The types of senior care run from a few hours of help at home to round-the-clock nursing, and the right one depends on how much help your parent needs and where they want to live. Most options fall into three groups: care that comes to the home, day and short-term support, and places a person moves into. Below is every option side by side, with what it costs nationally and whether Medicare or Medicaid pays.

In This Guide

The Types of Senior Care at a Glance

Two questions sort almost every option. How much help does your parent need: none, help with daily tasks, 24-hour supervision, or skilled medical care? And where do they want to be: at home, in a community, or in a facility? The table lines up the main types of senior care on both, with the national cost where a current survey figure exists.

Type of care Level of help Where National median cost Medicare pays? Medicaid pays?
In-home care (non-medical) Daily tasks, companionship Home $35 an hour No, if it's the only care needed Optional benefit; varies by state
Home health Part-time skilled nursing or therapy Home $90 an hour (skilled nursing at home) Yes, when medically necessary Yes, a mandatory benefit
Adult day care Supervision, activities, some health care Day center $95 a day (adult day health) No Optional, often through a waiver
Respite care Short-term relief for the caregiver Home, facility or day center Varies by provider As part of hospice Waivers can include it
PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) All-inclusive medical and long-term care Home plus a PACE center No premium with Medicaid Yes, all Medicare services Yes, where offered
Hospice Comfort care at the end of life Home or facility $0 for covered services Yes See our hospice guide
Independent living None included Senior community Varies No care to cover No care to cover
Assisted living Daily tasks, 24-hour supervision Residential community $6,200 a month No For services, in some states
Board and care home Daily tasks in a small home Private residence Varies No (custodial care) Same as assisted living
Memory care Dementia care, secured setting Assisted living unit Varies No (custodial care) Same as assisted living
Continuing care retirement community (CCRC) All levels on one campus Campus Entrance fees averaged over $480,000 in 2025 Fees are private Fees are private
Nursing home (long-term) 24-hour nursing and daily care Facility $315 a day, semi-private No Yes, for those who qualify
Skilled nursing (short-term rehab) Skilled nursing and therapy after a hospital stay Facility $217 a day coinsurance, days 21 to 100 Yes, up to 100 days Yes, for those who qualify

Costs are national medians from CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey, released March 2, 2026. CareScout's figures are medians, not prices; your area and your parent's needs move them. For state and city figures, see our cost of senior care by state guide.

Care That Comes to the Home

Most people want to stay home, and a surprising amount of care can come to them. These are the in-home types of senior care, from lightest to most involved.

In-home care (non-medical)

In-home care is an aide who helps with the everyday stuff, like bathing, dressing and getting to the bathroom. That hands-on help is what Medicare calls custodial care, which Medicare won't pay for on its own. Nationally, a non-medical caregiver cost a median $35 an hour in 2025, or $80,080 a year at 44 hours a week. Medicaid can pay for personal care at home, but it's an optional benefit, so it depends on your state. Learn more in our guide to personal care services.

Home health care

Home health is medical: part-time or intermittent skilled nursing and therapy at home, ordered by a doctor. The Medicare home health benefit covers part-time skilled care at home with no fixed time limit, as long as the care stays medically necessary and a doctor re-orders it. What Medicare home health won't do is send someone just to handle the daily tasks. The two get confused constantly, so we compare them side by side in home care vs. home health. For Medicare's rules on who qualifies, see Medicare home health eligibility.

PACE

PACE, the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, bundles everything Medicare and Medicaid cover into one program, including adult day primary care at a PACE center. To enroll, a person must be at least 55, live in the PACE organization's service area, need a nursing-home level of care as the state determines it, and be able to live safely in the community when they join. PACE is only available in some states. A PACE participant with Medicaid pays no monthly premium. Our PACE program guide covers the rest.

Hospice and palliative care

Hospice is comfort care for someone whose doctors certify a life expectancy of 6 months or less, who chooses comfort care instead of treatment aimed at curing the terminal illness. Medicare Part A covers it, and your parent pays nothing for covered hospice services, though room and board isn't covered at home or in a nursing home. Hospice can come to a home or a facility. Palliative care is broader. Palliative care can start at any point in a serious illness, with or without curative treatment. See our hospice benefit guide and palliative care vs. hospice.

Day Programs and Short-Term Breaks

Day programs and respite don't replace a home. They make staying home workable, for the older adult and for whoever is doing the caregiving.

Adult day care

Adult day centers come in three broad models. The social model is for people who need supervision and activities but not much personal care. The health or medical model adds personal care, medical monitoring and rehab services. Specialized centers serve a specific diagnosis, most often dementia. Adult day health care cost a median $95 a day nationally in 2025. Medicare doesn't pay for adult day care. Medicaid home and community-based services waivers can pay for adult day care, but only for people who need an institutional level of care, and states cap how many people a waiver serves. Compare the models in adult day care vs. adult day health care, then see adult day care cost and who pays and free and low-cost adult day care.

Respite care

Respite care is temporary care that gives a family caregiver time off. Respite care can last a few hours or several weeks, and it can happen at home, in a facility such as a nursing home, or at an adult day center. Respite care from family, friends or volunteers may cost nothing, while professional respite services charge by the hour or by the number of days or weeks. Medicaid waivers can include respite care. Our respite care guide lists programs state by state.

Senior Living and Residential Care

These are the places a person moves into, ordered from the least help to the most. The big dividing line is custodial care versus skilled nursing, because that line decides what Medicare will touch.

Independent living

Independent living is senior housing for people who can still take care of themselves. Independent living doesn't provide health care or help with daily tasks like bathing, dressing or medications, and there are no caregivers on site around the clock. What you get instead is convenience: often dining, housekeeping, laundry, transportation and activities, some included in the monthly price and some extra. Residents can bring in outside home health services if they need more help later. So a parent who already needs daily help would have to bring that help in, or look at the settings below. If money is tight, our guide to affordable senior housing covers the federal rental programs for older adults.

Assisted living

Assisted living is for people who need help with daily care but not as much help as a nursing home provides. Residents usually have their own apartment or room and get meals, help with personal care and medications, housekeeping, and 24-hour supervision. Any medical care is less intensive than a nursing home's, and arrangements vary by facility and by state. It tends to suit a parent who is safe on their own most of the day but needs a hand with bathing or keeping medications straight. Each state licenses and defines assisted living, so the rules and even the name change at the state line. Assisted living cost a national median $6,200 a month in 2025, according to CareScout's Cost of Care Survey. Medicare doesn't pay for long-term assisted living. Start with assisted living by state and how to pay for assisted living by state, then see how to choose an assisted living facility.

Board and care homes

Board and care homes, also called residential care facilities or group homes, are small private homes that usually have 20 or fewer residents. Residents get personal care, meals and housekeeping, and staff are there around the clock, but nursing and medical care usually aren't provided. Many are run by an individual or family, and many states license or certify them. For a parent who'd do better in a house than a big building, they're worth a look.

Memory care

Memory care is a specialized form of assisted living for people with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia. Memory care units can offer specially trained staff, secured exits and visual cues, though not every one has all of those. Memory care residents pay for the room and may pay extra for special care. When you tour, ask which of those features this unit actually has, and exactly what the extra care fee covers. See how to choose a memory care facility, memory care by state and assisted living vs. memory care.

Continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs)

A CCRC puts independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing on one campus, so a resident can move between levels without leaving. Contract types range from Type A "life care," where monthly fees rise little as care needs grow, to fee-for-service contracts where you pay market rates for care. CCRC fees are private, and the refundable part of an entrance fee can be lost if the community runs into financial trouble. The average CCRC entrance fee surpassed $480,000 by 2025, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), with monthly fees on top. Our CCRC costs guide walks through the contracts.

Nursing homes and skilled nursing

Nursing homes provide nursing care, 24-hour supervision, meals and help with daily activities, plus physical, occupational and speech therapy. Nursing homes are the most service-intensive setting. A semi-private nursing home room cost a national median $315 a day in 2025, and a private nursing home room $355 a day, according to CareScout.

Here's what trips up a lot of families: a short rehab stay and a long-term stay are paid for completely differently. After a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least three days (with some exceptions, such as a Medicare Advantage plan that waives the three-day rule), Medicare Part A generally covers skilled nursing facility care for up to 100 days per benefit period. Medicare skilled nursing facility days 1 through 20 cost $0 after the Part A deductible, days 21 through 100 carry a $217 daily coinsurance in 2026, and after day 100 Medicare pays nothing. Medicare doesn't pay for long-term custodial care in a nursing home. For a long-term stay, Medicaid is the program to look at: nursing facility services are a mandatory benefit in every state's Medicaid plan. Read nursing homes by state, how to choose a nursing home and nursing home star ratings explained, and compare settings in assisted living vs. nursing home, nursing home vs. home care and memory care vs. nursing home.

Which Level of Care Does Your Parent Need?

The honest answer comes from watching what your parent can and can't do day to day. Roughly, the levels of care for the elderly stack like this:

Medicaid's long-term care programs use their own yardstick. A home and community-based waiver requires a level of care that would qualify the person for an institution, and each state sets that bar. Our glossary explains nursing facility level of care. If you're still spotting the early signs, start with signs your parent needs help.

Who Pays for Each Type of Senior Care

The money usually decides as much as the care does, so here's the payer picture in one place.

Medicare pays for skilled, short-term care: a skilled nursing facility stay after a qualifying hospital admission, part-time skilled care at home, and hospice. Medicare doesn't pay for custodial care when that's the only care needed, whether at home, in assisted living or in a nursing home.

Medicaid covers long-term care for people with limited income and assets. Nursing facility care and home health are mandatory benefits in every state's Medicaid program. Other Medicaid help at home and in the community, called home and community-based services (HCBS) and including personal care and adult day care, is optional, and states that cover HCBS through waivers can limit it to certain groups and cap enrollment, which is where waiting lists come from. Check your state's options in our HCBS waivers by state guide.

Veterans benefits and other programs help specific people in specific circumstances. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Older Americans Act both pay for some long-term care services, but only for certain populations. Anything no program covers falls to the family. See our senior guide to VA benefits and how to pay for senior care.

Where to Start

You don't have to sort this out alone, and the first call is free. The Eldercare Locator, a public service of the Administration for Community Living, connects families to local services and to their Area Agency on Aging. You can call 1-800-677-1116 or search at eldercare.acl.gov. From there, a geriatric care manager can help if the situation is complicated, and our caregiver getting-started guide covers the first few weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between assisted living, memory care and a nursing home?

Assisted living helps with daily care and offers 24-hour supervision, but its medical care is less intensive than a nursing home's. Memory care is a specialized form of assisted living for people with dementia. A nursing home adds nursing care and therapy around the clock and is the most service-intensive setting.

Does Medicare pay for a nursing home after a hospital stay?

Only for a short skilled nursing facility stay, and only after the right kind of hospital stay. Medicare Part A generally requires an inpatient hospital stay of at least three consecutive days, and time under observation or in the emergency room before admission doesn't count toward the three days, even overnight. Medicare also generally requires entering a Medicare-certified skilled nursing facility within 30 days of leaving the hospital, for skilled care related to that hospital stay. A parent without a three-day inpatient stay isn't automatically out: some Medicare Advantage plans, and doctors in certain Accountable Care Organizations, can waive the Medicare three-day rule.

What is the cheapest type of senior care?

The cheapest type of senior care depends on how many hours of help your parent needs. Put on a yearly basis in CareScout's 2025 national survey, adult day health care five days a week came to a median $24,700 a year, in-home care at 44 hours a week $80,080 a year, and assisted living $74,400 a year. Respite from family, friends or volunteers can cost nothing.

When should a parent move from independent living to assisted living?

Consider the move when your parent needs regular help with bathing, dressing or medications, or shouldn't be alone overnight. Independent living doesn't provide help with those daily tasks and has no caregivers on site around the clock, though independent living residents can bring in outside home health services first. Assisted living includes help with personal care and medications plus 24-hour supervision.

Learn More

Care TypesCost of Senior Care by StateThe 2026 national median cost of assisted living, memory care, nursing homes, and in-home care, why your state differs, and your state's own cost guide. Care TypesAssisted Living by StateWhat assisted living costs, how licensing and Medicaid coverage differ from state to state, plus a guide to all 50 states so you can jump straight to yours. Care TypesHome Care vs. Home Health by StateHome care is non-medical help; home health is skilled, doctor-ordered care. See what each costs, who pays (Medicare vs. Medicaid), and your state's guide. Care TypesNursing Homes by StateWhat a nursing home costs, how Medicaid pays for it, and how facilities are rated all share a federal floor but vary by state. See yours, with a 50-state guide. Care TypesThe Long-Term Care OmbudsmanEvery state has a free, confidential long-term care ombudsman for nursing home and assisted living residents. What they do, whose side they're on, how to call. FinancialHow to Pay for Senior CareHow to pay for senior care: what it costs nationally and how Medicaid, Medicare, VA benefits, and private pay each fit. Who qualifies, what's covered, in 2026.

Find personalized help choosing the right type of senior care for your parent 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.

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Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.