Assisted Living
Meridian Gardens Assisted Living
4515 38th St, Columbus, NE 68601 · Map
Licensed for 117 residents · MERIDIAN GARDENS OPERATING, LLC
Meridian Gardens Assisted Living is a state-licensed assisted living community in Columbus, Nebraska. It is licensed for 117 residents. Lilisity publishes no score or ranking for this community; the details below come from the state licensing record.
Prices
Starting prices the community publishes, with the date we checked each one and a link to where it is published. Care charges are usually added after an assessment.
| Care | Starting at | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted Living | $5,065 /mo | Oct 12, 2026 |
Area costs
Care and services
From the community’s website
What Meridian Gardens Assisted Living says about itself, quoted from its own site. We have not checked these claims against licensing records. Ask about each one on a tour.
- Offers respite or short-term stays.
The Heritage at Meridian Gardens proudly offers assisted living, memory care, and respite care, allowing your loved ones to feel independent while accessing round-the-clock support from our dedicated caregivers.
(page, checked Oct 12, 2026) - Provides transportation.
Transportation
(page, checked Oct 15, 2026) - 3 meals a day.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner served daily in our full-service, restaurant-style dining room
(page, checked Oct 15, 2026) - Pets allowed.
gives residents a place where they can comfortably feel at home in a pet-friendly apartment that offers additional programming and support.
(page, checked Oct 12, 2026) - Has a secured outdoor area.
Beautifully landscaped, secured outdoor courtyard featuring a pond filled with full-size koi
(page, checked Oct 15, 2026)
Lilisity’s independent report
What the public record shows
Gathered by Lilisity from state and federal sources. Communities can’t edit this part of the page.
License
Active, 117 residents
Assisted Living Facility ALF310. Licensee MERIDIAN GARDENS OPERATING, LLC.
Nearest emergency room
0.1 miles
Columbus Community Hospital, Inc, rated 3 of 5 stars by CMS.
Side by side with nearby communities
The 4 nearest communities that offer assisted living, by straight-line distance. Prices are starting prices each community publishes; we never show estimates.
| Community | Distance | Licensed capacity | Published starting price | License | Inspection citations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meridian Gardens Assisted Living this community | 117 | $5,065/mo | Active | No record | |
| Prairie Village Retirement Center | 0.7 mi | 60 | Not published | Active | No record |
| Edgewood Columbus Senior Living | 0.7 mi | 14 | Not published | Active | No record |
| Emerald Nursing & Rehab Columbus (Assisted Living) | 0.7 mi | 38 | Not published | Active | No record |
| Cottonwood Senior Living | 1.1 mi | 47 | Not published | Active | No record |
License and ownershipActive license, licensee MERIDIAN GARDENS OPERATING, LLC
- License type
- Assisted Living Facility
- License number
- ALF310
- License status
- Active
- Licensed capacity
- 117
- Licensee
- MERIDIAN GARDENS OPERATING, LLC
- County
- Platte County
- Administrator
- Joshua Stoddard
Source: Nebraska state licensing records (agency listing), retrieved 2026-09-09. Licensing status is a matter of public record; it is not a quality rating.
Administrator name from the Nebraska licensing record, as of Oct 15, 2025.
Paying with Medicaid and other programsHow Medicaid pays for care in Nebraska, and other programs
How Medicaid pays for care in Nebraska
- Medicaid HCBS Aged and Disabled (AD) Waiver: Supported Residential Living (formerly Assisted Living). Nebraska Medicaid's Aged and Disabled Waiver pays for a service called Supported Residential Living, which used to be called Assisted Living, in licensed assisted living facilities. You must get Nebraska Medicaid and need a nursing-home level of care, and you pay the room and board yourself. (state page)
- Waitlist. Nebraska's draft 2026 waiver renewal says there is no waiting list for the Aged and Disabled waiver. (source)
Ask the community whether it accepts Medicaid.
Staff pay and workplace safety1 federal wage case with violations found
Federal records about how the employer here treats its staff.
Federal wage and hour cases
The Department of Labor checks that staff are paid minimum wage and overtime as the law requires.
- Findings for Jul 1, 2006 to Jan 28, 2008. Violations found: Child labor. Employer as DOL recorded it: Meridian Gardens (Meridan Gardens Assisted Living LLC). Case 1503503.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division enforcement data, loaded Oct 15, 2026. Concluded cases only. The dates are the period in which DOL found violations, not when the case opened or closed. Back wages are what the employer agreed to pay; penalties are what DOL assessed. DOL does not publish a page for each case, so search the dataset by case number.
Location and nearby careNearest hospital 0.1 mi, nursing home 0.1 mi, pharmacy 1.7 mi
- Nearest hospital with an emergency room
- Columbus Community Hospital, Inc, Columbus. 0.1 miles away, straight line. CMS overall hospital rating: 3 of 5 stars.
- Nearest Medicare nursing home
- Brookestone Acres, Columbus. 0.1 miles away, straight line.
- Nearest home health agency office
- Home Health Of Columbus Community Hospital, Columbus. 1.6 miles away, straight line. Agencies travel to clients, so ask which ones serve this address.
- Nearest pharmacy
- Walgreens. 1.7 miles away, straight line. From OpenStreetMap, which does not list every pharmacy, so one may be closer.
- Area
- USDA classes ZIP code 68601 as micropolitan (micropolitan core).
- Hospice
- 6 Medicare hospices tell CMS they serve ZIP code 68601.
Hospice Of Columbus Community Hospital, office in Columbus, 1.6 miles away, straight line (CMS family survey rating 4 of 5 stars) - Nearest geriatric medicine practice
- Unmc Physicians, Omaha. 63.3 miles away, straight line. 1 geriatric medicine doctor listed there.
Distances are straight lines from the community, not driving distance. Hospitals, home health, dialysis, hospice and doctors come from CMS provider data (CMS, hospital list updated Jul 22, 2026). Star ratings are CMS’s own.
Emergency and natural hazard riskFEMA overall risk relatively high; outside FEMA's high-risk flood areas
Public hazard maps for this location. Ask the community about its emergency plan, its generator and where residents would go in an evacuation.
- Flood zone
- Zone X: Area protected by a levee from the 1% annual chance flood (moderate risk). (FEMA flood map)
- FEMA National Risk Index
- Overall: relatively high. By hazard: inland flooding relatively high, wildfire very low, tornado very high, heat wave relatively low, earthquake very low. These are FEMA’s ratings for the census tract, compared with tracts nationwide. (FEMA, December 2025)
A flood zone describes the map at this point, not the building's elevation. In an emergency, follow the local emergency management agency.
Questions to ask on a tour10 questions picked for this community from its record
Picked for this community from its record. Ask them in person and write down the answers.
- Your published starting price is a base rate. What would the total monthly cost be for my parent's needs?
- How much have prices gone up in each of the last three years?
- How many caregivers are on duty during the day and at night?
- What happens if care needs increase? When would someone need to move?
- What fees are charged at move-in?
- How do you tell families about falls, illness or changes?
- How long have the executive director and the head of care been here?
- Who gives medications, and what training do they have?
- For what reasons can a resident be asked to leave?
- Is the apartment held during a hospital stay, and at what cost?
What we checked12 public sources we searched, with dates
Every public source we searched for this community. “Nothing on record” means we found no record that matched it. A record can be missed when a name or address differs.
| Source | Data as of | What we found |
|---|---|---|
| Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, Licensure Unit inspection records | Oct 15, 2026 | Nothing on record |
| U.S. Department of Labor wage and hour cases | Oct 15, 2026 | See above |
| OSHA workplace safety inspections since 2016 | Oct 15, 2026 | Nothing on record |
| FEMA flood map | See above | |
| USDA wildfire risk | Apr 15, 2026 | Not shown: FEMA rates wildfire risk here very low |
| FEMA National Risk Index | See above | |
| CMS hospitals, home health, dialysis, hospice and doctors; OpenStreetMap pharmacies | See above | |
| HUD Multifamily Properties - Assisted | Jul 6, 2026 | Nothing on record |
| State Veterans Homes (NASVH directory) | Sep 20, 2026 | Nothing on record |
| CMS Hospice - General Information | Aug 19, 2026 | Nothing on record |
| CMS Home Health Care Agencies | May 27, 2026 | Nothing on record |
| The community’s own website | See above |
Common questionsAnswers to 4 questions families ask
What type of care does Meridian Gardens Assisted Living provide?
Meridian Gardens Assisted Living is licensed by the state of Nebraska for assisted living in Columbus, Nebraska. Its licensed capacity is 117 residents.
Does Lilisity rate Meridian Gardens Assisted Living?
No. We publish state licensing details for Meridian Gardens Assisted Living but no score, rating, or ranking. Only communities on the Top Communities list or with a Senior Living Alliance Excellence Award, both based on phone-verified resident and family interviews, are ranked.
How much does Meridian Gardens Assisted Living cost?
Assisted Living in Nebraska typically starts at $3,550 to $4,900 a month. Based on 35 communities that publish prices. These are area figures, not this community's price. The starting prices it publishes are in the Prices section on this page.
How do I contact Meridian Gardens Assisted Living?
Use Meridian Gardens Assisted Living's website, heritage-communities.com/senior-living/ne/columbus/the-heritage-at-meridian-gardens, or visit at 4515 38th St, Columbus, NE 68601.
How Lilisity works. The only scores or rankings Lilisity publishes are the Top Communities list and the Excellence Awards, both built from phone-verified resident and family interviews. Communities can pay Lilisity a flat monthly fee to manage their own listing: photos, prices, contact details, and receiving the inquiries families choose to send them. The fee is the same no matter how many families contact them or move in. Senior Living Alliance, which runs Lilisity, offers the same listing to its member communities as part of their membership; members pay SLA for its resident and family interview program. No community pays Lilisity per inquiry, per referral or per move-in. Payment never changes a testimonial, a rating, or the order of search results. The "Nearby Senior Living Alliance communities" box shows member communities only. How we verify testimonials · How we are paid