Our Mission
We help families make informed decisions about senior care. We believe the stress of researching care for a parent shouldn't be compounded by confusing, generic, or outdated information.
Elder Care Index exists to give you clear, specific, state-level data on the costs and quality of senior care options -- so you can focus on what matters most: your family.
Our Data
Every number on this site comes from a published, verifiable source. Here's where our data comes from:
- Senior care costs: Genworth 2024 Cost of Care Survey -- the most widely cited source for assisted living, memory care, nursing home, and home health aide costs by state.
- Nursing home quality: CMS Nursing Home Compare (Medicare.gov) -- the federal government's official quality rating system for nursing homes, including staffing data, health inspection results, and overall star ratings.
- Healthcare workforce: Bureau of Labor Statistics -- employment and wage data for home health aides, nursing assistants, and other care workers by state.
- Medicaid eligibility: State Medicaid agencies -- income limits, asset limits, and HCBS waiver availability for each state.
- Supplemental information: Content is supplemented with current information via Google Search to ensure accuracy and timeliness.
How We're Different
Most senior care websites give you the same generic national statistics on every page. We don't do that.
- Every page is specific to one state and one care type. When you read about assisted living in Ohio, you get Ohio data -- not a national average with Ohio mentioned in passing.
- No generic national info repeated across pages. We don't pad pages with boilerplate content. If a data point isn't specific to the state and care type you're researching, it's not on the page.
- Written for families, not policy wonks. We explain things in plain language because you're probably dealing with enough complexity already. No jargon, no acronyms without explanation, no assumptions about what you already know.
Contact
Questions or corrections? Email us at info@eldercareindex.com
We take accuracy seriously. If you spot an error or have updated data for your state, we want to hear from you.
Editorial Disclosure
We use AI-assisted research tools to gather and synthesize state-specific information. All content is reviewed for accuracy. Cost data is sourced from published surveys and government databases.
We compile data from primary government and survey sources (CMS Nursing Home Compare, state Medicaid agencies, Genworth 2024 Cost of Care Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics). Every figure on the site is cited to its underlying dataset; see our methodology for the full source list and update cadence.
Editor
Elder Care Index is edited by Ryan LoBue, who compiles the state Medicaid coverage data, runs the cost survey pipeline, and reviews every published figure against its primary government or industry source.
Ryan focuses on Medicare and Medicaid long-term care benefits, state HCBS waiver programs, nursing home and assisted living pricing, and the ADL-assessment framework that drives level-of-care determinations. Editorial questions and data corrections: ryan@eldercareindex.com.