Sarasota Senior AdvisorWhat types of senior care are available in Sarasota and Manatee?
Families here choose among assisted living (AHCA-licensed ALFs), memory care inside ALFs, adult family care homes, nursing homes, in-home care from home health agencies or private caregivers, adult day care, hospice, and independent or 55-plus living, including life plan communities.
Each guide below explains what the license allows, what it costs at Florida's 2025 medians, and how many licenses the state lists in the two counties.
How do I choose the right care type?
Work from needs, not labels: daily help points to assisted living, wandering or unsafe confusion to memory care, round-the-clock nursing to a nursing home, predictable daytime gaps to adult day care, and healthy planning ahead to a life plan community.
Our comparisons put two options side by side, and the situation guides start from what just happened.
Which care types need an AHCA license?
Assisted living facilities, adult family care homes, adult day care centers, nursing homes, home health agencies, nurse registries and hospices all need AHCA licenses; independent living and 55-plus housing do not, and life plan communities need an OIR certificate for their contracts.
Every license can be checked on AHCA's FloridaHealthFinder locator.
Which care types do Medicare or Florida Medicaid pay for?
Medicare pays for short skilled nursing stays after a qualifying hospital stay, intermittent home health and hospice; Florida Medicaid's long-term care program pays for nursing home care and for home and community-based services, including assisted living services but not room and board.
OSS can help low-income ALF and adult family care home residents with room and board; VA pension with Aid and Attendance can help eligible veterans and survivors with any of these costs.
Care types guides
Assisted living in Florida
What a Florida assisted living facility provides under its AHCA license, who it serves, and what it costs at Florida's 2025 median.
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Memory care in Florida
Memory care in Florida assisted living, the s. 429.178 standard, the new memory care services license, and how to evaluate a unit.
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Nursing homes in Florida
What Florida nursing homes provide, how CMS rates them, what Medicare and Medicaid pay, and Florida's 2025 cost medians.
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In-home care in Florida
Medicare home health, private-duty and companion care, how Florida licenses home care providers, and the 2025 Florida hourly median.
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Hospice care
Who qualifies for hospice, what Medicare covers, hospice in assisted living under s. 429.26, and the AHCA-licensed hospices serving the two counties.
Read →Adult day care
What AHCA-licensed adult day care centers provide, the 2025 Florida median of about $75 a day, and the centers licensed in the two counties.
Read →Independent living and 55+ communities
How independent living, 55+ communities and life plan communities differ in Florida law, why none of them need an AHCA license, and where care comes from later.
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