Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Community First Choice State Plan Option (“K Plan”), 1915(k) Medicaid State Plan benefit. Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What Oregon covers
| Waiver / state plan option | Community First Choice State Plan Option (“K Plan”), 1915(k) Medicaid State Plan benefit |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: “CFC Services will be provided in a home or community setting, which does not include a nursing facility, hospital providing long-term care services, institution for mental diseases, or an intermediate care facility for the intellectually disabled. Settings will include the individual’s home or in the community. Licensed, Certified or Endorsed Community-based settings include- Assisted Living Facility (ALF)” |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in Oregon 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. Oregon’s own materials say the same thing directly: “Rates paid to community-based facility providers are an all-inclusive rate intended to cover the individual’s needs identified in the person-centered service plan. Rates do not include the costs for room and board.” (Oregon Community First Choice (K Plan) State Plan Amendment, Attachment 4.19-B, Methods and Standards for Establishing Payment Rates).
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
We verified assisted living facilities are named as a covered K Plan/Community First Choice setting and that room-and-board costs are excluded from the state’s payment rates, both read directly from Oregon’s own state plan amendment. Waitlist status is unverified: the K Plan is a Medicaid state-plan entitlement rather than a capacity-limited 1915(c) waiver, but we found no explicit primary-source statement this session confirming there is no waiting list. The personal needs allowance dollar figure is also unverified: Oregon’s OAR 461-155-0270 sets a room and board standard of $773 for an individual in community-based care, which includes assisted living facilities (OAR 461-155-0630(1); rules amended effective 01/01/2026). The rules we read state a clothing and personal incidentals amount ($81.28, OAR 461-155-0250(4)(b)) only for nursing facility and ICF-ID residents, so we could not confirm a specific personal needs allowance figure for assisted living residents.
Figures verified against Oregon State Plan Amendment TN 18-0004 (Attachments 3.1-K and 4.19-B), the Oregon DHS K Plan page, OAR 461-155-0270, 461-155-0250 and 461-155-0630 (secure.sos.state.or.us), and 42 U.S.C. §1396n(c)(1) (law.cornell.edu) on September 30, 2026; the waitlist status and an assisted living personal needs allowance figure were not re-checked or could not be found.
Sources
- Oregon Community First Choice (K Plan) State Plan Amendment, Attachment 3.1-K / 4.19-B (Transmittal #18-0004)
- Oregon DHS: Medicaid Waivers and K Plan for APD Services
Read September 4, 2026.
Same question, other states: Pennsylvania · Rhode Island.
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: Oregon’s Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance; the amount a nursing-facility resident keeps from their own income each month.
Related: use the Medicaid spend-down calculator to estimate how much you would need to spend down to qualify for long-term-care Medicaid in your state.