Nursing Home Cost in Florida: 2026 Rates and What Is Covered

A Florida nursing home costs about $350 per resident per day, or roughly $10,600 per month and about $127,700 per year, at the private pay rate. That figure is the statewide estimated average revenue per day of $349.96, published by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and trended to January 1, 2025.

That single number hides a lot. The cost of a nursing home depends on the type of care needed, on whether the stay is short-term rehabilitation or long-term custodial care, on which payer covers the cost, and on where in the state the facility sits. Nursing home costs can vary widely between facilities in the same county.

Average cost of nursing home care in Florida at a glance

The Florida figure comes from AHCA, which calculates an estimated average private pay rate from Medicaid cost reports filed by nursing homes statewide. Unlike nursing home costs by state comparisons built from commercial surveys, this cost breakdown draws on audited cost reports.

$349.96 per day — Florida statewide estimated average private pay rate, trended to January 1, 2025 (AHCA, 2025 report).
About $10,600 per month — the average monthly cost at that average daily cost.
About $127,700 per year — the annual cost of care at that rate.
$343.82 per day — the comparable figure trended to January 1, 2024 (AHCA, 2024 report), roughly 1.8 percent lower.
695 certified nursing facilities operated in Florida in 2025, out of 14,742 nationally (KFF State Health Facts).

Two cautions. AHCA draws these average nursing home costs only from nursing homes that participate in Florida Medicaid and also serve private pay residents, and it blends room types and levels of care. Treat it as a median monthly cost benchmark, not a quote.

Semi-private versus private room in a nursing home

A private room in a nursing home costs more than a semi-private room, typically 10 to 15 percent more. The federal Administration for Community Living published national averages of $225 per day, or $6,844 per month, for a semi-private room and $253 per day, or $7,698 per month, for a private room. Those 2016 figures are dated; they show the gap between room types, not today’s budget.

Florida does not publish an official semi-private versus private room cost breakdown. AHCA’s cost reports produce a single blended per diem, and neither AHCA nor CMS releases a room-type split by state. Florida figures circulating online for each room type come from commercial cost-of-care surveys, not government data, so they are omitted here. To learn the difference at a facility, ask admissions for its private pay rate sheet by room type and check its record on FloridaHealthFinder.gov and Medicare Care Compare.

A semi-private room is the standard. Medicare’s skilled nursing facility benefit covers a semi-private room, and a private room in a nursing home only when there is a documented medical need. Nursing home Medicaid in Florida does not pay a private room premium either, so a Medicaid resident wanting a private room generally needs someone to cover the difference.

Why skilled nursing care costs what it does

Nursing homes are not housing with a nurse on call. They are licensed care facilities staffed around the clock, and staffing is the dominant cost. Nursing homes provide skilled care, meals, therapy, and supervision as a bundle. AHCA cost report data separates the two largest components.

Direct care: $165.27 per patient day — the average for prospective payment system providers at the October 1, 2024 rate setting. Direct care is bedside nursing and certified nursing assistant time.
Indirect care: $48.03 per patient day — nursing administration, minimum data set coordinators, and care plan coordinators.

Those figures come from the 2025 Florida Medicaid Nursing Home Direct and Indirect Care Costs report. Together they exceed $213 per patient day before nursing homes cover costs for buildings, food, utilities, insurance, therapy contracts, or administration.

Florida law sets a staffing floor that drives much of that cost. Under Florida Statutes section 400.23, nursing homes must provide a minimum weekly average of 3.6 hours of direct care staff time per resident per day, including 2.0 hours from a certified nursing assistant and 1.0 hour from a licensed nurse, with no fewer than one certified nursing assistant per 20 residents and one licensed nurse per 40. Nationally, certified nursing homes averaged 3.85 nursing hours per resident per day in 2025 (KFF).

Multiply required hours by prevailing wages and the monthly cost stops looking mysterious. BLS reports a median wage of $20.13 per hour, or $42,260 per year, for nursing assistants in May 2025, with 36 percent working in skilled nursing facilities (BLS). Add licensed nurses, therapists, dietary staff, housekeeping, and holiday coverage, and labor alone consumes most of the daily rate. Nursing homes staffing above the minimum to deliver higher quality care charge accordingly.

How nursing home costs vary across Florida

Nursing home costs in Florida vary less by region than most people assume, at least in the data the state publishes. AHCA groups nursing centers into North and South peer groups for rate setting, and the 2025 report shows only a modest gap.

Direct care per patient day: $165.10 in the North peer group, $165.98 in the South peer group (2025 report, October 1, 2024 rate setting).
Indirect care per patient day: $47.24 in the North peer group, $51.10 in the South peer group.

The direct care difference is under a dollar a day; the indirect care gap of about $3.86 reflects higher overhead in South Florida. Private pay rates in high-cost metros such as Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Naples, and Sarasota do run above the statewide average, but AHCA publishes no county or metro private pay figure, so no city numbers are quoted here. Other factors that move the price include memory care or ventilator units, room type, whether the facility is hospital-based, and how much of its census is private pay rather than Medicaid.

What the daily rate includes and what costs are billed separately

Most Florida nursing homes charge an all-inclusive daily or monthly base rate covering room, board, and routine nursing care. Medicare’s skilled nursing facility benefit is a useful template for what a bundled rate includes. Per Medicare.gov, covered costs include:

A semi-private room
Meals and dietary counseling
Skilled nursing care
Physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology services when needed to meet a health goal
Medical social services
Medications
Medical supplies and equipment used in the facility
Ambulance transportation to the nearest supplier of needed services when other transportation would endanger health

Additional costs associated with a stay and billed separately include a private room upgrade, beauty and barber services, personal telephone and television, personal laundry beyond routine linens, guest meals, therapy beyond the plan of care, certain durable medical equipment, and prescription drugs when not bundled. Physician visits and hospital transfers are billed by those providers, not the nursing home. These costs typically add a few hundred dollars a month.

Florida law protects residents here. Under Florida Statutes section 400.022, nursing homes must inform each resident, in writing and orally, at admission and during the stay, of care services available and related charges, including charges not covered by Medicare or Medicaid. A facility holding a resident’s personal funds must keep a full, separate accounting, furnish it quarterly, and may not charge those funds for items already paid under Medicare or Medicaid. Ask for the ancillary charge schedule in writing before signing an admission agreement.

Short-term skilled nursing versus long term custodial care

Families routinely conflate these two, and the confusion is expensive. Both happen in the same building, often on the same hallway, but they are different services with different payers.

Short-term post-hospital skilled nursing

This is rehabilitation. Someone breaks a hip, has a stroke, or is hospitalized with an infection and needs daily skilled nursing or therapy before going home. Medicare Part A covers it under strict conditions: a prior medically necessary inpatient hospital stay of at least three days in a row, with observation status and emergency room time not counting. Coverage runs up to 100 days per benefit period, with 2026 cost sharing:

Days 1 through 20: $0 per day after the $1,736 Part A inpatient hospital deductible.
Days 21 through 100: $217 per day in coinsurance.
Day 101 and beyond: the resident pays all costs.

The $1,736 deductible and $217 daily coinsurance are the official 2026 amounts set by CMS in the Federal Register notice on CY 2026 deductible and coinsurance amounts. Most Medicare-covered skilled stays end well short of 100 days, because coverage stops when the resident no longer needs daily skilled care.

Long-term custodial care

Custodial care is personal care with the activities of daily living: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, eating. It is not skilled care, and Medicare does not cover it. This is what most people mean when they ask how much does a nursing home cost, and it runs about $350 a day in Florida for as long as the care needs continue.

The consequence: a family that watched Medicare pay for a 24-day rehabilitation stay may assume the same coverage applies when their parent cannot return home. It does not. When the skilled need ends and the custodial need continues, the bill shifts to the resident, to Medicaid, or to a private policy.

Nursing home vs assisted living and other senior care options

Nursing homes are the highest-cost common long-term care setting because they are the only senior care option providing 24-hour licensed nursing. Ranked from lower cost to higher, care options generally run adult day care, then in-home care at part-time hours, then assisted living, then skilled nursing. Published official data on the cost of assisted living facilities in Florida and on home care costs is limited: neither AHCA nor any federal agency publishes current private pay rates for Florida assisted living facilities or home health aides, and the widely cited figures come from commercial surveys, so they are not reproduced here. The available government reference points are national and dated:

Assisted living, one bedroom: $119 per day, or $3,628 per month, national average in 2016 (Administration for Community Living).
Home health aide: $20.50 per hour, national average in 2016 (Administration for Community Living).
Homemaker services: $20 per hour, national average in 2016 (Administration for Community Living).
Adult day health care: $68 per day, national average in 2016 (Administration for Community Living).

A more current reference point for home care costs is the underlying wage. BLS reports a median wage of $17.21 per hour, or $35,800 per year, for home health and personal care aides in 2025 (BLS); agencies charge above that wage to cover supervision, insurance, and overhead. In-home care typically costs less than nursing homes at part-time hours and more once around-the-clock coverage is needed. The AHCA directory on FloridaHealthFinder.gov lists licensed assisted living facilities in Florida.

How families pay for nursing home care in Florida

Most people residing in nursing homes do not pay the private rate for long. They pay privately until assets are depleted, then qualify for Medicaid to cover the full cost of nursing home care. In 2025, among Florida nursing home residents, Medicaid was the primary payer for 58 percent of urban and 68 percent of rural residents, Medicare for 19 and 14 percent, and other or private sources for 23 and 17 percent (KFF State Health Facts). Nationally, Medicaid paid 44 percent of the $147 billion the United States spent on institutional long-term care in 2023 (KFF).

The main sources of payment are:

Personal income and assets. Social Security, pensions, retirement accounts, and savings, which is how most families first pay for nursing home costs.
Medicare. Short-term skilled care only, as described above. Never custodial care.
Medicaid. Florida’s Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care program covers nursing facility care and other long-term care services for eligible residents. Applicants must be 65 or older and Medicaid-eligible, or 18 or older and eligible by reason of disability, and assessed by the state’s CARES unit as needing a nursing home level of care (Florida Department of Elder Affairs).
Veterans benefits. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs operates community living centers and helps cover the cost of nursing home care for eligible veterans.
Long-term care insurance. Some residents hold policies that pay a stated daily or monthly benefit. Terms, elimination periods, and benefit limits vary widely by policy.

Medicaid financial eligibility for institutional care is tied to the Supplemental Security Income federal benefit rate, set by the Social Security Administration at $994 per month for an individual in 2026 after a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment (SSA). Florida applies an income cap and an asset limit, and a qualifying resident generally contributes most monthly income toward the cost of care, with Medicaid paying the balance. Current thresholds come from the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a nursing home cost per month in Florida?

About $349.96 per day, or roughly $10,600 per month and $127,700 per year, per the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s estimated average private pay rate trended to January 1, 2025. Facility rates vary by room type, level of care, and location.

Will Medicare pay for a nursing home in Florida?

Only for short-term skilled care. Part A covers up to 100 days per benefit period after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least three consecutive days. In 2026, days 1 through 20 cost $0 after the $1,736 Part A deductible, days 21 through 100 cost $217 per day, and the resident pays all costs from day 101. Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial care.

Will Medicaid pay for a nursing home in Florida?

Yes, for residents meeting both financial and medical criteria. Nursing home care is covered under Florida’s Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care program, administered by AHCA and the Department of Elder Affairs, after a CARES unit assessment finds a nursing home level of care is needed.

What happens if an elderly person cannot afford a nursing home in Florida?

Most apply for Medicaid, the primary payer for the majority of Florida nursing home residents; a resident who spends down assets paying privately can become eligible. Federal law also restricts when nursing homes may discharge a resident, including for nonpayment while a Medicaid application is pending. Florida’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program and Area Agencies on Aging assist families here.

Is it cheaper to live in an assisted living facility or a nursing home?

Assisted living costs are lower, because assisted living communities provide personal care and supervision rather than 24-hour licensed nursing, but they are not equivalent once a resident needs a nursing home level of care. Florida publishes no official assisted living private pay rates; the national median cost published by the federal government, from 2016, was $3,628 per month for a one-bedroom unit.

How do most people pay for nursing home care in Florida?

In sequence: private funds first, Medicare for any qualifying short rehabilitation stay, then Medicaid once assets are depleted. KFF data for 2025 shows Medicaid was the primary payer for 58 percent of urban and 68 percent of rural Florida nursing facility residents.

What factors affect the cost of nursing home care in Florida?

The level of care required, room type, region, whether the facility is hospital-based or freestanding, specialized units such as memory care or ventilator care, and staffing above the statutory minimum. Ancillary charges for personal care services add to the average monthly cost.

Why are nursing home costs in Florida high?

Staffing. Florida law requires a minimum weekly average of 3.6 direct care hours per resident per day, including 2.0 hours of certified nursing assistant care and 1.0 hour of licensed nurse care. AHCA cost reports put direct care at $165.27 and indirect care at $48.03 per patient day for prospective payment providers at the October 1, 2024 rate setting, before any building or food cost. Nursing homes must cover those costs from the daily rate.

Are nursing home costs in Florida tax deductible?

The Internal Revenue Service addresses deductibility of nursing home and long term care expenses as medical expenses in IRS Publication 502. Whether a particular expense qualifies depends on individual circumstances. This article does not provide tax advice; consult a qualified tax professional.

When should a family start planning for long term care in Florida?

Before a hospitalization forces the decision. Understanding the cost of nursing homes, what Medicare covers, and how Florida Medicaid eligibility works takes time families rarely have during discharge planning. Quality and staffing data for Florida nursing homes is published on FloridaHealthFinder.gov and Medicare Care Compare.

Disclosures

This article is general information about the cost of nursing homes in Florida and is not financial, tax, legal, or medical advice. Cost figures come from government and nonprofit sources as cited, with the year of each stated; actual charges at any facility will differ. Medicare and Medicaid rules and eligibility thresholds change annually. Verify current figures with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, and the Florida Department of Children and Families. Lifeworth Insurance Agency is a trade name of Lifeworth Financial Group LLC, National Producer Number 21228343, licensed in Florida.

More on this: Lifeworth’s long-term care insurance overview.