Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Choices for Independence (CFI) Waiver, administered by the NH DHHS Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services. Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What New Hampshire covers
| Waiver / state plan option | Choices for Independence (CFI) Waiver, administered by the NH DHHS Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: “The definition of “community” under this waiver is broad and includes many types of non-nursing home settings such as Assisted Living and Residential Care Homes.” |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in New Hampshire or any state; see below. |
The room-and-board split
Federal law is the floor every state builds on: “The Secretary may by waiver provide that a State plan approved under this subchapter may include as “medical assistance” under such plan payment for part or all of the cost of home or community-based services (other than room and board) approved by the Secretary” (42 U.S.C. §1396n(c)(1), Social Security Act §1915(c)). The words in parentheses do the work: whatever a state’s waiver pays for inside an assisted living community, it is not the rent, the meals, or the room itself. That portion stays the resident’s own to fund, out of income, savings, or a family contribution; the waiver only ever reaches the care and service layer on top of it. New Hampshire’s own materials say the same thing directly: “With the exception of respite care provided in an intermediate care facility or residential care facility, payment for CFI waiver services shall exclude room and board.” (N.H. Admin. Rules He-E 801.12(b), Choices for Independence Program).
The waitlist
Not published by the state in the materials reviewed this session.
What you get to keep: the personal needs allowance
Not published in the materials reviewed this session. This is the amount of a waiver participant’s own income the state lets them keep for personal spending after the rest goes toward the cost of their care; it varies by state because each state sets its own figure inside the federal floor.
What this doesn’t answer
Waitlist status and the exact current dollar figure for the personal needs allowance in an assisted living/residential care setting could not be verified: dhhs.nh.gov returned HTTP 403 for every page and PDF attempted this session, including the CFI waiver renewal application and the notice on the PNA increase, so those documents could not be read. RSA 167:27-a sets a statutory floor but applies to nursing-home residents, not CFI residential-care participants, so it was not used as the personal needs allowance figure; RSA 167:27-b confirms CFI/residential-care participants retain a commissioner-set allowance but the statute itself does not state the dollar figure. The waiver name, assisted-living coverage, and room-and-board exclusion were confirmed in primary sources actually opened this session.
Sources
- NH DHHS Revised Statewide Transition Plan (Jan. 2023), submitted to CMS re: Choices for Independence waiver settings
- N.H. Admin. Rules He-E 800, Choices for Independence Program
- N.H. RSA 167:27-b, income retention for residential care facility/community residence payments
- N.H. RSA 167:27-a, personal needs allowance (nursing home residents)
- CMS Medicaid.gov waiver listing confirming official CFI waiver name, number, and effective dates
Read September 4, 2026.
Same question, other states: New Jersey · New Mexico.
Related: what assisted living actually costs · assisted living vs. staying home vs. a CCRC · why home care has a waitlist and a nursing home doesn’t.
General information drawn from each state’s own Medicaid agency and federal statute, not legal, tax or financial advice. Medicaid is administered state by state; waiver names, coverage decisions, waitlists and allowance amounts change by state budget and legislative action. This page cannot see your own state’s current caseload. We are not a law firm, a benefits counselor, or a fiduciary, and this is not personalized advice. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.