Assisted Living in Mississippi (2026): Cost & Who Pays

If you're pricing assisted living in Mississippi for a parent, plan around roughly $4,369 a month, a figure that sits among the lowest in the country.1 Before that number settles anything, know that Mississippi doesn't license "assisted living" by that name. It licenses it as a Personal Care Home.

This guide walks through how the Mississippi State Department of Health licenses these homes, what assisted living really costs here, and where Mississippi Medicaid does and doesn't fit.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Assisted Living in Mississippi Is
• What Assisted Living Costs in Mississippi
• Help Paying: Mississippi Medicaid
• How to Vet a Facility
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Assisted Living in Mississippi Is

If you've toured places in another state, you're probably expecting one category called "assisted living." Mississippi uses a different name on the license, and it's worth slowing down on that before you start comparing buildings.

In Mississippi, assisted living is licensed as a Personal Care Home. The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), through its Division of Health Facilities Licensure and Certification, licenses two classes of these homes: a Personal Care Home with an Assisted Living designation and one with a Residential Living designation.2 The Assisted Living class is the one you're almost certainly looking for. It's the setting allowed to provide personal care plus supplemental services, which can include medication administration and an emergency response system, under minimum-standards rules adopted under Mississippi Code Section 43-11-13.2

So when a place calls itself "assisted living" in Mississippi, the question that actually tells you something is which license class it holds. This isn't a branding detail. The Assisted Living class is the one whose rules cover medication administration and emergency response, so if your parent needs either, that's the class to look for.2

Before you fall for the décor at any one place, ask which license it holds and confirm it against MSDH records. The designation tells you what the home is actually allowed to do for your parent.

What Assisted Living Costs in Mississippi

Mississippi runs well below the national line for assisted living, which is genuinely good news if you're budgeting. In the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey (fielded July through November 2025 and published March 2, 2026, the most recent state-level data), the median cost of assisted living in Mississippi was about $51,420 to $52,425 a year, depending on which CareScout publication you read, with $4,369 a month the one monthly figure it reports, compared with a national median of about $6,200 a month.1 That makes Mississippi among the most affordable assisted-living markets in the nation. These are industry-survey medians, not government rates, so treat them as a starting point for a budget, not a quote. CareScout itself cautions that actual costs may vary with individual care needs, provider availability, and local market conditions.1

In-home help is unusually inexpensive here too. In the 2025 survey, which merged homemaker and home-health-aide pricing into a single "non-medical caregiver" category, Mississippi had the lowest non-medical caregiver median of any state: about $24 an hour, or $54,912 a year (against a national median of $35 an hour, or $80,080 a year).1 In Mississippi, nursing-home care costs far more than assisted living, which matters when you're weighing settings against each other. Here is how the medians compare:

One caution when you compare quotes. A headline price on its own doesn't tell you what your parent will actually pay. Ask every place for a written breakdown: what the quoted rate covers, what costs extra, how care needs get assessed, and how often the rate rises.

Help Paying: Mississippi Medicaid

This is where families most often get caught short, so let's be plain about it. Mississippi Medicaid does not pay a resident's room and board in assisted living, so the rent and meals are the resident's to pay.2 If you've been picturing Medicaid covering the rent the way people imagine it covering a nursing home, that's the assumption to set down now, before it shapes a budget.

There's a real exception worth understanding, though. The Mississippi Assisted Living Waiver can cover the supportive services an eligible resident receives inside a participating Personal Care Home-Assisted Living, as an alternative to nursing-facility care. To qualify, a resident must be 21 or older, need a nursing-facility level of care as determined by a standardized preadmission screening, and either be in the SSI category of eligibility or be aged, blind or disabled and meet all the institutional eligibility rules. Someone whose income is over the institutional limit pays the Division of Medicaid part of that income under an Income Trust.2 What the waiver can't cover is the room and board, because federal Medicaid funding doesn't pay for room and board in a home and community-based waiver, outside narrow exceptions such as some respite care. For a waiver resident, the Division's rules say the home's records should include a Medicaid-approved admission agreement whose basic charges separate room and board from personal care services, so ask to see which part is yours. So the picture is split: the waiver may help with the cost of the care itself, while your parent still pays the rent and meals from their own income. That's meaningful help for the right family, but it isn't Medicaid paying the whole bill.2

Two things shape whether the waiver is actually within reach. First, it pays only at a home that participates, so confirm a specific Personal Care Home is enrolled before counting on coverage there. Second, ask the Division of Medicaid early how enrollment works and whether there's a wait, so you aren't counting on coverage that starts later than you need it. Outside assisted living, Mississippi also runs the broader Elderly and Disabled (E&D) Waiver, which provides home and community-based services for people age 21 and older who need a nursing-facility level of care, as determined by a comprehensive assessment.3 To begin either one, contact the Mississippi Division of Medicaid about a long-term-care eligibility and level-of-care assessment.

To qualify for Mississippi's long-term-care Medicaid, an applicant has to clear a categorical test as well as the money test: a U.S. citizen or qualified non-citizen, living in Mississippi, and aged 65 or older or blind or disabled under the SSI definition, and a physician's certification of the need for long-term care has to be verified before eligibility can be approved. To qualify under the institutional income limit, a person generally has to be in a medical facility for 30 consecutive days or more, a requirement that doesn't apply to someone whose income is at or below 135% of the federal poverty level or who dies before the 31st day.3 The financial rules are strict as well, with one wrinkle that catches people off guard. Total income is compared with 300% of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) federal benefit rate, which is $2,982 a month in 2026, and the resource limit is $4,000 for an individual. Income at or above that limit doesn't end the conversation: the person must qualify through an Income Trust, which is open to nursing-facility residents (not someone in an acute-care hospital) and to HCBS waiver participants, but not to a person whose income is above the private-pay rate of the facility where they live.3 One home in Mississippi is excluded from the resource count. Separately, Medicaid must deny payment for nursing-facility and other long-term care to a person whose home equity exceeds $752,000 in 2026, unless a spouse, a child under 21, or an adult blind or disabled child lives in the home, and that limit can be waived for undue hardship.3 When a spouse remains in the community, that spouse's share of the couple's combined countable resources is $162,660 in 2026, the federal maximum, while the applicant spouse has to be within the $4,000 limit.3 A nursing-home resident on Mississippi Medicaid pays their income toward the cost of care after deductions, which include a basic personal needs allowance of $44 a month. It's higher in some cases, such as $90 for a veteran or dependent whose reduced VA pension is $90.3

Two more rules to plan for. Mississippi applies transfer-of-assets rules with a five-year (60-month) look-back.3 And nursing-facility and waiver eligibility is subject to estate recovery. Under federal law, the state must seek repayment from the estate of a recipient who was 55 or older for nursing-facility care, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services, but only after any surviving spouse has died and only when there's no surviving child under 21 or blind or permanently and totally disabled. The state must also waive recovery that would cause an undue hardship.3 If your parent's income or assets are near the line, it's worth understanding the rules before anyone applies, because how money is handled in the years beforehand matters. Our guides to Medicaid Planning Strategies and the Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance, Explained cover the questions that come up most.

How to Vet a Facility

Records tell you the history; a visit tells you the present. Do both, and do the records first.

Bring the contract home and read it without a salesperson in the room. If the refund, care, or termination terms are unclear, have a family member or an elder law attorney look it over before anyone signs. The goal isn't a perfect place. It's one whose limits you understand going in.

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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.