Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through PathWays for Aging (Assisted Living Waiver, age 60+) and the Health and Wellness Waiver (under 60), governed by 455 IAC 3-1. Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What Indiana covers
| Waiver / state plan option | PathWays for Aging (Assisted Living Waiver, age 60+) and the Health and Wellness Waiver (under 60), governed by 455 IAC 3-1 |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: Not stated in the materials reviewed this session. |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in Indiana 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. Indiana’s own materials say the same thing directly: “Each recipient is responsible for payment of the room and board services. The provider shall charge recipients room and board rates that are no higher than the SSI rate current at the time room and board services are provided, less the amount of the personal needs allowance for room and board for Medicaid eligible individuals.” (455 IAC 3-1-12).
The waitlist
Waitlisted: 11,779 on the PathWays waiver waitlist, 6,836 on the Health and Wellness waiver waitlist : “As of August 2026 there are 11,779 individuals on the PathWays Medicaid Waiver Waiting List … As of August 2026 there are 6,836 individuals on the Health and Wellness Medicaid Waiver Waiting List” (as of August 2026)
Paying for care is the harder half
What a waiver covers is only part of the problem, because room and board still has to come from somewhere, and an adviser can look at income, savings and the likely timeline together before a placement decision is made.
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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
455 IAC 3-1-12 sets the personal needs allowance as a formula (the SSI rate minus the room-and-board charge) rather than a flat number, and the state PDF likely containing the current computed rate was not machine-readable this session, so no dollar figure is reported.
Sources
- 455 IAC 3-1-12: room and board responsibility
- Indiana FSSA: HCBS waiver waiting list information, August 2026
Read September 3, 2026.
Same question, other states: Alabama · Alaska.
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.