SeniorHomeReview Cost Index
The median U.S. nursing home billed $382 per day — about $11,610 per month — in its most recent federal cost report, and collected $331 per day across all payers. Half of facilities billed between $311 and $481 per day. Medicaid covers the majority of resident days at the median facility (63%).
Unlike survey-based estimates, these figures are computed directly from 13,611facilities' own audited CMS cost reports (FY2023). Billed charges are the closest public proxy for private-pay prices; Medicare and Medicaid pay set rates. Methodology below.
Median nursing home cost by state
Methodology
Every Medicare-certified skilled nursing facility files an annual cost report with CMS (form 2540-10). The SeniorHomeReview Cost Index divides each facility's reported inpatient revenue by its total resident days to get an average billed charge per day, and net patient revenue by resident days to get the average collected per day across all payers. State figures are medians of facility values; filings with implausible results (under $80/day, over $5,000/day, or partial-year artifacts) are excluded. Source: CMS Skilled Nursing Facility Cost Report, FY2023 final. Assisted living has no federal cost filing — those figures will join the Index as state and facility-published sources are added. Cite freely with attribution: “SeniorHomeReview Cost Index.”