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Does Medicaid pay for memory care in Nevada?

Partly. Nevada Medicaid can help pay for the care a person receives in an assisted living or memory care setting — usually through a waiver program — but it generally does not pay for room and board. Most families end up combining sources.

Why the answer is not a simple yes

Medicaid is a joint federal and state program, and each state runs its own version with its own rules. So the honest answer to “does Medicaid pay for memory care” depends entirely on which state you are in. This page is about Nevada.

The other reason it is not simple: a memory care bill is really two bills stuck together. One part is the care — help with dressing, bathing, eating, moving around, managing medication, supervision. The other part is room and board — the roof, the bed, the utilities, the food. Medicaid in Nevada is much more willing to help with the first than the second.

Nevada’s Waiver for the Frail Elderly

The program most families end up looking at is Nevada’s Home and Community-Based Services Waiver for the Frail Elderly, usually shortened to the FE waiver. It is for Nevadans aged 65 and over whose needs are serious enough that they would otherwise be looking at a nursing home. The whole point of it is to let people stay somewhere less institutional than a nursing home — their own home, a family member’s home, a group residential setting, or an assisted living residence.

It is administered through the Aging and Disability Services Division (ADSD), and you apply through its Office of Community Living rather than at a care home.

Two things about the FE waiver catch families out. First, it covers non-medical support — it is not a substitute for skilled nursing care or for a nurse’s visits. Second, unlike regular Medicaid, a waiver is not an entitlement: qualifying does not automatically mean you are enrolled. There are a set number of places, and when they are full, people wait.

Do we qualify?

Nevada looks at three things: age and residency, care needs, and finances.

Care needs

There is a functional assessment. Broadly, the person has to need the kind of help that would otherwise be provided in a nursing facility. For someone with moderate or advanced dementia this is often the straightforward part.

Finances

There are both income and asset limits, and both are tight. The income ceiling is pegged to a federal benefit rate that is adjusted every year, and the asset limit for a single applicant is low — a home you live in and one vehicle are usually treated separately from countable assets.

We are deliberately not printing the current figures here, because they change annually and a stale number on a website is worse than no number at all. Get them from Nevada Medicaid or ADSD, or ask them directly.

If you are close to the limits, or if one spouse needs care and the other does not, this is the point to talk to someone who does this properly. Rules exist to protect the spouse who is staying at home, and rearranging finances without advice can disqualify someone for years. Nevada’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program gives free, unbiased counselling.

The room and board gap

This is the part families are least prepared for. Even with a waiver approved, the waiver pays for services — personal care, help with daily activities, care coordination — and not for the accommodation itself.

Families typically cover that part from some combination of:

• Social Security and any pension income
• Savings, or the proceeds of selling a home
• A long-term care insurance policy, if there is one
• VA benefits — see memory care resources for veterans, since Aid and Attendance is paid to the family and can go toward room and board
• Contributions from adult children

Not every home accepts it

A waiver is only useful at a place that participates. Memory care homes are private businesses and are not obliged to accept Medicaid waiver residents, and some that do keep only a limited number of such places.

So ask every community you speak to, early in the conversation, and ask it plainly: do you accept the Frail Elderly waiver, do you have a place available for a waiver resident now, and what would we be paying ourselves on top? Getting that answer at the start saves families from falling in love with somewhere they cannot afford.

What to do this week

1. Call ADSD and ask for the Office of Community Living intake for home and community-based services. Ask what the current wait looks like.
2. Gather the paperwork before you are asked: identification, proof of Nevada residency, income statements, bank and asset statements, insurance details.
3. Ask SHIP for free counselling if the finances are anywhere near the limits, or if there is a spouse remaining at home.
4. Ask each care home you are considering whether it takes waiver residents, and what room and board would cost you directly.

Start earlier than feels necessary. The assessment, the paperwork, and any waiting list all take time, and dementia does not pause while an application is processed.

Related reading

• Does Medicare cover memory care facilities? — the answer surprises most families
• Memory care resources for veterans
• What is a memory care facility?

General educational information about memory care and how families pay for it. This is not medical, legal, or financial advice, and rules change — check anything you plan to rely on with the agency concerned. Last updated July 2026.