If private funds run out, the options are the Medicaid STAR+PLUS waiver for assisted living care services, Medicaid nursing facility coverage, or moving to a community that accepts Medicaid. Many Austin-area assisted living communities do not contract with Medicaid managed care at all.
Ask before you move in, not after
This is the single most consequential question families skip. A community that does not contract with Medicaid managed care will ask your parent to leave when private funds are exhausted — often with thirty days' notice, at the point when moving is hardest.
Ask directly: do you accept STAR+PLUS, and how many current residents are on it? The second half of that question matters. A community can technically hold a contract and still have no Medicaid beds available.
The waiting problem
STAR+PLUS assisted living services are interest-list driven. Getting on the list takes a phone call; getting through it can take considerably longer. Families who wait until funds are nearly gone discover the timeline does not bend for them. If Medicaid is a realistic eventual path, join the interest list early, even while paying privately.
