Assisted Living and Nursing Home Laws in Minnesota

Assisted Living is rental housing that offers services like daily meals, housekeeping, help with daily living, recreation activities or emergency call services.

Assisted Living can include:

• home and facility settings
• retirement communities
• memory care and hospice care
• independent apartments where services are available

The average cost for Assisted Living is $4,000 per month but can be a lot less or a lot more.

• Not all Assisted Living places take payments from government programs. Make sure you check.
• If you want government help to pay for your Assisted Living you have to do a Medical Assistance (MA) long-term care application AND a MN Choices assessment.
• You might have to pay for home care on your own until your MA application is approved. This could take weeks or even months.
• MA can pay for services you need, but you may need to pay for rent and food. Some people may be able to get help from Housing Support. To use Housing Support, your Assisted Living needs to keep rent and food below $934 a month.
• MA has an asset limit. If you have a large amount of assets, you may want to talk to a lawyer who works on MA planning. A lawyer can talk to you about the best way to use your income and assets for your goals.

• Think about what services you want and where you want to live

• www.minnesotahelp.info is a great resource for information on assisted living places in Minnesota.

• Click on “Seniors”
• Click on “Housing” (under more topics)
• Click on “Supportive housing”
• Pick a topic

• If you can, ask people living there now what they think

Nursing Homes are different than Assisted Living. They have extra laws and protections. Medicare might pay for part of your stay.  

Medical Assistance (MA) can also help pay for Nursing Homes.

You have regular tenant rights. You have the rights listed above for Assisted Living. You also have more protections.

There are only 6 reasons you can be discharged from a Nursing Home:

1. Your health improves
2. The facility closes
3. You owe rent
4. You are unsafe
5. Others are unsafe if you are there
6. The facility can't meet your needs

The Health Care Bill of Rights protects you against being forced to take medications or treatments that you refuse.

• Talk to your care facility. You might be able to clear it up with them and fix the problem.

• Call a MN Ombudsman for Long-Term Care, 1-800-657-3591

• Call the MN Office of Health Facility Complaints, 1-800-369-7994

Senior Linkage Line 1-800-333-2433

This fact sheet is funded in part by: the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging and the Older Americans Act.