Nursing Home Costs

The average cost of a nursing home stay is about $165 per day or more than $60,000 per year. Nursing home costs can range from around $120 a day to more than $500 a day depending on the facility and level of care required. Nursing home costs are usually calculated by day as many nursing home stays are not long term.

It is impossible to talk about nursing home costs and not ask the question how is this paid for? Though more than 98% of nursing homes in the United States are certified to participate in Medicare and Medicaid, this does not mean that all of your nursing home care will be covered by these funds. In fact your Medicare co-pay in a nursing home may be as high as $100 a day and Medicaid will not likely kick in until all other funds are exhausted. Most nursing home residents do pay for a large portion of their nursing home stay out of private funds.