Department of Health, Home Care Agency/Registry License FAQ, retrieved 2026-09-27

Moving the office or changing phone numbers

Report a new address by letter to the Division of Home Health, giving your license number, the effective date, and the new street address, mailing address and phone numbers.

Remember that the license names a physical location. Moving is not a clerical update you can make after the fact, because the license on the wall has to match where you actually are and where inspectors will turn up.

The Department's FAQ lists a dedicated resource account for these change letters. Send the letter before the move date, not after, and keep a copy with your license records.

To change a home care agency's address, the Department of Health asks for a letter with the license number, effective date, new address, mailing address and phone and fax numbers. — Pennsylvania Department of Health, Home Care Agency/Registry License FAQ, retrieved 2026-09-27

Replacing the agency administrator

A new administrator needs a change letter, a signed password agreement, their resume and a criminal background check dated within the past year.

The check can come from the State Police with the purpose marked as employment, or through FBI fingerprinting. The one-year window is the same rule that applies to every caregiver hire, set out in the background check guide.

Plan the handover so the check comes back before the old administrator leaves. An agency without a named, cleared administrator is exposed if an inspector arrives in between.

1 yearThe Department of Health requires a new administrator's criminal background check results to be no more than one year old. — Pennsylvania Department of Health, Home Care Agency/Registry License FAQ, retrieved 2026-09-27

Adding counties to your service area

You can widen the area one office serves by letter, but counties that do not border your office's county need a written plan for staffing, supervision and training there.

This is usually the cheaper route than a second licensed office, which would need a full initial application. The plan is the Department's way of asking how a caregiver two hours away is supervised and trained by an office that never sees them.

If the honest answer is that it cannot be, a second location is the better route, with its own fee and license, as priced on the startup cost page.

Requests to add non-adjoining counties to a home care service area must include a plan for staffing, supervision and training in those counties. — Pennsylvania Department of Health, Home Care Agency/Registry License FAQ, retrieved 2026-09-27

Ownership changes need approval before they happen

When 5% or more of ownership is expected to change, submit step one of the change of ownership application first; the change cannot happen until the Division approves it.

This is where the entity choice pays off or bites. Adding a partner, buying out a co-founder or selling a stake all count, and an agency held by an LLC changes owners by changing members, which still needs the Department's approval.

Loop the licensing approval into any deal timeline. A closing that goes ahead before approval can leave the license in question. The structure options are compared on the entity page, and your state filings for those changes are on the annual obligations page.

5%The Department of Health requires a change of ownership application whenever 5% or more of a home care agency's ownership is expected to change, and the change cannot occur until approved. — Pennsylvania Department of Health, Home Care Agency/Registry License FAQ, retrieved 2026-09-27

Questions