Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Assisted Living (HCBS) Waiver, administered by the Ohio Department of Aging under OAC Chapter 5160-33. Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What Ohio covers
| Waiver / state plan option | Assisted Living (HCBS) Waiver, administered by the Ohio Department of Aging under OAC Chapter 5160-33 |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: “The individual must reside in a residential care facility (RCF) licensed by the Ohio department of health.” |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in Ohio 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. Ohio’s own materials say the same thing directly: “Have the ability to make room and board payments calculated at the current supplemental security income (SSI) federal benefit level minus fifty dollars. Providers shall not charge or collect room and board payments from individuals in excess of the room and board payment calculated in accordance with this paragraph.” (Ohio Admin. Code 5160-33-03(B)(5), Eligibility for the medicaid funded component of the assisted living program (last updated Sept. 7, 2023)).
The waitlist
Not published by the state in the materials reviewed this session.
What you get to keep: the personal needs allowance
$50/month (implied) a month: “Have the ability to make room and board payments calculated at the current supplemental security income (SSI) federal benefit level minus fifty dollars.” 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
The $50 figure is not labeled “personal needs allowance” anywhere in OAC 5160-33-03: it’s derived from the rule’s room-and-board formula (SSI federal benefit rate minus $50), so it is reported as implied rather than a directly-quoted PNA line item. Waitlist status is unverified: no primary source opened made an explicit open/closed waitlist statement; the closest data point is the state’s own SFY 2025 enrollment chart showing unduplicated capacity of 5,967 against enrollment of 3,954 as of July 2024, which suggests open capacity but isn’t a waitlist statement.
Sources
- Ohio Admin. Code 5160-33-03: Eligibility for the medicaid funded component of the assisted living program
- Ohio Admin. Code 5160-33-02: Definitions for the assisted living HCBS waiver program
- Ohio Dept. of Medicaid: Waiver Comparison Chart, Enrollment Information SFY 2025
Read September 4, 2026.
Same question, other states: Oklahoma · Oregon.
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.
Related: Ohio’s Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance; the amount a nursing-facility resident keeps from their own income each month.