State Assisted Living Policy: 1998

As part of DALTCP's National Study of Assisted Living for the Frail Elderly, the National Academy for State Health Policy has been conducting annual surveys of all state licensing and housing finance agencies involved in assisted living, as well as of Medicaid agencies that provide funding for assisted living. This report summarizes the assisted living and board and care policies of each of the 50 states. Twenty-two states have licensing regulations using the term "assisted living" and draft regulations have been developed by nine other states. Thirty-five states reimburse or plan to reimburse assisted living or board and care facilities as a Medicaid service. While there is great variation across states, overall assisted living is developing as a residential rather than an institutional model. The major issues addressed by state policies concern requirements for the living unit, for residential admission and retention, for allowable services and for staff training. The report gives an overview of state assisted living trends, summarizes each state's licensing rules and financing policies, and provides a state agency contact list. [338 PDF pages]