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An approved GAPP provider serving families across Georgia
HeartPath Home Care is an approved agency for the Georgia Pediatric Program: in-home skilled nursing and personal care for medically fragile children under 21, paid for by Georgia Medicaid, at no cost to the family for authorized services.
What a GAPP agency actually does
The Georgia Pediatric Program, GAPP, is the Georgia Medicaid benefit that pays for nursing care at home for children under 21 whose daily needs are medically complex. The program is the state’s. The care is delivered by an approved provider agency, and choosing that agency is the one part of this that is genuinely your decision.
An approved GAPP agency employs and supervises the nurses, holds the license and the liability, prepares and submits the paperwork Georgia Medicaid requires, requests prior authorization against your child’s plan of care, and then staffs the hours that come back approved. Everything the agency bills goes to Medicaid, not to you.
- Skilled nursing in the home by an RN or LPN, including nights, weekends and overnights
- Personal care services by a CNA for bathing, dressing, lifting and positioning
- The paid family caregiver option, typically approved around age five and up
- Coordination of the GAPP paperwork from referral through authorization and staffing
- Free interpreter services, including Spanish
Georgia Medicaid decides eligibility, which services are authorized and how many hours. No agency can approve a child, promise a number of hours, or promise a timeline for the state’s review. If an agency tells you otherwise, that is the moment to ask a harder question.
Who the program is for
There is no published list of qualifying diagnoses. GAPP approval turns on how much hands-on skilled care a child needs each day, documented by the child’s physician. In practice that means children who are technology dependent or who need daily skilled nursing: a tracheostomy or a ventilator, a feeding tube, oxygen, uncontrolled seizures, or the level of physical support that comes with cerebral palsy, spina bifida or hydrocephalus.
If your child is not described there, call and ask anyway. The screen is free and it carries no obligation to choose us.
What it takes to start
Our GAPP timeline lays out each step with what tends to go wrong at it, and the Path Finder maps your family’s situation in about three minutes.
Choosing between GAPP agencies
Every agency in Georgia will tell you it can staff your case. That is free to say, and it is the single claim families most often find out was not true. What actually differs between agencies is whether they can fill the specific shifts you need, in your ZIP code, with nurses trained for your child’s equipment.
So ask for specifics, and ask us the same way you would ask anyone else. We would rather tell you on the first call that overnight coverage in your area is going to be tight than sign you and leave you uncovered. Our guide on how to choose a GAPP agency has the full list of questions, including the ones we would find uncomfortable.
If you are already with an agency and it is not working, you can move. Switching GAPP agencies explains the transfer and what does and does not restart.
Where we work
We serve metro Atlanta and the surrounding counties, and we match nurses by ZIP code rather than by county line, because a family in Buford and a family in Norcross are both “Gwinnett” and they are forty minutes apart.
For physicians, case managers and discharge planners
Our line for hospital staff and referring providers is 404-771-2570, which reaches our Director of Nursing directly. Send a referral and you get a staffing answer within two business days, and before a referred child is discharged a HeartPath nurse comes to the unit to meet the family and learn the child’s routine from your team. Refer a patient.
Questions families ask
What is a GAPP provider?
A GAPP provider is a home health agency that Georgia Medicaid has approved to deliver services under the Georgia Pediatric Program. Families sometimes call it a GAPP agency and the two words mean the same thing here. The agency employs the nurses, carries the licensing and liability, submits the paperwork to Georgia Medicaid and bills the state directly, so no bill reaches the family for authorized services.
Is HeartPath an approved GAPP agency?
Yes. HeartPath Home Care is an approved provider for the Georgia Pediatric Program and we serve families across metro Atlanta and the surrounding counties.
How do I choose between GAPP agencies?
Ask each one the same three questions: which shifts can you actually staff in my ZIP code, who is my point of contact when a nurse calls out, and how many children with my child’s level of need are you caring for right now. Every agency will tell you it can staff your case. The answers to those three questions are what separate them. Our guide to choosing a GAPP agency walks through the full list.
Can we switch to a different GAPP agency?
Yes. Families are free to change agencies, and switching does not restart your child’s Medicaid eligibility or the authorization itself. There is a transfer process and it is worth understanding before you start, which is why we wrote a separate guide on it.
What does a GAPP agency cost the family?
Nothing for authorized services. GAPP is a Georgia Medicaid program, the agency bills Medicaid, and there is no copay or deductible to the family.
How quickly can care start?
About 30 days from first call to care starting is typical, though Georgia Medicaid sets the pace of its own review and that is outside any agency’s control. Once an authorization is in hand, we give referring providers a staffing answer within two business days.
Ready when you are.
Tell us about your child and a real person will walk you through what comes next. No cost, no obligation.
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HeartPath Home Care is an approved provider for the Georgia Pediatric Program. We are not a government agency, and this page is not medical advice. Georgia Medicaid decides who is approved, which services are authorized and how many hours. Talk to your child’s physician about your child’s care.