Healthcare agencies serve diverse functions, ranging from providing in-home patient care (such as nursing, therapy, and personal assistance) to staffing medical facilities with qualified professionals.
They also include regulatory bodies that ensure the safety of food, drugs, and medical devices.
These organizations deliver specialized medical and social services, coordinate care, assess patient needs, and manage healthcare operations and compliance with regulations.
Types of Healthcare Agencies
Home Health Agencies: These organizations provide healthcare services in a patient’s home, including skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, social work, and aide assistance with daily activities. They are crucial for patients who cannot easily leave their homes or who have recently been discharged from a hospital.
Staffing Agencies: These agencies recruit, screen, and place healthcare professionals in hospitals, clinics, and other facilities to fill staffing needs. They handle background checks, credential verification, and ensure staff have the necessary skills and certifications.
Government and Regulatory Agencies: Agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are responsible for ensuring public health and safety by regulating food, drugs, medical devices, and other consumer products.
Community and Social Service Agencies: These agencies provide services that support health, including nursing, therapy, social work, and assistance with daily living activities, thereby helping individuals maintain their independence.
Core Functions of Healthcare Agencies
Patient Care and Support: Agencies deliver essential medical and non-medical services, ranging from complex medical procedures to personal care and emotional support.
Coordination of Care: Many agencies help coordinate care between different healthcare providers, family members, and insurance companies to ensure continuity of services.
Staffing and Recruitment: For staffing agencies, their primary role is to connect healthcare facilities with qualified and vetted professionals, providing them with necessary services.
Regulatory Compliance: Agencies operate under specific licensing and standards, ensuring compliance with state and federal laws related to patient care and facility operations.
Education and Assessment: Some agencies provide patient and caregiver education on managing conditions and include home safety evaluations to reduce risks.
Specialty Agencies
Case Management Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251B00000X
An organization that is responsible for providing case management services.
The agency provides services that help individuals access necessary medical, social, educational, and other essential resources. Case management services may be used to locate, coordinate, and monitor necessary appropriate services.
It may be used to encourage the use of cost-effective medical care by referring patients to appropriate providers and to discourage the overutilization of costly services.
Case management may also serve to provide necessary coordination of non-medical services, such as vocational rehabilitation, education, and employment, when these services enable the individual to function at the highest level.
Community-Based Hospice Care Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251G00000X
Community-based hospice care agencies provide medical care, social support, and other services to terminally ill patients and their families in the comfort of their own homes or a familiar setting, typically under the guidance of a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals and volunteers.
Community/Behavioral Health Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251S00000X
A private or public agency usually under local government jurisdiction, responsible for assuring the delivery of community-based mental health, intellectual disabilities, substance abuse, and/or behavioral health services to individuals with those disabilities.
Services may range from companion care, respite care, transportation, community integration, crisis intervention and stabilization, supported employment, day support, prevocational services, residential support, therapeutic and supportive consultation, environmental modifications, intensive in-home therapy, and day treatment, in addition to traditional mental health and behavioral treatment.
Developmentally Disabled Services Day Training Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251C00000X
These agencies are authorized to provide day habilitation services to individuals with developmental disabilities who live in their own homes.
The function of day habilitation is to assist individuals in acquiring and maintaining the life skills that enable them to cope more effectively with the demands of independent living.
Additionally, to enhance the individual’s physical, mental, social, and vocational functioning.
Early Intervention Provider Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 252Y00000X
Early intervention services are an effective way to address the needs of infants and toddlers who have developmental delays or disabilities.
The services are made available through a federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA provides states and territories with specific requirements for providing early intervention services to infants and toddlers with special needs.
In turn, each state and territory develops its own policies for carrying out IDEA and its requirements.
Broadly speaking, early intervention services are specialized services for eligible infants and toddlers, as well as their families. These services are designed to identify and meet children’s needs in five developmental areas.
These areas include physical development, cognitive development, communication, social-emotional development, and adaptive development.
Foster Care Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 253J00000X
A Foster Care Agency is an agency that provides foster care as defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) as “24-hour substitute care for children outside their own homes.”
Foster care settings include, but are not limited to, nonrelative foster family homes, relative foster homes (whether payments are being made or not), group homes, emergency shelters, residential facilities, and pre-adoptive homes.
Home Health Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251E00000X
A public agency or private organization, or a subdivision of such an agency or organization, that is primarily engaged in providing skilled nursing services and other therapeutic services, such as physical therapy, speech-language pathology services, or occupational therapy, medical social services, and home health aide services.
It has policies established by a professional group associated with the agency or organization (including at least one physician and one registered nurse) to govern the services and provides for supervision of such services by a physician or a registered nurse; maintains clinical records on all patients; is licensed in accordance with State or local law or is approved by the State or local licensing agency as meeting the licensing standards, where applicable; and meets other conditions found by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to be necessary for health and safety.
Home Infusion Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251F00000X
Home infusion agencies provide specialized medications and therapies to patients in their homes, including a trained nurse for administration, the necessary equipment, and ongoing education for the patient and caregivers.
They offer convenience and an improved quality of life by enabling patients to receive treatments such as antibiotics, chemotherapy, or nutritional support from the comfort of their own homes, often for conditions that require intravenous or subcutaneous delivery.
In-Home Supportive Care Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 253Z00000X
An In-Home Supportive Care Agency provides services in the patient’s home to help them remain at home.
The services provided may include personal care services such as hands-on assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), e.g., eating, bathing, dressing, and bladder and bowel requirements; homemaker services and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), e.g., taking medications, shopping for groceries, laundry, housekeeping, and companionship; and/or supervision or cuing so that a person can perform tasks themselves.
Local Education Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251300000X
The term local education agency means a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within a State to either provide administrative control or direction of, or perform a service function for public schools serving individuals ages 0 – 21 in a state, city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision including a combination of school districts or counties recognized in a State as an administrative agency for its public schools.
An LEA may provide, or employ professionals who offer, services to children included in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Such services may include, but are not limited to, medical services such as physical, occupational, and speech therapy.
Nursing Care Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251J00000X
A Nursing Care Agency is an entity that provides skilled nursing care through the services of a Registered Nurse (RN) or a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), by employees, contracted individuals, or via a registry, in a variety of settings. The agency may provide private duty nursing and/or staffing services.
PACE Provider Organizations
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251T00000X
A PACE provider organization is a not-for-profit private or public entity that is primarily engaged in providing PACE services(unique capitated managed care benefits for the frail elderly, which include comprehensive medical and social services).
The following characteristics also apply to a PACE organization. It must: have a governing board that includes community representation; be able to provide complete PACE services regardless of frequency or duration of services; have a physical site to provide adult day services; have a defined service area; have safeguards against conflict of interest; have demonstrated fiscal soundness; and have a formal Participant Bill of Rights.
Public Health or Welfare Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251K00000X
Public health agencies focus on preventing disease, promoting healthy communities, and preparing for emergencies by tracking health trends, advocating for policies, and educating the public.
Welfare agencies, on the other hand, provide direct financial and social assistance to individuals and families in need through programs such as food assistance, housing support, and healthcare benefits, to reduce poverty and enhance stability.
Supports Brokerage Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251X00000X
A provider of services or functions that assists participating individuals in making informed decisions about what will work best for them, consistent with their needs and reflecting their individual circumstances, is essential.
Serving as the agent of the individual, the service is available to assist in identifying immediate and long-term needs, developing options to meet those needs, and accessing identified supports and services.
It may include assistance with recruiting, screening, hiring, and training in-home support providers. A family or person-centered planning approach is used.
Supports Brokerage offers practical skills training to enable families and individuals to remain independent.
Examples of skills training include providing information on recruiting and hiring personal care workers, managing these workers, and offering guidance on effective communication and problem-solving.
The service/function includes sufficient information to ensure that individuals understand the responsibilities involved in self-direction and assist in developing an adequate backup and emergency plan.
Plans may elect to fulfill the requirement of this service/function using a self-directed case manager or by creating a distinct service.
The Supports Brokerage documents the need for assistive services, plans for and documents the use of excess funds, and locates and maintains services.
Voluntary or Charitable Agencies
Healthcare Taxonomy Code 251V00000X
Voluntary or charitable agencies are non-profit organizations dedicated to social impact and the public good, rather than profit, serving various causes such as poverty relief, health, education, and disaster relief.
Examples include well-known groups such as the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and Habitat for Humanity, which rely on donations and volunteers to fund their operations and fulfill their missions.