Alaska's Department of Health licenses home health agencies and hospices.
None of the documents we hold creates a separate license for non-medical home care, but to bill Medicaid personal care or waiver services an agency must be certified by Senior and Disabilities Services (SDS). Medicaid pays agencies directly (fee-for-service); the waivers say Alaska has no managed care. Four waivers were renewed, effective July 1, 2026, and the state plans to add geofencing to EVV, with no start date set yet.
Red means act now, amber means read it this month, grey is for the record.
The state plans to add geofencing to all procedure codes that require EVV. It has not set a start date. The EVV team planned a survey of agencies in June and a town hall on Aug. 17.
The ALI, APDD, CCMC and IDD waivers were renewed. For ALI and APDD, SDS is moving from the Consumer Assessment Tool (CAT) to the Alaska Home Care Tool over about a year; an enrolled participant found ineligible on the new tool is reassessed with the CAT. Host care homes can now be respite providers, and the waivers clarify which services a relative or legally responsible person may provide.
Waiver and personal care agencies named on the list must send an annual financial report to the Office of Rate Review within 8 months of their fiscal year end. This year every listed agency files a reduced report. Agencies not on the list don't file this cycle.
The FY27 rate charts raise personal care to $9.30 per 15 minutes and waiver respite to $9.09 per 15 minutes. Separately, the state took comments until July 30, 2026 on a Medicaid state plan amendment for its 2026 annual rate update.
Applications for personal care agencies and home health agencies now include an addendum requiring you to follow EVV rules when providing services, submitting claims and reporting changes.
Dates taken from the rules and notices as we read them.
For agencies on the Aug. 1, 2026 Target Provider List. Reduced report for SFY26.
For agencies on the Aug. 1, 2026 Target Provider List.
For agencies on the Aug. 1, 2026 Target Provider List.
For agencies on the Aug. 1, 2026 Target Provider List.
Every state follows the same outline, so you always know where to look. Open a topic for the detail.
Sometimes two official documents say different things. Here is what we went with, why, and what each document says, so you can judge for yourself.
The Conditions of Participation that personal care agencies must follow (revised Sept. 1, 2022) require CPR and first aid training within the previous two years. An older SDS form for asking for extra time when no class is nearby (Cert-49-B, revised Dec. 23, 2019) says every three years. We go with the newer Conditions. We don't hold the regulation itself (7 AAC 125.090), so check with SDS if this matters for a worker.
Every answer was written and checked ahead of time, with the official document next to it. Nothing is made up on the spot.
No separate license that we can find, but Medicaid work needs SDS certification.
The state licenses home health agencies, which must provide skilled nursing plus at least one therapy or home health aide service, and hospices. None of our documents creates a license for non-medical home care. To bill Medicaid personal care, CFC or waiver services you must be certified by Senior and Disabilities Services and hold a State of Alaska business license. For respite, the waivers list a "Non-Licensed" certified agency type.
Apply to SDS with form Cert-36 and your policies.
A complete packet has the Cert-36 application, the Cert-37 policy assurances, your business license, a certificate of insurance naming SDS, critical incident reporting training for your program administrator, an organization chart, your program administrator's qualifications (form Cert-04) and proof of (or registration for) the administrator trainings, and an operations manual with all required policies. The preferred way to send it is as a PDF to doh.dsds.certification@alaska.gov. An incomplete application is returned and you must resubmit the whole packet. Agency-based programs must also have a supervising registered nurse.
Therap, from the state, or an approved third-party system.
You can use your own system if you attest that it meets the state's third-party vendor requirements, for example, it must record the type of service, the client, the worker, and the date, time and location where each visit starts and ends. If it doesn't meet them, you must use Therap. Tell SDS your vendor at DHSSEVV@alaska.gov the same day you apply for certification. For home health, the Medicaid manual says claims that don't match EVV data are denied.
No.
The waivers say providers bill the state's claims payment system directly and "Alaska has no managed care providers." The fiscal agent, HMS (a Gainwell Technologies company), handles enrollment and claims.
$9.30 per 15 minutes, before regional adjustment.
Rates rose 3.2% from July 1, 2026. Agency-based and consumer-directed personal care pay the same, under T1019 (PCS) or S5125 (CFC). Rates are adjusted by region: for example 1.03 in Fairbanks, 1.09 in Juneau and 1.49 in Bethel/Dillingham.
A fingerprint-based state check through NABCS.
Anyone 16 or older who will be your administrator, or who will have regular contact with recipients, access to their records or money, or control over their finances, needs a valid check under 7 AAC 10.900 to 10.990. The check is valid for five years and you must confirm it is still valid every year. Personal care agencies must also check the Alaska Medicaid excluded provider list and the federal LEIE before a worker starts.
CPR, first aid and other required trainings, all on file.
The agency must keep proof of CPR and first aid training within the previous two years (American Heart Association or American Red Cross standard), critical incident reporting training at least every two years, training on helping with medications, and restrictive intervention training. SDS can grant a one-time, temporary waiver of the CPR and first aid proof for a first-time PCA (form Cert-49-A).
Within 24 hours of learning of it.
The waivers treat all waiver providers as "persons required to report" suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation, within 24 hours (AS 47.17.020 for children, AS 47.24.010 for adults). Reports go through SDS Centralized Reporting. Medication errors are reported this fast only if they needed medical help; track the others each quarter and send them to SDS at renewal or when SDS asks.
Only if you are on the Target Provider List.
Each August 1 the state lists the biggest waiver and personal care providers in each service category, by Medicaid units of service paid. Listed agencies send an annual financial report within 8 months of their fiscal year end (7 AAC 145.531). On the August 1, 2026 list, every agency files a reduced report.
Each document has a link to the official site and, where we can share it, our own dated copy — so it is still here if the state moves or changes it.
70 documents — showing the newest 25