The short answer: A Florida nurse registry refers independent-contractor caregivers (CNAs, HHAs) for non-medical home care, and the caregiver contracts directly with the client. A home health agency employs its caregivers and can bill Medicare for skilled medical care. In short: a registry refers non-medical help and is usually private-pay; an agency provides medical care and can bill Medicare for short-term skilled visits.
If you've started researching home care for a parent in Florida, you've probably noticed the same two terms appear again and again: nurse registry and home health agency. They sound similar. They're not the same. And the difference matters more than most websites bother to explain.
This is the plain-English version.
The short answer
A home health agency provides skilled, medical care at home using its own employees — usually after a hospital stay or for a specific medical need. It's the only way to use Medicare to pay for care at home.
A Florida nurse registry refers carefully vetted, credentialed independent-contractor caregivers — typically CNAs and Home Health Aides — to families who need non-medical care at home. The caregiver contracts with you directly, the price is usually lower, and you tend to see the same caregiver consistently.
If your parent needs help with bathing, meals, mobility, and the daily routine — and is not under active skilled medical care at home — a nurse registry is almost always the better fit. If they need wound care, IV therapy, physical therapy, or a nurse to manage a complex condition, you need a home health agency.
What can a nurse registry do that a home health agency can't?
Home health agency (skilled care)
A licensed home health agency in Florida can provide:
- Skilled nursing visits (RN/LPN) for wound care, injections, IV therapy, catheter management
- Physical, occupational, and speech therapy
- Home health aide services as part of a skilled care plan
- Medical social work
Agencies are reimbursed by Medicare for medically necessary, intermittent skilled care after a qualifying event — typically a hospital discharge. Care is short-term and follows a physician-directed plan.
Florida nurse registry (non-medical care)
A nurse registry refers caregivers for the day-to-day support that helps an older adult stay safely at home. Under Florida Statute 400.506, referred CNAs and HHAs in a private residence can help with:
- Bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting
- Eating and feeding assistance
- Safe physical transfers and mobility
- Light cleaning and laundry to maintain a safe home
- Meal preparation
- Medication reminders and cues (TrustWise-referred caregivers provide reminders only; Florida law also allows specially trained aides to assist with self-administration where a registry offers that service)
- Companionship, errands, and the daily routines a person could do if they were physically capable
What a registry-referred caregiver cannot do: wound care, injections, catheter care, IV therapy, administering medications, or clipping nails for a diabetic patient. Those are nursing tasks reserved for licensed clinicians.
Who pays the caregiver — and why it matters
This is the part most websites bury. It explains the price difference, the consistency difference, and the relationship difference.
- Home health agency: the caregiver is the agency's employee. You're a patient under the agency's plan of care. Bills go to Medicare or insurance. You may see a rotating set of clinicians depending on the schedule.
- Florida nurse registry: the caregiver is an independent contractor who signs a contract directly with you — but you don't juggle two payments. At TrustWise, you pay the registry one flat hourly rate, and that single rate covers the caregiver's compensation (administered through our billing and paid to them weekly) plus our disclosed referral and coordination fee. Because there's no W-2 overhead, the hourly rate is typically lower — and because the same caregiver shows up week after week, the relationship is usually closer.
By Florida law, a nurse registry is not permitted to supervise or manage day-to-day services — but it is responsible for verifying that every caregiver it refers is properly credentialed, background-screened, communicable-disease cleared, and CPR-certified before any referral happens.
What does each one cost?
It depends, but in broad terms:
- Home health agencies are paid by Medicare for medically necessary, intermittent skilled visits. If you don't qualify or your benefits run out, agency-provided non-skilled care can run $35–$50+/hour in Florida private-pay markets.
- Florida nurse registries typically charge a flat hourly rate, billed to the client. TrustWise Care's flat rate is $34/hour, with no weekend, evening, or holiday surcharges.
If you have long-term care insurance, both models can usually be billed against your policy. We're happy to walk through your specific policy at the free consultation.
Should I choose a nurse registry or a home health agency?
Ask yourself two questions:
- Does my parent currently need a nurse to perform a medical procedure at home? (Wound care, injections, IV, catheter care, etc.) If yes, you need a home health agency.
- Will Medicare cover this care? Medicare only covers skilled care provided by a Medicare-certified home health agency, after a qualifying event, for a limited time. Long-term, non-medical care at home is not covered by Medicare regardless of who provides it.
If the honest answer to both is "no" — your parent needs help with daily life, not a nurse, and Medicare isn't paying — a Florida nurse registry is almost always the better fit: lower price, same caregiver, simpler contract, no waiting for a hospital referral.
A note about quality
There's a tired stereotype that "agencies are more accountable than registries." That isn't accurate. Both nurse registries and home health agencies are licensed by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), inspected on a regular schedule, and required to meet specific standards for caregiver credentialing.
What actually matters is who you choose. Ask any provider — registry or agency — for their AHCA license number (it should be on every page of their website by law), their caregiver vetting process, their background-screening policy, and what happens if you're not happy with the first match.
Have more questions? Read our full FAQ or schedule a free in-home consultation — we'll listen first, and recommend a path even if it's not us.