Nursing Homes in Minnesota: Cost & Medicaid (2026)

A nursing home is the priciest long-term care in Minnesota, costing more than most families can cover out of pocket for years. The state's nursing-home costs run above the national medians of about $114,975 a year for a semi-private room and $129,575 for a private room.1 What makes it survivable for most long-term residents is Medical Assistance, Minnesota's Medicaid program, which pays for nursing-facility care for people who qualify.

This guide covers what a nursing home is, how to check a facility's quality before you choose one, what it actually costs in Minnesota, and how Medical Assistance pays for long-term care.

In This Guide

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

What a Nursing Home Is

In Minnesota, a nursing home is a skilled nursing facility. It provides 24-hour licensed nursing care, help with daily activities like bathing and dressing, and rehabilitation services such as physical, occupational, and speech therapy. That round-the-clock nursing is the line that separates it from assisted living, which is built for people who need help with daily tasks but not constant skilled care. A nursing home exists for medical needs those settings can't meet, like managing a feeding tube, IV medications, or an open pressure wound.

People arrive at a nursing home along two different paths, and it pays to keep them straight because they're funded differently. The first is short-term rehabilitation, often after a hospital stay for a stroke, a fall, or surgery, where the goal is to recover and go home. Medicare helps with that short rehab stay under specific conditions: it covers up to 100 days of skilled nursing facility care per benefit period after a qualifying three-day inpatient hospital stay, with the first 20 days covered in full and a daily coinsurance starting on day 21.4 The second path is long-term custodial care, where someone needs ongoing nursing and supervision they can't safely get at home. Medicare does not pay for that long-term custodial stay.4 That's the care families worry about affording, and it's where Medical Assistance becomes the main payer.

How to Check a Facility's Quality

Quality varies widely from one nursing home to the next, and Minnesota gives you several free tools to vet a place before you commit. Use more than one. Each shows you something the others don't.

Start with state oversight. Minnesota nursing homes are licensed and inspected by the Minnesota Department of Health, which also runs the federal certification surveys for facilities certified by Medicare and Medicaid.2 When you tour a facility, ask to see its most recent survey results and look for a pattern of repeat deficiencies rather than reacting to a single old citation.

Next, check two separate scorecards, because Minnesota publishes one the federal government doesn't. On Medicare Care Compare, CMS rates every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home from 1 to 5 stars, where 5 means much above average and 1 means much below, combining health inspection results, staffing levels, and quality measures.2 Minnesota then layers on its own Nursing Home Report Card, run by the Department of Human Services, which scores facilities on quality measures using state data.2 Reading both gives you a fuller picture than either alone, and the staffing numbers deserve a close look on their own, since how many nurses and aides a facility keeps per resident shapes day-to-day care more than almost anything else.

Finally, know who to call for help. The Minnesota Office of Ombudsman for Long-Term Care, an independent state agency, investigates complaints and advocates for residents.2 An ombudsman can be a candid, on-the-ground source of information about specific facilities in your area before you ever sign anything.

What a Nursing Home Costs in Minnesota

Nursing-home care is expensive everywhere, and Minnesota sits above the national midpoint. According to the CareScout (Genworth) Cost of Care Survey, the 2025 national medians were about $114,975 a year (about $315 a day) for a semi-private room and about $129,575 a year (about $355 a day) for a private room.1 CareScout reported Minnesota's long-term care costs as mixed year-over-year in 2025, with the state's nursing-home costs running above those national medians and the Twin Cities metro higher than rural Minnesota. These are medians from an industry survey, not government rates and not maximums, and the figure at any one facility can land higher or lower depending on location, room type, and level of care.

To put that in context, the same 2025 survey put the national median for assisted living at about $6,200 a month, roughly $74,400 a year, with Minnesota's assisted-living cost close to that national figure.1 A nursing-home room costs far more. That gap is the reason families look hard at whether assisted living or in-home care can meet the need before moving to a nursing home, and at these prices it's the reason most long-term nursing-home residents in Minnesota end up relying on Medical Assistance rather than paying privately for years.

Does Medical Assistance Pay for Nursing Homes?

Yes, and this is the single most important thing to understand about paying for a Minnesota nursing home. Medical Assistance is Minnesota's Medicaid program, run by the Department of Human Services, and it covers nursing-facility care for people who qualify.3 Qualifying turns on two findings that run on separate tracks. Here's how the pieces fit together.

Level of care. Before Medical Assistance will pay for a nursing facility, you need a Long-Term Care Consultation (a preadmission screening) that confirms you meet the nursing-home level of care.3 This is the medical side of eligibility, separate from the money side below. The same consultation is also the gateway to community-based options, principally the Elderly Waiver, which can deliver long-term care, including customized living in an assisted living facility, instead of a nursing home.

The financial test. Minnesota's asset limit is more generous than most states: $3,000 for a single person and $6,000 for a couple, plus $200 per dependent.3 Someone whose income runs over the program's limit can still qualify through a medical spenddown, where the cost of their care is set against their income. A married couple with one spouse staying in the community is protected by spousal-impoverishment rules. Because these figures depend on your household and can change, confirm the current numbers with DHS before you apply.

Estate recovery. After a resident dies, Minnesota can pursue a claim against the estate of someone who received Medical Assistance at age 55 or older to recover what the program paid.3 Federal and state exemptions apply, so recovery is not automatic in every case.

Learn More

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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.