Nursing Home Costs in Massachusetts
A semi-private nursing home room in Massachusetts costs a median of $14,448 a month, and a private room $15,817 a month, according to CareScout’s 2025 Cost of Care Survey. Nationally the medians are $9,581 and $10,798.
Updated October 2026 · CareScout 2025 medians and published private-pay rates
How Massachusetts compares with the national median
A semi-private room in Massachusetts costs 51% more than the national median.
| Nursing home | Massachusetts | U.S. | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semi-private room, a month | $14,448 | $9,581 | 51% higher |
| Private room, a month | $15,817 | $10,798 | 46% higher |
| Semi-private room, a year | $173,375 | $114,975 | 51% higher |
| Private room, a year | $189,800 | $129,575 | 46% higher |
Source: CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025, median nursing home costs, collected July to November 2025.
Rates Massachusetts nursing homes publish
We have not yet found a private-pay rate published by a Massachusetts nursing home. Ask each one for its daily rate for a semi-private and a private room, and what the rate leaves out.
What moves the price
- Room type. A private room costs more than a shared one; in Massachusetts the CareScout medians differ by $1,369 a month.
- Care needs. Therapy, wound care, dementia care and other skilled services can add to the daily rate.
- What the rate covers. Ask what is billed on top: medication, supplies, laundry, beauty shop, phone and cable.
- Location. Rates differ between cities and between urban and rural areas.
Massachusetts has 341 Medicare-certified nursing homes. Compare them by CMS rating, staffing and inspections.
Paying for a nursing home in Massachusetts
- Medicare covers up to 100 days of skilled nursing care after a qualifying hospital stay, with a daily copayment after day 20. It does not pay for long-term custodial care.
- Medicaid pays for long-term nursing home care for people who qualify on income and assets. Massachusetts’s Medicaid agency sets the rules; most nursing homes accept it.
- VA benefits: VA Aid and Attendance can pay up to $29,093 a year for a veteran with no dependents (2026), and some veterans qualify for VA nursing home care.
- Long-term care insurance and private pay: savings, income, home equity and family help.
Our free guide Paying for Senior Living walks through a monthly budget and each way to pay, and Choosing a Nursing Home covers what to check before you decide. Free tools: How long will the money last? · VA Aid and Attendance estimator.
Other care in Massachusetts
Not everyone who needs help needs a nursing home. Assisted living and memory care cost less for people who do not need skilled nursing around the clock. All senior living in Massachusetts lists every licensed community and nursing home by county. The Massachusetts assisted living guide covers what assisted living costs in Massachusetts and how it is licensed.
Sources
- CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025, median cost data tables (nursing home, semi-private and private room), collected July to November 2025: carescout.com/cost-of-care.
- Lilisity review of nursing home websites and state price reports, October 2026: private-pay rates posted by nursing homes on their own websites, archived copies of those pages, and private-pay rate reports some states publish. Rates dated before 2025, state veterans homes and rates under half the state’s CareScout semi-private median (usually an assisted living price on the same campus) are left out, as is a single figure from one web page credited to several nursing homes (a general statement such as “more than $8,000 a month”, not each home’s rate).
- Nursing home list: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Care Compare.
What will senior living cost, and how will we pay?
Our free guide shows the starting prices communities post for each kind of care, walks you through a monthly budget, and explains how insurance, VA benefits, Medicaid and Medicare can help.
Free guide · 16 pages
Paying for Senior Living
Costs by type of care, a monthly budget, and how insurance, the VA, Medicaid and Medicare help.