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Louisiana · checked September 2026
How Louisiana helps pay for long-term care, who to call when you need help or something's wrong, and how to check a facility before you sign.
The first question
We couldn't confirm it on an official page.Call your local aging office below and ask; it's the first thing they'll know.
Louisiana's Medicaid rules for long-term care, and the programs that pay for care outside a nursing home.
$2,982
2026
Special Income Level (3 times the SSI benefit), effective January 1, 2026. Couple: $5,964. Nursing home residents with income above this can still qualify through the LTC Spend-Down Medically Needy Program, which counts the cost of the nursing home as a medical expense. That spend-down route is for nursing home residents only, not home and community waivers.
$2,000
2026
$2,000 for one person; $3,000 for a couple both in care. Ask the Medicaid office how much a spouse still living at home can keep. Limits from the LDH eligibility chart effective July 1, 2025 and forward.
Louisiana doesn't use a hard cap. People over the limit can qualify by paying most of their income toward their care (a spend-down).
Look-back on gifts and transfers: 60 months.
Apply for Louisiana Medicaid (Healthy Louisiana)
Louisiana Department of Health (LDH)
Pays for in-home help for adults 21 and older who qualify for nursing home level care and long-term care Medicaid: personal care, home-delivered meals, home changes, nursing, adult day health care and caregiver respite. It does not pay for assisted living and does not provide 24-hour help.
Waitlist: Yes. Louisiana keeps a Request for Services Registry (waiting list). Offers go first to priority groups (abuse or neglect cases, ALS, people leaving nursing homes on Medicaid, and others), then first come, first served. Call to get on the registry as early as possible.
A Medicaid benefit that sends a worker to the home to help with bathing, dressing, eating, toileting and moving around, plus light housework and meals. For Medicaid members 21 and older who qualify for nursing home care and meet extra conditions (for example, likely to need a nursing home within 120 days, or the main caregiver is 70 or older or disabled).
Waitlist: LDH page does not mention a waiting list.
Pays for weekday care at an adult day health center, including rides, medication help, nursing, two meals and activities, for people 22 and older who qualify for nursing home level care. Can also cover home-delivered meals and a medical alert button.
Waitlist: Yes. Offers are made by priority group (protective services referrals, hospital discharges, Medicaid nursing home residents), then first come, first served.
An all-in-one Medicare and Medicaid program for people 55 and older who need nursing home level care but can live safely in the community. Only available in parts of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Alexandria.
PACE provides all medical and long-term care for people 55+ who need nursing-home-level care but can live in the community. Programs in Louisiana:
Free, and on your side. Start with the aging office if you don't know where to begin.
The state's aging office and its local agencies explain your options, screen for programs and help with applications.
A free, independent advocate for residents of nursing homes and assisted living. Call about any problem with care, rights, billing or a discharge.
You don't need proof to report. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
24/7 for reports at 1-844-945-2377 (1-844-94LAEPS). GOEA also has a toll-free line, 1-833-577-6532, answered 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM weekdays. For adults 60 and older this is Elderly Protective Services at GOEA; adults 18 to 59 go to LDH Adult Protective Services at 800-898-4910.
Unbiased Medicare help from counselors who don't sell anything: plans, bills, appeals, and programs that lower costs.
Help spotting and reporting Medicare fraud, billing errors and scams.
In Louisiana, assisted living is licensed as: Adult Residential Care Provider (ARCP). Read inspection reports before you sign anything.
Confirm a community's license here, and ask the agency how to see its inspection reports.
File a complaint
Medicare rates every nursing home on staffing, inspections and quality, with full inspection reports.
State veterans homes are often far cheaper than private care for eligible veterans and, in many states, their spouses.
Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs
Free legal help for older adults on issues like benefits, housing, powers of attorney and elder abuse.
Can a family member be paid to provide care? Yes, in some programs.
Yes, in some cases. The Community Choices Waiver has a self-direction option where the participant hires their own workers, and a Monitored In-Home Caregiving service that pays a live-in principal caregiver. A spouse can be hired only after special review, and a legal representative cannot be paid for Monitored In-Home Caregiving unless they are also the spouse. You still have to get a waiver slot first, and there is a waiting list.
GOEA funds caregiver help through local aging agencies: in-home and group respite, caregiver sitter service, support groups and training. Call your local agency or GOEA to find the one for your parish.
Louisiana's Aging and Disability Resource Centers house the state's Dementia Care Specialist program, which helps families caring for someone with dementia find services and plan ahead.
Free help applying for drug company assistance programs and choosing a Medicare Part D plan, for people 60 and older (or disabled adults) without drug coverage. Only in 13 parishes around Baton Rouge and the Northshore.
The single phone line to apply for nursing home admission approval, the Community Choices and Adult Day Health Care waivers, personal care services and PACE. Call this first if a parent needs long-term care.
$2,000 for a single person (2026). $2,000 for one person; $3,000 for a couple both in care. Ask the Medicaid office how much a spouse still living at home can keep. Limits from the LDH eligibility chart effective July 1, 2025 and forward.
The Louisiana Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program: (866) 632-0922. It's free and independent.
Researched from 44 sources, official pages first. Last checked .