Florida Nursing Home Costs in 2026: Average Monthly Price

How much does a Florida nursing home cost per month?

The CareScout Cost of Care Survey is the survey most state agencies, insurance carriers and financial planners use for long-term care pricing. Its 2025 edition, with fieldwork from July through November 2025, reports these Florida medians:

Source: CareScout Cost of Care Survey, 2025 edition, Florida and national median cost tables. Monthly figures are the survey's published monthly medians; the in-home line is the survey's hourly median of $32 multiplied by 44 hours a week.

Two notes on reading these numbers. First, a median is not a bill: half of the surveyed Florida facilities reported rates below these figures and half reported rates above them. Second, the rate a facility quotes is often the base rate. Therapy supplies, incontinence products, transportation and a private-room premium typically sit outside it. We cover those extras in the costs that are not in the quoted monthly rate.

How does Florida compare with the national median?

Florida is a middle-of-the-pack state that happens to sit above the national average on nursing home care and below it on assisted living. The 2025 survey numbers, side by side:

Ranked against the other states in the same survey, Florida is 24th of 50 on the semi-private median and 23rd of the 49 states that report a private-room figure, so it is neither a cheap state nor an expensive one. On assisted living it ranks 36th. The comparison that matters for most families is not Florida against Texas but Florida against the next level of care: a semi-private nursing home room costs $4,732 a month more than an assisted living unit here. Our assisted living versus nursing home comparison and the broader nursing home costs by state page cover the trade-off in more detail, and you can run your own numbers through the care cost calculator.

Semi-private or private room: what is the difference in price?

The gap in Florida is $1,825 a month, or $21,900 a year, between a semi-private and a private room. That is the single largest optional line item most families meet, and it is usually not covered: Medicare pays for a private room only when it is medically necessary, and Florida Medicaid applies the same standard, so the difference is generally paid out of pocket.

One practical point about Florida. The private-room premium is not the only thing that moves the monthly number. Many Florida nursing homes quote a base rate for a shared room and then bill separately for items that other states bundle, such as therapy supplies, specialty diets, transportation to appointments and a bed-hold charge during a hospital stay. Ask for the rate schedule in writing and ask which lines sit outside it, because a facility that looks $300 cheaper on the phone is often not cheaper on the statement.

Why does a Florida nursing home cost more than the national median?

Labor is the largest single cost in a nursing home, and Florida is a high-demand, high-cost labor market for direct care staff. The state has one of the oldest populations in the country and a large share of residents who move there in retirement, so the pool of people who need skilled nursing is deep while the pool of people willing to work nights and weekends for the wages the job pays is thin. Nursing homes also compete for the same licensed nurses as hospitals, which pay more.

The regulatory floor is another structural difference. Florida licenses nursing homes under Chapter 400 of the Florida Statutes and assisted living facilities under Chapter 429. A nursing home must have licensed nursing staff on duty on every shift, a medical director, infection-control oversight, and the survey and reporting obligations that come with Medicare and Medicaid certification. An assisted living facility with a standard licence provides personal services and may employ or contract with a licensed nurse to administer medications, but it is not built around round-the-clock clinical staffing. That is the main reason the Florida assisted living median sits below the national figure while the nursing home median sits above it: the two products are priced off different cost bases, not off the same one with a discount applied.

Real estate explains the rest. The same building and the same staffing model cost more in Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach than in a rural county in the panhandle, which is why the statewide median is a starting point rather than a quote. The survey also publishes metro medians if you need a local figure, and the Florida nursing home cost page carries the state-level reference numbers.

Does Medicare pay for a nursing home stay in Florida?

Medicare Part A pays for skilled nursing facility care for up to 100 days per benefit period, and only after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least three days. The structure is the same in Florida as anywhere else, because it is a federal benefit. The 2026 amounts are:

Using all 80 coinsurance days at $217 works out to about $17,360 in the year, and many Medigap plans cover that coinsurance. Observation stays and emergency room time do not count toward the three-day rule even when they run overnight, which is the most common reason a Florida family is told a rehab stay is not covered. The structural point matters more: Medicare pays for recovery, not for residential care. Long-term custodial care, help with bathing, dressing, eating and supervision, is excluded. A resident who needs that level of help for years is not a Medicare case. Our Medicare nursing home coverage guide walks through the qualifying-stay rules, and what happens when Medicare stops paying for rehab covers the hand-off.

Does Florida Medicaid pay for nursing home care?

Yes. Florida Medicaid pays for long-stay nursing home care through the Institutional Care Program, known as ICP. Three agencies are involved, and knowing which one you are dealing with saves weeks: the Department of Children and Families (DCF) decides financial eligibility, the Department of Elder Affairs decides medical eligibility and level of care through its CARES assessment, and the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) administers the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care program and enrolls eligible people in a plan. An applicant must be 65 or older and eligible for Medicaid, or 18 or older and eligible on the basis of disability, and must be assessed at nursing home level of care.

The 2026 financial standards, from the DCF SSI-Related Programs financial eligibility standards chart effective July 2026:

Source: DCF SSI-Related Programs Financial Eligibility Standards, Appendix A-9, July 2026. The standards marked with a single asterisk on that chart change each January 1 in line with federal law.

Three further rules carry most of the planning weight in Florida:

1. Transfers are reviewed for five years. DCF reviews any assets transferred within the 60 months before the application month, and a transfer can produce a period of ineligibility. The department lists a transfer-of-assets divisor of $10,645, dated April 1, 2025, which it uses to turn a transferred value into a penalty period. Our guide to the look-back period explains how the penalty is calculated.
2. The home is exempt but not unlimited. A Florida applicant cannot have home equity above $752,000 and still qualify for nursing facility services, unless a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child lives in the home. The equity limit is a separate test from the $2,000 asset limit; the house itself is not counted as an asset. For what does and does not count, see countable assets for Medicaid.
3. A married resident's spouse keeps a protected share. For 2026 the community spouse resource allowance tops out at $162,660, the community spouse monthly income allowance is $4,067, the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance is $2,705 and the excess shelter standard is $812. The institutional spouse's own asset limit stays at $2,000, or $5,000 where monthly income is $1,105 or less. Spousal impoverishment protections exist so the at-home spouse is not left with nothing.

Once a resident qualifies, most of their income goes to the facility and Medicaid pays the balance. Uncovered medical expenses paid out of pocket, including nursing home bills from up to three months before the application month, can be averaged into a deduction over a six-month projection period, which is how a family with a large private-pay bill sometimes ends up with no patient responsibility for a while. Our Medicaid nursing home coverage guide covers what the program does and does not pay for.

The income cap and the qualified income trust

This is the part of Florida that surprises families who have read about other states. Florida applies a hard income cap rather than an income test with deductions: if gross monthly income is over $2,982 for an individual in 2026, the applicant is over the limit regardless of how large the medical bills are. The way around it is a qualified income trust, also called a Miller trust.

The mechanics are narrow and the department enforces them. The trust must be irrevocable. It must contain the applicant's income only, with no assets added. It must require the state to receive whatever remains at death, up to the amount of Medicaid benefits paid. It must be signed and dated by the applicant, the applicant's spouse or someone with legal authority, and the agreement is reviewed by DCF regional legal counsel. Deposits have to be made every month Medicaid is needed, in the month the income is received; a missed or short deposit makes the person ineligible for that month. Money placed in the trust is excluded when eligibility is decided but still counted when patient responsibility is calculated, so a trust fixes eligibility rather than reducing the monthly share of cost.

The practical consequence: in Florida the order of operations is level of care, then income and the trust, then assets and the five-year look-back. A family that starts with the house usually works on the wrong problem first. If a spouse will remain at home, the sequence of payers when savings run out is worth reading before the first facility bill arrives.

How do I check what a specific facility charges?

Ask the admissions office for the current rate schedule in writing, and ask which services sit outside the base rate. Then check the facility itself, not just the price. FloridaHealthFinder, run by the Agency for Health Care Administration, is the state's public locator: it publishes each licensed nursing home's inspection results, licence details and complaint history. Medicare's Care Compare tool (medicare.gov/care-compare) adds staffing levels, quality measures and ownership for every Medicare-certified nursing home. Reading both before a tour is the difference between comparing prices and comparing care.

Two Florida-specific questions are worth asking on the tour. First, does the facility accept Medicaid, and does it keep a bed available for a resident who spends down to Medicaid eligibility? A facility that is certified for Medicaid can still have a limited number of Medicaid-funded beds. Second, if assisted living is on the table instead, ask which licence the community holds. Florida issues assisted living licences in categories including standard, limited nursing services, extended congregate care and memory care services, and the category determines how much care the community is allowed to provide before a resident has to move.

For the next state over, see Texas nursing home costs or California nursing home costs.

Where these numbers come from

State cost figures are medians from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey, 2025 edition, fieldwork July through November 2025: the Florida rows and the national rows of the published median cost tables, and the survey's ranking table for the state comparison. The percentages and the $1,825 monthly room gap are arithmetic on those published medians, not quoted figures. Medicare amounts for 2026 come from the CMS fact sheet on 2026 Medicare Parts A and B premiums and deductibles, and the 100-day limit and the distinction between skilled care and custodial care come from Medicare.gov. Florida Medicaid income limits, the resource limits, the $160 personal needs allowance, the community spouse resource allowance, the community spouse monthly income allowance, the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance, the excess shelter standard, the home equity limit and the transfer-of-assets divisor are from the DCF SSI-Related Programs Financial Eligibility Standards chart, Appendix A-9, July 2026. The 60-month look-back, the qualified income trust requirements, the uncovered medical expense deduction and the division of responsibility among DCF, the Department of Elder Affairs and the Agency for Health Care Administration are from the DCF SSI-Related Medicaid Fact Sheet and AHCA's Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care program pages. Nursing home and assisted living licensing categories are from Chapters 400 and 429 of the Florida Statutes. This is general information about program rules, not financial, legal or tax advice for a particular situation.