Business phone system for home health care agencies

Home health care agencies in the United States

County Business Patterns counted 40,762 home health care agencies in the U.S. in 2023 (NAICS 621610, Home Health Care Services). They employed 1,618,759 people in mid-March and paid $61.7 billion in annual payroll. The average establishment has 39.7 employees. That is 12.0 establishments for every 100,000 residents.

California has the most (5,577), followed by Texas (4,550), Florida (3,476), and Ohio (1,729). Relative to population, Missouri leads with 23.2 per 100,000 residents, and Alaska has the fewest at 4.9.

Why the phone matters for home health care agencies

Home health agencies coordinate clinicians in the field with patients, families, physicians and payers, so the office phone is a dispatch line as much as a reception desk. Clinicians need to make calls from their own cell phones without exposing personal numbers.

Calls home health care agencies commonly handle:

• A family member calls to ask what time the nurse will arrive.
• A clinician in the field calls the office about a schedule change.
• A hospital discharge planner calls with a new referral.
• A patient calls to report a missed visit.
• The office calls to confirm next week's visit schedule.

Texting and after-hours calls

Agencies use texting to confirm visit windows with patients and families.

Agencies typically need an after-hours path to an on-call staff member, with routine messages captured for the morning.

Practices that handle protected health information should review their own privacy obligations before recording calls, enabling AI summaries or texting appointment details, and keep clinical conversations out of text messages unless their policies allow it.

How big home health care agencies are

35.7% of U.S. home health care agencies with employees had fewer than five people in March 2023. 47.5% had fewer than ten. Most phone decisions in this industry are made for small teams, where one shared number and sensible routing matter more than a desk phone per person.

Home health care agencies by state

Establishment counts for the 51 states (and DC) where Census published a figure, with the rate per 100,000 residents.

Largest metro areas for home health care agencies

Census published home health agency counts for 743 metro and micropolitan areas. The 25 largest:

Callata vs. per-seat pricing for home health care agencies in the U.S.

The average U.S. home health agency has 39.7 employees, so the comparison uses a 40-person team. On a per-user plan that headcount sets the bill: $998.00 a month on Ooma Office Pro or $1,200.00 on RingCentral RingEX Core at list price (checked September 28, 2026). On Callata the same 40 people cost $799.00 a month, less than either per-seat plan.

The annual difference against RingCentral's monthly list price comes to $4,812. Some vendors discount annual contracts; the table shows month-to-month prices.

How Callata works for home health care agencies

Callata Office costs $99 per month for up to 5 people, and each additional user is $20 a month. That covers up to 3 local numbers, calling from a browser or your cell, transcribed voicemail, recorded calls with AI summaries, after-hours routing and E911 on each number.

Existing numbers can be ported at no charge, and team texting turns on after the one-time $49 carrier registration (10DLC) is approved.

Optional AI agents (receptionist, sales, support or scheduler) can answer calls after hours or when nobody picks up, take messages, text, email and transfer to your team. They are billed from prepaid AI minutes at $0.25 per minute, identify themselves as AI, and may only place outbound calls to people who consented, between 8am and 9pm.