UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

The rapid growth of the home care industry coincides with increases in the proportion of the population over 65 years of age and more likely to need assistance with basic daily activities due to illness or disability. This report provides a profile of the home care industry and the patients/consumers of such services in California, assessing available data on licensure and certification as mechanisms for promoting safety and quality of care. The results indicate that little information is available on the characteristics and care delivery of home care agencies and individual providers of nonmedical home care. The results also illustrate that licensure and certification of home health agencies are associated with higher structural quality‐of-care measures. Establishing licensure and basic safety standards for home care agencies is a reasonable public health policy to reduce the potential for adverse consequences for the growing aging and disabled populations.