New York Now Wants Your Home Care Registry ID on Medicaid Claims
New York Medicaid billing rules now name the aide on each home health aide claim, by Home Care Registry ID. What the rule says and what it means for you.
If you work as a home health aide in New York, there is a number tied to your name that you may never have thought about. It is your Home Care Registry ID. Medicaid billing in New York now puts it on the claim.
I read the rule itself, so here is what it says and what it does not.
What changed
The New York Medicaid billing guidelines for home health services now tell providers how to name the aide who did the work. For home health aide, personal care and consumer directed personal assistance claims, the worker's information has to go on the claim. Home health aide and personal care workers are identified by Home Care Registry ID. Consumer directed workers are identified by a different number, the SFI Personal Assistant ID.
If more than one aide worked on the same claim, the agency lists each one's ID. That is all in the eMedNY home health billing guidelines. The state added that section on May 4, 2026.
The guidelines do not give a start date. The New York State Association of Health Care Providers announced it as beginning with dates of service on October 1, 2026. Their full notice is for members only, so I am relying on the headline for the date.
What the registry is
The state Department of Health started the registry on September 25, 2009. In the department's words, it is a registry of "all persons who have successfully completed a home health aide and/or personal care training program." For aides trained after that date, the registry also generates your certificate. Both points are in the state's training program FAQ.
So the ID is not something an agency hands you. It exists because you finished an approved program.
What it means for you
The rule is aimed at billing, so it lands on agencies first. I did not find anything that asks an aide to file a form or pay a fee.
Still, an agency that has to put your number on every claim will ask for it. Know where yours is. Keep your certificate somewhere you can find it.
I could not find a state page that explains how an aide looks up their own ID. If you do not have it, ask the program you trained with, or your agency. They have to produce it now anyway.
If you are still training
None of this changes what it takes to get in. In New York that is an approved program of 75 hours, followed by the written test and skills check your program gives. Our page on home health aide training in New York walks through each step, with the state documents behind it.
When you want to practice for the written part, open practice from your dashboard.
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