Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Arizona Long Term Care System (ALTCS), operated by AHCCCS under a Section 1115 demonstration (no separate 1915(c) waiver name). Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What Arizona covers
| Waiver / state plan option | Arizona Long Term Care System (ALTCS), operated by AHCCCS under a Section 1115 demonstration (no separate 1915(c) waiver name) |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: “Many ALTCS members live in their own homes or an assisted living facility and receive needed in-home services.” |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in Arizona 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. We did not find Arizona’s own materials restating this point in the sources read this session; the federal rule above still governs.
The waitlist
No waitlist: ALTCS operates as an entitlement; anyone meeting eligibility criteria is enrolled, unlike capped 1915(c) waivers
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
$149.10 (institutional) or $2,982.00 (community) depending on setting; which tier applies to assisted living specifically is ambiguous in the source a month: PNA = 15% of the Federal Benefit Rate (FBR) for a full calendar month in a long-term care/institutional facility, which for 01/01/2026-12/31/2026 equals $149.10/month. For members who instead live in their own home, an HCBS setting, or certain other community settings, the deduction standard is 300% of FBR = $2,982/month for 2026. 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
AHCCCS’s own public pages read this session do not explicitly state the federal room-and-board exclusion in so many words. The eligibility manual sets two different personal-needs-allowance tiers (institutional vs. community) and does not resolve which one governs a member specifically in an assisted-living/alternative-residential placement; both figures are reported rather than picking one.
Sources
Read September 3, 2026.
Same question, other states: Arkansas · California.
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: Arizona’s Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance; the amount a nursing-facility resident keeps from their own income each month.