The average monthly cost of assisted living in Maryland is about $6,100, according to A Place for Mom’s proprietary data. This is around $1,000 more than the national median cost, making Maryland among the costliest states for assisted living in the U.S.[02] These numbers refer to the average final monthly costs paid by families living in our partner communities.
In Maryland, costs at A Place for Mom’s partner communities typically range from roughly $4,000 to just under $8,800 a month. Communities in large metropolitan areas like Baltimore or the suburbs of Washington, D.C., generally cost more than facilities in smaller or more rural locations. Costs also vary by amenities provided, the level of care a resident needs, and the community’s pricing structure.
Maryland divides its assisted living facilities into three levels of care: one, two, and three. Three provides the highest-level, most comprehensive care. Communities at any level must be additionally licensed to provide cognitive care to seniors with Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia.
Costs can correlate to the level of care provided. Residents in a level one community may need less monitoring or assistance with activities of daily living than seniors in a level three facility, so those communities might cost less.
The monthly average cost of $6,100 generally cover a senior’s complete care needs, including:
Factors that affect the cost of assisted living in Maryland may include:
Medicare and Medicaid may offset some of the costs of medical care expenses in assisted living communities for qualifying seniors.
Average monthly costs
Maryland
US National average
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District of Columbia
Delaware
Pennsylvania
Virginia
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A senior’s personal financial resources, preferences, and care needs can affect the way they choose to pay for assisted living. The sooner you’re able to evaluate your family’s budget, the more options your loved one may have available.
Time is of the essence, especially if your loved one hasn’t yet signed up for Medicare or if they plan to apply for public assistance programs. Medicaid home and community based services (HCBS) waivers — which are available for lower-income seniors in Maryland — may require a waiting period. If you plan to use Medicare or Medicaid to cover any medical services in assisted living, an application and approval period may apply.
Maryland also offers a unique Senior Assisted Living Subsidy Program for low and moderate-income older adults. The program uses state funds to subsidize financially eligible seniors’ care needs in assisted living facilities licensed by the Maryland Department of Health. The financial access limit is 60% of the state’s current median income, and the subsidy covers the difference between monthly income and senior living costs, up to just over $1,000 a month.[03]
Families generally use a mix of public payment methods and personal to cover the costs of assisted living. We’ll explore some of these options below. For a high-level overview of payment options, read through our complete guide to paying for long-term care.
Options that count as private pay methods include retirement accounts, pensions, personal savings, assets, and funds contributed by family members. Seniors and their families can also secure private pay funds by exploring the options below.
Selling a house
Selling your house in Maryland can provide funds to put toward assisted living.
Reverse mortgage
Leveraging home equity through a reverse mortgage can help pay for assisted living.
Health savings accounts
A health savings account (HSA) can cover the cost of health expenses, like certain care services and medical supplies, in Illinois assisted living.
Life insurance
A life insurance policy can be sold or surrendered for cash value to offset the costs of assisted living in Maryland.
Social Security benefits for assisted living
Seniors who qualify for Social Security can use those funds at their cash value to cover part of their assisted living costs in Maryland.
If your loved one or their spouse served the country, they may be eligible for a variety of veterans benefits to help offset the costs of assisted living. Learning about and applying for these benefits can be complicated, so consider reaching out to one of the many veterans resources available across the state for benefits counseling. The Maryland Department of Aging works closely with the Department of Veterans Affairs to help senior veterans receive the benefits they deserve.
Medicaid is a jointly funded health care program available through the state and federal governments. It’s designed to help low-income individuals and people with disabilities. Maryland Medicaid focuses on a person-centered approach to care at home, in the community, and in institutional settings.
As part of a 2022 health reform, Maryland expanded Medicaid to seniors with incomes or equivalent assets at or below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. That’s about $1,564 a month per individual. Seniors who receive Supplemental Social Security Income as well as Medicare are entitled to full Medicaid benefits.[05]
Maryland seniors can apply for Medicaid or receive additional information from their local Department of Human Services office, which can be found using this map, or online through the Maryland state website.
Your family will still have to use a combination of public resources and private pay to cover the costs of assisted living, even if your senior loved one qualifies for Medicaid. That’s because Maryland Medicaid only pays for medical care, not room and board, in assisted living communities, with some exceptions for seniors with certain disabilities.
Medicare is a federally funded health insurance program available to all U.S. seniors aged 65 or older. While Medicare, like Medicaid, doesn’t cover room and board in assisted living communities, it can help with medical care costs in Maryland assisted living communities, which might include the following:
Residents in level three assisted living facilities are those who need the highest level of senior care provided outside nursing homes. They may be able to cover more costs using Medicare than residents in level one communities.
Nearly one million seniors in Maryland are enrolled in Medicare. Most opt for Original Medicare, which includes hospital insurance (Medicare Part A) and medical insurance (Medicare Part B). Medicare Advantage plans are also available, but enrollment in the state of Maryland is much lower than the national average, at only 11% of the senior population.
Maryland residents can learn more about Medicare through this official guide, and they can enroll online through the Maryland Department of Aging website.
Medicare enrollees can receive help through the State Health Insurance Program (SHIP). Public health agencies, individual coordinators, nonprofits, and the local Area Agencies on Aging provide counseling on the process of applying for Medicare as well as tailored benefit information.
For additional resources and assistance with Medicare and Medicaid, families can contact the following agencies:
After visiting numerous facilities, it became obvious that Arden Courts Memory Care Potomac was the right place for my husband. We had only 2 weeks to prepare him for the move to a new time zone. The entire...
My mother is currently a resident at Bethany Living II and everything has been great for her at this facility so far. The staff is very sincere in taking care of my mother. They reach our if anything is...
[name removed] has been made to feel a sense of the community and seems quite content with his room surroundings and staff. He particularly enjoys the music sessions, of which there are many. I particularly...
Sunrise in Chevy Chase is wonderful. They helped my mother make a diificult transition to assistance living. Not only did they successfully acclimate my mother but they counseled me also. My mother is...
We had our mother there for about seven years. All the staff took incredible care of her, we felt incredibly safe to have her there. We could not have been happier with this whole establishment, and all the...
They are wonderful, caring, kind , attentive and always very friendly. Room sizes like a normal medium size bedroom in a home. My mom has her win bath but others share a large bathroom. Max of 8 resident
I would honestly give them a 5 for everything (in our case), except #8 I would rate a 4 because I do feel like they charged high for some things. They definitely had a lot of loving staff and didn't seem to...
The place was recently renovated so that was nice. The food could be really improved for more nutrition and softer texture for easier consumption for the elderly
After visiting several memory care facilities, we chose The Seneca and never doubted our choice! We looked at a small family-run facility, a well-known one within walking distance of our home (which we had...
The facility is very nice, the staff is very attentive and most importantly my Dad is happy. I picked this community because it was the closest proximity to me.
The caregivers at Charter Senior Living are excellent but the time to get substantive responses from administration can be too lengthy.
Covid and Mom's need for more care dictated a cross country move from Maryland to stay with my husband and me in California. After several years and her longing for home, my brother in Texas and I decided...
They could improve on being a little more active with getting my mom up in the am and helping her dress. Weekends there are few people working. I'm not of the same happens with others.
Sometimes it may be hard to figure out who to call to sort things out, but overall the staff members at Springwell Senior Living community are very nice.
The Maryland Department of Health Office of Health Care Quality licenses assisted living facilities based on the level of care they provide. The state doesn’t set a minimum number of residents for licensure, so any facility with two or more unrelated residents can be licensed as an assisted living community.
Facilities provide at least one level of care:
Communities are licensed to provide residents with a certain level of care. The level at which a community is licensed is determined by the needs of residents. Health, medication management, behavioral management, and assistance with ADLs are all taken into account. Communities with residents experiencing dementia or psychiatric conditions must be separately certified.[01]
Here are some additional factors Maryland takes into consideration when licensing assisted living facilities:
Qualified staff must be on-site 24 hours a day when residents are present. An assessing physician or nurse can use Maryland’s Resident Assessment Tool to determine whether residents require awake overnight staff.
All assisted living facilities must have an agreement with a registered nurse whose job it is to delegate nursing tasks to employees. This nurse doesn’t have to be on-site at all times, depending on the level of care a community provides.
Level three — the highest level — assisted living facilities must have a qualified manager with a college degree and two or more years of experience in the health care field. They also must complete an 80-hour training program that covers aging, cognitive needs, and dementia.
We developed a system to rate each state based on the ease of information access, meaning how easy — or difficult — it is to find important assisted living records and reports. States with the most transparent records allow you to look up important information about each assisted living facility online, including inspections, complaints, survey results, violations, capacity, and Medicaid acceptance.
Public access to assisted living records and reports for the state of Maryland is exceptional. Key findings that informed this rating include:
We developed astandard methodology for state data collection and evaluation, and we based our rating primarily on the objective, state-specific accessibility criteria outlined in these questions:
1. Are licensed assisted living communities listed online in any form? Yes
2. If Yes to #1, is the information updated frequently? Yes
3. If Yes to #1, is the list of licensed communities searchable? Yes
4. Does the state post inspections, complaints, survey results, or violations online? Yes
5. If Yes to #4, is the information updated frequently (within 90 days)? Yes
6. If Yes to #2 and #4, is the enforcement information included in the same place as licensed communities? No
7. If Yes to #4 and No to #6, are violations and inspections searchable at all? Yes, or not applicable
8. Is information about special licensing for care shown? Yes
9. Is capacity shown? Yes
10. Are payment types shown (e.g., Medicaid, private pay)? No
11. Is the administrator/contact name shown? Yes
12. Can the state fine a facility? Yes
13. What is the frequency of inspections? Every 15 months
14. Does the website include pricing of facilities? Yes
The People’s Law Library of Maryland. (2022, December 6). Assisted living in Maryland.
A Place for Mom. (2023). A Place for Mom proprietary data.
Maryland Department of Aging. (2022, June 10). Memorandum #22-2.
Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs. Federal and state benefits for service connected veterans.
Maryland.gov. (2023). Am I eligible for Medicaid?
Overview of assisted living in MD
The information contained on this page is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute medical, legal or financial advice or create a professional relationship between A Place for Mom and the reader. Always seek the advice of your health care provider, attorney or financial advisor with respect to any particular matter, and do not act or refrain from acting on the basis of anything you have read on this site. Links to third-party websites are only for the convenience of the reader; A Place for Mom does not endorse the contents of the third-party sites.
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