Best nursing homes in Duluth, MN

Q: Does Medicaid pay here?

Check the row. Each home is labelled Medicare & Medicaid certified, Medicare only — no Medicaid or Medicaid only — no Medicare, straight from the CMS certification record. Most homes are certified for both, and Medicaid is the largest single payer for long-term nursing-home care — but a home certified for Medicare only cannot bill Medicaid for you at all. Certification is also not the same as availability: even at a dual-certified home, whether a Medicaid bed is open for you depends on the home and your eligibility, so confirm directly. See our Medicaid and long-term care guide.

These are the 8 CMS-certified nursing homes in Duluth, Minnesota, ranked best-first by the home’s CMS overall star rating. When two homes tie, we break the tie by the health-inspection rating — the domain assigned by independent state surveyors rather than self-reported by the facility. Nothing on this page is sponsored: no home pays to appear or to rank higher.

Check the certification chip before anything else. Most homes here are certified for both Medicare and Medicaid, but CMS certifies some for only one — and a 5-star home that doesn’t take your programme is not an option, however it ranks. Certification is not a quality measure and we don’t rank on it; we label it, because it decides whether the rest of the row matters to you.

Insights

How to read this: a high overall star can be lifted by self-reported quality-measure and payroll-staffing scores, so we surface the inspection rating and any serious citations, fines, abuse flags or ownership changes right on the row. A lower-ranked home with a clean inspection record can be the better fit than a higher-ranked one carrying red flags — open each profile.

1
Ecumen Lakeshore
CMS overall: 5 of 5 5/5 · Health inspection: 5 of 5
Medicare & Medicaid certifiedNo major red flags on record
4002 London Road, Duluth, MN
2
Viewcrest Health Center
CMS overall: 3 of 5 3/5 · Health inspection: 3 of 5
Medicare & Medicaid certified1 serious citation$71,076 in federal fines
3111 Church Street, Duluth, MN
3
Bayshore Residence And Rehabilitation Center
CMS overall: 2 of 5 2/5 · Health inspection: 2 of 5
Medicare & Medicaid certified2 immediate-jeopardy citations$132,398 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection
1601 St Louis Avenue, Duluth, MN
4
Hilltop Healthcare Rehabilitation And Skilled Nurs
CMS overall: 2 of 5 2/5 · Health inspection: 2 of 5
Medicare & Medicaid certified1 immediate-jeopardy citation$170,619 in federal finesSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection
2501 Rice Lake Road, Duluth, MN
5
The North Shore Estates LLC
CMS overall: 2 of 5 2/5 · Health inspection: 2 of 5
Medicare & Medicaid certifiedSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection
7700 Grand Avenue, Duluth, MN
6
Franciscan Health Center
CMS overall: 1 of 5 1/5 · Health inspection: 2 of 5
Medicare & Medicaid certifiedSelf-reported scores 2★ above inspection
3910 Minnesota Avenue, Duluth, MN
7
Aftenro Home
CMS overall: 1 of 5 1/5 · Health inspection: 1 of 5
Medicaid only — no MedicareSelf-reported scores 4★ above inspection
510 West College Street, Duluth, MN
8
Benedictine Health Center
CMS overall: 1 of 5 1/5 · Health inspection: 1 of 5
Medicare & Medicaid certifiedAbuse icon1 immediate-jeopardy citationSelf-reported scores 3★ above inspection
935 Kenwood Avenue, Duluth, MN

Keep looking: read the Minnesota state guides — nursing homes and assisted living — for how the state’s system works, find the closest homes to your ZIP or location, filter every facility by rating, cost and inspection record, or compare any of these side by side. Or see assisted living in Duluth, MN. Back to every Minnesota city.

How we rank

We order this list strictly by each home’s CMS overall star rating — the government’s own rating, not a score of our own. When two homes carry the same overall rating we break the tie by the health-inspection rating — the domain scored by independent state surveyors rather than self-reported — and then alphabetically. Homes with no rating on file sink to the bottom.

We should be straight with you about a tension here. The CMS overall star is a blend of three domains, and elsewhere on this site we argue that blend can be misleading: the staffing and quality-measure components lean on data facilities report about themselves, and they can lift a home’s overall star above what inspectors actually found. We still sort by it, for one reason — it is the only ranking of nursing homes the government publishes, and the alternative is us deciding which domain ought to count, which is our opinion dressed up as an official rating. We won’t do that. (It is the same reason we refuse to rank assisted living at all.) So instead of quietly re-sorting to our taste, we un-blend the star on every row: the inspection rating sits next to the overall one, and serious citations, fines and abuse flags are on the row too. Where the two disagree, trust the inspection record and the citations — and treat our sort order as the government’s claim, not ours. See our methodology.

No home pays to appear here or to rank higher. There is no sponsored placement, no paid listing, and no referral fee. The page carries ordinary Google display advertising, sold against the page by Google: it cannot move a home up or down this list, and no advertiser sees who you are. The ratings, citations and fines are assigned by government inspectors (CMS), not by Eldercare Lens.

Common questions

Does Medicaid pay here?

Check the row. Each home is labelled Medicare & Medicaid certified, Medicare only — no Medicaid or Medicaid only — no Medicare, straight from the CMS certification record. Most homes are certified for both, and Medicaid is the largest single payer for long-term nursing-home care — but a home certified for Medicare only cannot bill Medicaid for you at all. Certification is also not the same as availability: even at a dual-certified home, whether a Medicaid bed is open for you depends on the home and your eligibility, so confirm directly. See our Medicaid and long-term care guide.

How current is this data?

The ratings, inspections, fines and staffing shown here are copied from the CMS Provider Data Catalog, which CMS refreshes monthly. A star rating rests on the home’s last standard inspection, which can lag current conditions, so always verify with the facility.

What does the star rating mean?

CMS assigns each home an overall rating from 1 to 5 stars, blended from three domains: health inspections, staffing, and quality measures. We rank by that overall star because it is the government’s rating rather than one of ours — but we show the independent health-inspection rating beside it on every row, because a high overall star can be lifted by the self-reported staffing and quality components above what inspectors found. Where the two disagree, trust the inspection record.

Ratings and citations are assigned by government inspectors (CMS), not by Eldercare Lens. The absence of a citation does not guarantee the absence of problems. Always verify with the facility and your state Long-Term Care Ombudsman.