If you're touring memory care in Indiana, the state gives you a document that pries a facility's dementia care open before you ever sign anything. Indiana doesn't license "memory care" as its own thing, but a law called the Alzheimer's and dementia special-care disclosure requires any place that locks a dementia unit or markets dementia care to put its philosophy, its staffing, and its fees in writing and hand it to anyone who asks. This guide walks through that form, what memory care costs, and how to use the form to vet a place.
In This Guide
- Key Takeaways
- What Memory Care in Indiana Is
- Your Tool: the Alzheimer's and Dementia Special Care Disclosure Form
- What It Costs
- How to Use the Disclosure Form to Vet a Place
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Memory Care in Indiana Is
When you start calling places, "memory care" gets used as though it's one licensed thing you can shop for and compare on equal footing. In Indiana it isn't. The state doesn't issue a separate memory-care license at all. What you're actually looking at is dementia care delivered inside an assisted-living-style setting, and the way Indiana regulates assisted living shapes what that looks like.
Indiana doesn't have a single license called "assisted living" either. Any community that uses the term has to register with the Indiana FSSA Division of Aging as a Housing with Services Establishment, which means it serves five or more adults and provides at least one health-related service and at least two supportive services. A community that also provides skilled "residential nursing care" has to be licensed on top of that by the Indiana Department of Health as a Residential Care Facility, which the department inspects for health and life-safety compliance. So the building your parent moves into is registered and, depending on the care it gives, may be licensed too. But neither of those credentials is a memory-care stamp.
That's the gap the disclosure law fills. Indiana Code 12-10-5.5, the Alzheimer's and dementia special-care disclosure statute, says that any facility that locks, secures, or segregates a unit for residents with Alzheimer's or dementia, or that markets itself as providing Alzheimer's or dementia care, has to prepare a written disclosure form, submit it to the state every year, and make it available to anyone seeking information. Instead of a license you can look up, you get a document the facility is legally required to produce and keep current. That document is the most useful thing you can ask for walking in the door.
How you'll pay is worth settling early. Most assisted living and memory care in Indiana is private-pay, but Indiana Medicaid can help cover the services for people who qualify through its long-term care programs, while the resident pays toward room and board.
Your Tool: the Alzheimer's and Dementia Special Care Disclosure Form
A facility can't quietly lock a dementia wing and start admitting people in Indiana. If it secures a dementia unit or advertises dementia care, the disclosure statute requires it to commit the details of that care to a written form, file the form with the state each year, and produce it for anyone who asks. No license to memorize, no inspector's report to decode. One document, written by the facility, that you have a legal right to see.
The form isn't a marketing brochure. The statute spells out exactly what it has to cover, and each item is a question you'd otherwise have to pry an answer out of a salesperson to get.
| The form must describe | Why it matters to your family |
|---|---|
| The facility's dementia-care philosophy | This is the heart of it. It tells you how the place actually thinks about dementia, instead of letting you take "specialized care" on faith |
| Its criteria for placement, transfer, and discharge | Tells you who the unit is set up to serve and, just as important, when it can decide a resident's needs have outgrown it and move them out |
| Its assessment and care-planning process | Shows how the facility decides what your parent needs and how it updates that plan as dementia progresses |
| Staff-to-resident ratios for each shift | The single hardest number to get straight otherwise. It tells you how many caregivers are on the floor at 3 p.m. and at 3 a.m., not just on paper |
| Family-support programs | Dementia care is hard on the family too. The form lets you see what support, education, or communication the place actually offers |
| Guidelines for physical and chemical restraints | Tells you when and how the facility uses restraints or sedating medications, a question many families don't think to ask until it's urgent |
| An itemization of charges and fees | Puts the cost in writing line by line, so an advertised base rate can't hide what dementia care adds |
The staffing line is worth pausing on. Staff-to-resident ratios for each shift means the facility has to disclose coverage overnight and on weekends, not just during the busy daytime hours when you're most likely to tour. A unit can look well staffed at 2 p.m. and thin out badly by midnight, and this is where the form makes you ask.
A 2023 update to the law sharpened what a memory-care facility actually has to do, not just disclose. A Housing with Services Establishment offering memory care now has to provide care tailored to the individual resident and consistent with current evidence-based dementia practice, adopt policies for residents at risk of wandering or elopement, and designate a qualified director for the dementia program. Elopement, a resident with dementia leaving unnoticed, is one of the gravest risks in this kind of care, so the requirement that the facility have a written policy for it and a named director accountable for the program is a real protection. Ask to see how the place meets these three points, because they're now part of the standard, not extras.
What It Costs
Cost is usually what families brace for, and there's no clean single number for memory care in Indiana. The state doesn't publish one, and because memory care isn't a separately surveyed category, the industry surveys that track senior-care prices don't isolate it the way they isolate assisted living.
What you do have is a solid anchor for the base. Per the Genworth/CareScout 2024 Cost of Care Survey, the most recent state-level data, assisted living in Indiana runs a median of about $5,365 a month (roughly $64,380 a year), which sits at or below the national figure of about $5,900. Memory care costs more than that, here as everywhere, because securing a dementia unit means heavier staffing across every shift, a qualified program director, evidence-based dementia programming, and a locked, monitored layout. How much more depends on the facility, its size, and the level of care, and prices generally run higher in the Indianapolis metro and northern markets than in rural areas. Treat memory care as a premium on top of the assisted-living base rather than a fixed figure, and be wary of any source quoting one precise statewide number for it.
This is where the disclosure form earns its keep on money. Because the statute requires an itemization of charges and fees, you're not stuck comparing headline rates. For context, the same survey put a semi-private nursing-home room in Indiana at about $8,486 a month and a private room at about $10,357, both below the national medians. Those are industry-survey figures, not government numbers, so use them to set expectations, then get a specific written quote from any place you're serious about. Ask what the base includes, how the facility charges as care needs grow, how it reassesses care as dementia progresses, and how often rates rise. Two places with the same headline price can land far apart once the dementia-care line items are in.
Most families pay for this privately. If your parent qualifies for Indiana Medicaid and meets the level-of-care requirements, the state's long-term care programs may help cover the assisted-living or memory-care services, though the resident still pays toward room and board and each program runs on its own application.
How to Use the Disclosure Form to Vet a Place
You don't have to become an expert in dementia care to make a good decision. You have to get the disclosure form in your hands and make it do its job.
- Ask for the disclosure form before anything else. A facility that locks a dementia unit or markets dementia care has to provide this form to anyone who asks. If a place advertising "memory care" can't or won't produce one, that's a real signal. Ask whether it actually secures a dementia unit and files a form with the state at all.
- Read the philosophy and care-planning sections first. This is where the form lays out how the facility thinks about dementia and how it builds and updates a care plan. Compare it against what the salesperson told you, so you can see whether the substance matches the pitch.
- Pin down the staffing ratios for every shift. The form has to state staff-to-resident ratios for each shift, so read the overnight and weekend numbers, not just the daytime one. Then ask who covers the unit at night and how many of them are trained in dementia care.
- Check the discharge criteria and the restraint guidelines. The form has to describe when a resident can be transferred or discharged and how the facility uses physical and chemical restraints. Discharge terms matter more in dementia care, where needs change and a facility may decide it can no longer meet them. Read these before you're in a crisis, not during one.
- Match the fees to the care, and confirm the 2023 requirements. Read the itemized charges against the care-philosophy section so you can see what the premium buys, and ask the facility to show how it meets the 2023 standard: evidence-based tailored care, a written elopement policy, and a qualified dementia-program director. Then verify the community is registered with the Indiana FSSA Division of Aging, and tour once around a mealtime, when staffing and the mood of a place are hardest to stage.
Tour at least a couple of places. The goal isn't a perfect one. It's a unit whose philosophy, staffing, and fees you understand going in, because the form put them on paper.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Indiana does not issue a standalone memory-care license. Memory care is delivered inside assisted-living-style settings, which register with the Indiana FSSA Division of Aging as Housing with Services Establishments and may also be licensed by the Indiana Department of Health if they provide skilled residential nursing care. What governs the dementia-specific care is the Alzheimer's and dementia special-care disclosure law, Indiana Code 12-10-5.5, which requires a written disclosure form rather than a separate license.
It's a document Indiana law requires of any facility that locks or secures a dementia unit, or markets Alzheimer's or dementia care. The facility has to prepare it, file it with the state every year, and give it to anyone who asks. The form must describe the facility's dementia-care philosophy, its placement/transfer/discharge criteria, its assessment and care-planning process, its staff-to-resident ratios for each shift, its family-support programs, its restraint guidelines, and an itemized list of charges and fees. That makes it your single best tool for comparing places and holding one to what it promised.
There's no reliable single statewide figure for memory care alone. Use the assisted-living base as your anchor, about $5,365 a month per the Genworth/CareScout 2024 survey, and expect memory care to run higher because of the heavier round-the-clock staffing, the qualified program director, and the secured, monitored setting. Prices generally run higher in the Indianapolis metro and northern markets than in rural areas, and the advertised rate is usually a base that rises as care needs grow, so use the disclosure form's itemized fees and get a written quote from any place you're considering.
Most assisted living and memory care in Indiana is private-pay. If your parent qualifies for Indiana Medicaid and meets the level-of-care requirements, the state's long-term care programs may help cover the assisted-living or memory-care services, while the resident usually still contributes toward room and board. Each program runs on its own application, so confirm eligibility before counting on it.
The 2023 update went beyond disclosure and set requirements for the care itself. A facility offering memory care now has to provide care tailored to the individual resident and consistent with current evidence-based dementia practice, adopt policies for residents at risk of wandering or elopement, and designate a qualified director for the dementia program. Ask any place you tour to show how it meets all three, because they're now part of the standard rather than extras.
Learn More
- Assisted Living in Indiana
- Nursing Homes in Indiana
- Home Care vs. Home Health in Indiana
- Caregiver Burnout: Signs and Support
- Medicaid Planning Strategies
Find personalized help comparing memory care in Indiana 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.