Assisted living in Florida

What Florida licenses — and why this total isn’t comparable to another state’s

There is no national definition of “assisted living.” Each state decides what it licenses and what to call it, so a state total counts whatever that state chose to license — state counts on this site are not comparable to each other, and a bigger number does not mean more assisted living. Here that total is:

• 3,014 Assisted living

1,454 of these (48%) are licensed for 6 beds or fewer — residential homes rather than the apartment-style communities most families picture. They are real licensed care and we list them, but filter by beds if that is not what you are looking for.

Memory care isn’t marked here — because the state doesn’t publish it.

Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s licensing file carries no memory-care or dementia-unit designation, so we cannot tell you which of these communities has one. There certainly are memory-care communities in this state — we just have no authoritative list of them, and we won’t guess from a community’s name. Ask any community directly whether it runs a secured dementia unit, and ask your Long-Term Care Ombudsman ↗ which local communities take dementia residents.

Estimated cost range · regional

In Florida, assisted living typically runs about $4,500–$6,750/month.

This is a regional estimate modeled from published survey data (the CareScout/Genworth state median, ±20%) — not this community’s actual price, which it sets privately. Ask the community for its current all-in monthly rate and what each care level adds.

Paying with Medicaid

Florida Medicaid helps pay for assisted living only in limited circumstances — through a waiver, and not everywhere in the state or for everyone who qualifies.

The Florida waiver that can pay for it:

• Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC LTC) Program — covers in-home / assisted living / adult day / nursing facility

Florida runs a waiting list for this waiver. Qualifying does not mean a place is funded — apply as early as you can, before you need it.

In Florida: apply or check eligibility ↗ or call 1-866-762-2237.

A waiver pays for care, not for rent. Even where the state covers assisted-living services, room and board is still the resident’s to pay. Full eligibility limits — income, assets, the look-back — are on our Florida Medicaid page.

8 communities below are listed under the name on the licence, not the name on the building.

They are marked licence name. A state lists a community under the legal entity that holds its licence — typically a single-purpose company set up for one property — and those communities almost certainly operate under a different public name. The state does not publish that name, so we do not have it and will not guess: attaching the wrong community’s inspection record to a familiar brand would be worse than an odd name. If you are looking for a community by its brand and cannot find it here, search by street address instead.