Nursing Homes in Arizona: Cost & ALTCS Medicaid (2026)

A nursing home in Arizona runs about $100,375 a year for a shared room, well below the national median of $114,975, according to CareScout's 2025 survey.1 For residents who need a nursing-facility level of care and meet the financial rules, ALTCS, Arizona's Medicaid long-term-care program, can cover care in a nursing home.2

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What a Nursing Home Is
• How to Check a Facility's Quality
• What a Nursing Home Costs in Arizona
• Does ALTCS Pay for Nursing Homes?
• Frequently Asked Questions

What a Nursing Home Is

In Arizona, nursing homes are licensed and inspected by the Arizona Department of Health Services.3 A nursing home offers all the services of an assisted living facility, plus full-time nursing care, 24 hours a day.5 That round-the-clock nursing is the line between the two. Assisted living is for people who may need some help with daily tasks but don't need around-the-clock care, while a nursing home is for people who can't care for themselves anymore and may need ongoing medical care.5

People arrive at a nursing home along two different paths, and it's worth keeping them straight because they're paid for differently. The first is short-term skilled care, which generally follows an inpatient hospital stay. Medicare helps with that stay under specific conditions, covering up to 100 days per benefit period, generally after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least three consecutive days, with a daily coinsurance of $217 in 2026 starting on day 21. Time under observation or in the emergency room before admission doesn't count toward those three days. You may not need the three-day stay at all if your doctor participates in an Accountable Care Organization approved for a skilled nursing facility 3-day rule waiver, and a Medicare Advantage plan may also waive it.4 The second path is long-term custodial care, meaning ongoing help with daily activities when that is the only care someone needs. Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care. That's the care families worry about affording, and Medicare points people to Medicaid, if they meet their state's eligibility rules, or to private long-term care insurance; families also rely on private pay and VA benefits.4

How to Check a Facility's Quality

Before you commit to a nursing home, vet it with more than one of the tools below. Each shows you something the others don't.

Start with state oversight. The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) licenses and inspects nursing homes through its Bureau of Long-Term Care Licensing, whose staff also perform the Medicare and Medicaid certification inspections, and it runs an online complaint portal for concerns about a licensee.3 When you tour a facility, ask about its most recent state inspection and whether any problems it found were fixed.

Next, check the federal star rating on Medicare Care Compare. For each nursing home on Care Compare, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services publishes an overall rating from 1 to 5 stars, where 5 means much above average and 1 means much below average.3 Alongside that overall rating sit separate ratings for health inspections, staffing, and quality measures.3 Read the staffing rating on its own, not just the overall stars.

Finally, know who to call for help. Arizona's Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, listed by the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) and reached through a local program in your region, investigates and resolves complaints made by or on behalf of residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and adult foster care homes.3 If something worries you about a resident's care, a local ombudsman is the place to take that complaint.

What a Nursing Home Costs in Arizona

Arizona's shared nursing-home rooms cost less than the national median, while its private rooms cost more. According to the CareScout (Genworth) Cost of Care Survey, the 2025 statewide medians were about $100,375 a year for a semi-private room and about $137,240 a year for a private room.1 Nationally, the medians were $114,975 and $129,575, so Arizona's semi-private rate is well below the national figure and its private rate is above it. These are medians from an industry survey, not government rates and not maximums, and costs can vary widely depending on where care is delivered. The figure at any one facility can land higher or lower depending on location, room type, and level of care.

The table below shows Arizona's median nursing-home rates by room type.1

To put that in context, the same 2025 survey put Arizona assisted living at a median of about $6,250 a month, which CareScout publishes as $74,220 to $75,000 a year, roughly level with the national median.1 A semi-private nursing-home room costs noticeably more than that. The gap is a good reason to look hard at whether assisted living or in-home care can meet the need first, and to learn how ALTCS works before savings run low.

Does ALTCS Pay for Nursing Homes?

Yes, and this is the single most important thing to understand about paying for an Arizona nursing home. Arizona's Medicaid long-term-care pathway is the Arizona Long Term Care System (ALTCS), run by AHCCCS, the state's Medicaid agency.2 ALTCS covers people with an age-related, physical, or intellectual or developmental disability who need a nursing-facility level of care, and its services can be provided in an institution such as a nursing home or in a home or community-based setting. Members don't have to live in a nursing home: many live in their own homes or an assisted living facility and receive in-home services there.

Qualifying turns on two findings that run on separate tracks. Here's how the pieces fit together.

Level of care. ALTCS requires that you need a nursing-facility level of care.2 This is the medical side of eligibility, separate from the money side below.

The financial test. For 2026, ALTCS uses a gross monthly income limit of $2,982 for an individual, which is 300% of the $994 SSI federal benefit rate, and CMS's January 2026 standards put the SSI resource standard at $2,000 for an individual.2 Someone whose income is over the limit may use a trust holding only pension, Social Security, and other income, as long as the state receives what remains at death, up to the Medicaid it paid. When one spouse stays at home, that spouse can keep a share of the couple's resources: the 2026 federal bounds run from $32,532 to $162,660, and AHCCCS policy sets Arizona's exact amount. Because the financial rules depend on your household and can change, confirm the current figures with AHCCCS before you apply.

Estate recovery. After a member's death, AHCCCS files an estate claim for ALTCS nursing-home or home and community-based benefits paid while the member was 55 or older, against property that passes through probate or a small-estate affidavit.2 Federal law delays recovery until after a surviving spouse's death and allows it only when no surviving child is under 21, blind, or permanently and totally disabled, and a federally required undue-hardship waiver exists, so recovery is not automatic in every case.

Learn More

Find personalized help comparing nursing homes in Arizona at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.