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Two agencies can share your child’s nursing hours.

You do not have to choose between the agency you have and the coverage you need. Georgia’s rules let a child’s approved skilled nursing hours be split between two GAPP agencies, and your current agency was supposed to have told you so.

Check eligibility Call 678-459-2590

The option nobody mentions

When an agency cannot cover every shift, most families think they have two choices: live with the gaps, or leave and start over somewhere else. There is a third one. If the parent or guardian wants it, a child’s approved skilled nursing hours can be shared by two GAPP agencies.

This is not a loophole or a special arrangement. It is written into the Georgia Pediatric Program, alongside the right to transfer, and agencies have been required since 2020 to explain both to families. If this is the first you are hearing of it, you are not unusual.

Sharing is the smaller version of switching. Nobody has to be fired, your nurse does not have to change, and the agency you have keeps the hours it can actually cover.

What can and cannot be shared

Skilled nursing hours can be split between two GAPP agencies
Personal care support hours cannot be shared, by rule
There is still only one plan of treatment, carrying the total hours
Each agency files its own paperwork for its own share of the hours
The two agencies cover different shifts rather than overlapping
Shared hours begin on the first of a month

When it makes sense

Your agency covers some shifts, not othersThree nights out of five is a real problem and a common one. A second agency can take the nights yours cannot fill, instead of you waiting for a recruiter to solve it.

You want to keep the nurse you haveA nurse your child trusts is worth protecting. Sharing lets you add coverage without putting that relationship at risk.

You are not ready to switchSome families use shared hours to see how a second agency actually performs before making any bigger decision. That is a reasonable way to use it.

Your agency has told you it cannot staff the hoursGeorgia’s rules say an agency that cannot staff a child’s approved hours must tell the family and help them find a provider who can. Sharing is often the easiest answer to that.

How it works

Four steps, and the first one is yours.

Decide what you want coveredWhich shifts are going uncovered, and how many hours a week you want the second agency to take. You are the one who decides this, not either agency.
Talk to the second agency before anything elseAsk what they can actually staff in your county, on those shifts. A real answer names a shift pattern. “We can staff it” with no detail is not an answer.
Both agencies coordinate the paperworkEach files its own forms for its own hours against the one plan of treatment your physician already signed. You sign a short form confirming you were told you can transfer or share hours.
It starts on the first of a monthSo the request has to be in before the end of the month before. Leave the last few business days of a month out of your plan, because they are too late for the month that follows.

Georgia Medicaid decides what is authorized and how many hours. Nothing on this page changes that, and no agency can promise you an outcome from it.

What we will tell you

If you call us about sharing hours, you will get a straight answer about which shifts we can cover in your county and which we cannot. If the honest answer is that we cannot help, we would rather say so than take half a case and leave your child short.

That goes both directions. If we are the agency that cannot cover something, we will tell you and help you find someone who can.

Questions families ask

Do I have to leave my current agency to use a second one?

No. Sharing hours is the alternative to leaving. Your current agency keeps the hours it can cover and a second agency takes the rest. Some families use it as a way to add coverage without changing anything else.

Can personal care hours be shared?

No. Georgia’s rules allow skilled nursing hours to be shared between two GAPP agencies, and say plainly that personal care support hours cannot be. If your child is approved for both, only the nursing side can be split.

Does my child’s doctor have to sign anything new?

Not for the split itself. There is one plan of treatment with the total hours on it, and that stays as it is. New orders are only needed if the total number of hours is changing, which is a separate request.

Will sharing reduce my child’s approved hours?

Sharing is about who delivers the hours, not how many there are. The authorization stays with your child. What each agency can actually staff is the question worth asking hard before you arrange anything.

Can both agencies be in the house at the same time?

Generally not. The rules expect the two agencies to cover different shifts unless there is a documented medical reason for both, and visits from two providers inside the same day can be reviewed before they are paid.

When can it start?

Shared hours begin on the first of a month, so the paperwork has to be in before the end of the month before. The last few business days of a month are too late for the month that follows.

Tell us which shifts are open.

Not which agency you are with, and not why. Just what is not getting covered. A real person will tell you what we can do about it. No cost, no obligation.

Check eligibility Call 678-459-2590

Keep reading

HeartPath Home Care is an approved provider for the Georgia Pediatric Program. We are not a government agency, and this page is not medical or legal advice. Georgia Medicaid decides who is approved, which services are authorized and how many hours.