Nursing homes that accept Medicaid in San Francisco, CA

What "accepts Medicaid" means on this page

The list below is built from CMS certification data, the same federal source behind Medicare's Care Compare. A nursing home shows up here if it holds Medicaid certification, meaning a state survey agency has approved it to participate in Medicaid and be paid by the state Medicaid program for nursing facility services.

That is a real, useful fact. It is also a narrow one. Three things Medicaid certification does not tell you, and each one trips families up:

Certification is a fact about the building. Eligibility is a fact about your parent's finances. Availability is a fact about today. You need all three to line up, and this list only settles the first.

• It does not mean assisted living is covered. Certification applies to the nursing home (skilled nursing facility). Assisted living is a separate license, funded differently, and usually not covered the same way.
• It does not mean a Medicaid bed is open right now. CMS reports how many certified beds a facility has, not how many are vacant or how many the facility will fill with Medicaid residents this month.
• It does not mean your family member is eligible. Financial eligibility is decided by your state Medicaid agency, not by the nursing home, and the rules vary by state.

Medicare vs. Medicaid for long-term care (the confusion that costs families the most)

This is the single most common misunderstanding we hear, and it usually surfaces during a hospital discharge when the family is told "Medicare will cover the rehab." That is true, briefly.

Medicare Part A pays for short-term skilled nursing care after a qualifying hospital stay, capped at 100 days per benefit period. In 2026, you pay nothing per day for days 1 through 20 after the $1,736 Part A deductible, then $217 a day for days 21 through 100. After day 100, Medicare pays nothing. Medicare does not cover long-term custodial care, which is help with bathing, dressing, eating, and moving safely.

Medicaid is the program that actually pays for long-term nursing home care in the United States. It is need-based, jointly run by the federal government and your state, and there is no 100-day clock. Once someone is approved, Medicaid can pay for a nursing home stay indefinitely as long as they continue to meet the state's clinical and financial rules.

The practical translation: Medicare buys you rehab and a few weeks to plan. Medicaid is the long-term answer. Families who assume Medicare rolls into permanent coverage often find out around day 90, which is a bad week to start a Medicaid application. Our guide to paying for senior care walks through the other funding sources, and if the person is a veteran or a surviving spouse, check VA benefits too.

Does Medicaid pay for assisted living?

Usually not the way families hope, and this is worth reading slowly.

Federal rules bar Medicaid from paying room and board in home and community-based settings. Under 42 CFR 441.310(a)(2), federal matching funds are not available for the cost of room and board in waiver services, with narrow exceptions for respite care and live-in caregivers. Rent, meals, and utilities in an assisted living community are the family's cost.

What many states do cover is the care portion. Most states run Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers that can pay for personal care, medication management, and supervision delivered inside an assisted living community. These waivers are optional for states, so they differ enormously: different names, different income tests, different service packages, waiting lists in some states, and only a subset of assisted living communities that accept them.

So a fair summary is this. Medicaid pays for nursing home care as a mandatory benefit. Medicaid may help pay for care services in assisted living or memory care through a state waiver, but almost never for the rent. If cost is the deciding factor, start by comparing real numbers in our cost of senior living tables, then call your state Medicaid agency or Area Agency on Aging to ask which waiver applies where you live.

How nursing home Medicaid eligibility actually works

Eligibility has two halves: a clinical test and a financial test. The clinical test asks whether the person needs a nursing facility level of care, which the state assesses. The financial test is where most of the anxiety lives.

Income limits. Many states cap monthly income for nursing home Medicaid at 300% of the SSI federal benefit rate, which works out to roughly $2,982 a month for a single applicant in 2026. Other states use a completely different standard, and some have no hard income cap at all but require you to spend income down toward the cost of care. There is no single national number, so confirm yours with the state agency.

Asset limits. The countable asset limit for a single applicant is $2,000 in a large number of states, but several states are far more generous, and California reinstated its own much higher limit in 2026. A home, one vehicle, personal belongings, and certain burial funds are typically not counted, though home equity above a federal threshold can disqualify an applicant. For 2026, that home equity limit is $752,000 in most states, and states may elect a higher ceiling of up to about $1,130,000.

The look-back period. When someone applies, the state reviews asset transfers made during a look-back window. Federal law sets it at 60 months for transfers made on or after February 8, 2006. Gifts or below-market sales inside that window can trigger a penalty period of ineligibility, calculated by dividing the uncompensated value transferred by the state's average monthly private-pay nursing home cost. States are not allowed to round the resulting fractional months down. A handful of states operate on different terms, and California's rules changed again in 2026, so verify before assuming.

Spousal protections. If one spouse enters a nursing home and the other stays home, federal spousal impoverishment rules keep the at-home spouse from being left with nothing. In 2026, the community spouse can keep up to $162,660 in protected resources, and the maximum monthly maintenance needs allowance is $4,066.50. States set their own protected amount within the federal floor and ceiling, so the figure that applies to you depends on where you live.

One thing worth saying plainly: this is where a certified elder law attorney or a free State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) counselor earns their keep. Do not restructure assets based on a website, including this one.

What "Medicaid pending" means, and why it is risky

"Medicaid pending" means the application has been filed with the state but not yet approved. Some nursing homes will admit a resident on that basis, betting the approval comes through and the state pays retroactively.

Sometimes that works and is genuinely the right move, especially when a hospital discharge cannot wait. But understand what you are taking on. Applications get denied for excess assets, unreported transfers inside the look-back window, or missing documentation, and processing can stretch for months. If the application is denied, someone owes the facility for every day of care already delivered, at private-pay rates.

Federal rules give you some protection here. A certified nursing facility may not require a third-party guarantee of payment as a condition of admission or continued stay, may not ask you to waive your Medicare or Medicaid rights, and may not require an oral or written assurance that the resident is not eligible for or will not apply for Medicaid. Those rules do not erase the underlying debt, and a facility can still pursue discharge for nonpayment after proper notice.

If you go in pending, do it with your eyes open: get the admission agreement in writing, ask exactly what happens if the application is denied, ask who signs and in what capacity, and have the application reviewed by someone who does this for a living before you file.

Medicaid bed availability: why a certified bed is not an open bed

Families call a facility on this list, hear "we're not taking Medicaid right now," and assume the data is wrong. It usually is not.

CMS publishes the number of certified beds at a facility. That is a licensing and certification count, not a live vacancy feed. Occupancy shifts weekly. Some buildings are certified for both Medicare and Medicaid, some for one or the other, and some certify only a distinct part of the building. A facility can be fully Medicaid-certified and still have zero beds free this week.

There is also a business reality. Medicaid typically reimburses less than private pay, so some facilities manage their payer mix and prefer admissions that start as private pay or Medicare rehab. Federal rules require a certified facility to provide equal access to quality care regardless of payment source, and to give residents information about how to apply for Medicare and Medicaid. But nothing requires a facility to hold a bed open for you.

Practical approach: build a list of six to ten certified facilities from below, call all of them in the same week, and ask about availability in the specific terms in the next section. Availability changes fast enough that a two-week-old answer is not an answer.

Questions to ask a facility about Medicaid

Ask these on the phone before you spend a morning touring. Write down the name of the person who answers.

Bring the same skepticism to quality that you bring to billing. A facility with an open Medicaid bed and a one-star rating is not a bargain. Check the CMS ratings and inspection history on the listing, read how CMS star ratings work so you know what the number is measuring, and see our methodology for how these nursing-home comparisons are displayed.

• Do you have a Medicaid bed available now, and if not, roughly where would we sit on the list?
• Are you Medicaid-certified for the whole building or only part of it?
• Do you require a period of private pay before accepting Medicaid, and if so, how long?
• Will you admit someone as Medicaid pending, and what happens if the application is denied?
• Who on staff helps families file the Medicaid application, and is there a fee for that help?
• If my parent enters as private pay or on Medicare rehab and later converts to Medicaid, can they stay in the same room?
• What is the daily private-pay rate, and what is not included in it?
• Can I see your most recent state inspection report?

How to use this list, and where Haven fits

Below are the Medicaid-certified nursing homes in {Metro}, drawn from CMS federal certification data and shown in neutral name order. CMS stars, inspection, staffing, and quality fields remain separate source facts; no facility can pay to alter them or its public-record order.

If you are not certain a nursing home is the right level of care, take the free two-minute care assessment first. Many families arrive convinced they need skilled nursing and find that assisted living or memory care fits better, which changes the funding conversation completely.

Haven's public research tools are free for families. This deployment does not accept family requests or make referrals, so no placement fee or payment path is active. Haven does not promise a live Medicaid bed, a response time, or a local referral service. Use this CMS-certified list to prepare calls, then confirm each home's Medicaid-pending policy, current opening, and care acceptance directly with the home. You can also browse other metros if you are looking outside {Metro}.

One last note. If a facility tells you something that contradicts what you read here, get it in writing and check it with your state Medicaid agency. Rules genuinely differ by state, and the person on the phone may be describing their own policy rather than the law.

Medicaid and nursing homes in San Francisco: common questions