Table of Contents

All Blogs
Review My Options

Nursing Home Costs in Scott County, Iowa (2026)

Scott County families shop nursing homes on both sides of the Mississippi, find a rate in Moline several hundred dollars a month below the Bettendorf quote, and only later learn that a Davenport resident generally cannot use Iowa Medicaid in an Illinois facility. The rate comparison is real. The plan built on it usually is not, and figuring out which one you are looking at is the single most Quad Cities-specific decision in this whole subject.

Before the two-state question, though, there is a simpler one families get wrong everywhere: the quoted rate is the base per diem, and it is routinely 15% to 30% below what the first full month actually bills. Level-of-care surcharges, pharmacy coinsurance, personal supplies, therapy after Medicare stops, and the cost of carrying an empty house in Eldridge all sit outside it.

Every figure below is a year-stamped range as of 2026, from sources you can verify: Genworth-style cost-of-care survey data, CMS Care Compare for facility-level staffing and inspection history, and the written schedule of charges any licensed facility will provide on request. Iowa Medicaid gets one section, not the whole page. Pine Lake Life Solutions provides education and a free policy review only; we do not purchase policies, and nothing here is legal, tax or eligibility advice.

In This Article

Nursing Home Costs in Scott County, Iowa (2026)

Get the Rate Sheet in Writing — and Get One From Each Side of the River

Every licensed facility can produce a written schedule of charges. Ask for four documents before signing anything: the schedule of daily and monthly charges for the room type you want; the list of items billed separately; the levels-of-care definitions with the price at each level; and the admission agreement itself.

In the Quad Cities, collect them from Iowa-side facilities in Davenport and Bettendorf and from Illinois-side facilities in Moline, Rock Island and East Moline. Not because you will necessarily choose the cheaper one — the next sections explain why you may not be able to — but because the comparison tells you whether an Iowa quote is high for the market or normal for it. Two rate sheets from two states is the best negotiating and sanity-checking information a family in this metro can get, and it costs nothing.

Check the specific facility on CMS Care Compare while you are at it. Staffing hours per resident day and recent inspection findings vary far more between individual homes than rates do, and a $400-a-month savings at a one-star facility is not a savings.

The Base Per Diem, and What It Buys in Davenport

As year-stamped 2026 ranges: recent cost-of-care surveys have placed Iowa semi-private nursing home rates broadly in the $7,500 to $9,200 per month band and private rooms roughly $8,000 to $9,800, which works out to something like $250 to $305 a day semi-private. Iowa prices higher than most people expect for a Midwestern state, and the Davenport-Bettendorf market generally sits near the Iowa figure rather than below it. Confirm the specific facility’s rate in writing.

What the base per diem generally covers: the room, three meals plus snacks and prescribed therapeutic diets, housekeeping and personal laundry, nursing coverage at the facility’s staffing level, activities programming, and routine assistance with activities of daily living.

What it does not cover is the next three sections. The problem is not concealment — the schedule exists. The problem is that families budget the base rate for the whole stay while a resident’s needs, and therefore their charges, move upward over time.

Level of Care, and the Layers Above the Base

Most Iowa facilities price by level of care, typically three to five tiers keyed to how much hands-on help a resident needs: transfers, feeding assistance, toileting, behavioral supervision, two-person assists. Each tier commonly adds $15 to $55 a day in this market, or $450 to $1,650 a month.

Reclassification is a clinical determination, not a negotiation, and it moves in one direction. A resident admitted at level one after a hip fracture at a Genesis or UnityPoint hospital typically moves to level two or three within a year as function declines. A family that budgeted $8,200 a month is looking at $9,500 and did nothing wrong.

Two questions to ask before admission, in writing. What are the written criteria for each level, and how often is a resident reassessed? Then ask what share of the current census sits at each level — a facility whose residents cluster at the top tier is telling you about its acuity and about where your parent will end up.

Iowa also licenses a separate category of care facility beyond skilled nursing, and Iowa assisted living programs have run roughly $4,500 to $6,000 a month as of 2026, with memory care $1,000 to $2,000 above that. A resident who does not yet require skilled nursing stretches the same money considerably further at that rung.

The Pharmacy and Supply Lines

Long-term care pharmacies bill separately from the facility. Medicare Part D covers most drug costs for an enrolled beneficiary whose plan is accepted by the facility’s contracted pharmacy, but coinsurance, non-formulary drugs and off-label prescriptions bill to the resident — commonly $75 to $400 a month.

This is the most fixable recurring cost in the entire bill and almost nobody fixes it. Ask which pharmacy the facility uses and whether it participates with the resident’s Part D plan before admission. If it does not, either the plan or the facility choice can be revisited during the appropriate enrollment window. Iowa’s SHIIP counselors will help with this at no charge.

Personal and incontinence supplies are the other line. A resident needing full assistance can generate $120 to $320 a month beyond whatever basic allotment the rate includes. Specialized equipment — an air-fluidized mattress, a custom wheelchair, a specialty seating system, oxygen — is typically billed or arranged through a separate supplier. Discretionary items such as salon services, cable, telephone and transportation to outside appointments add another $80 to $250.

The Medicare Cliff

After a qualifying hospital admission, Medicare Part A can cover a skilled nursing stay for up to 100 days per benefit period: full coverage for the first 20 days, then substantial daily coinsurance from day 21 through day 100, an amount set annually that has run near $200 a day in recent years. Coverage continues only while the resident needs and benefits from daily skilled care, and notice of non-coverage frequently arrives at day 25 or day 40.

Families plan as though day 100 is guaranteed. It is not. The day after the notice, the household is private-pay at the full local rate plus level-of-care charges — a jump from near zero out of pocket to $250 to $305 a day overnight. That moment, not admission, is when most Scott County long-term care financial crises actually begin.

Two defensive moves: ask the business office weekly and in writing for the projected end date of Part A coverage, and read the expedited appeal rights printed on the notice of non-coverage. Iowa’s SHIIP counselors, housed within the Iowa Insurance Division, will walk a family through an appeal for free.

After the Part A period, maintenance therapy is generally billed under Part B with coinsurance or as an ancillary. Ask specifically how therapy will be billed once the skilled stay ends.

Item Iowa side (Davenport, Bettendorf), 2026 Illinois side (Moline, Rock Island), 2026 Notes
Semi-private nursing home $7,500-$9,200/month Frequently $300-$800/month lower in the Quad Cities market Illinois statewide figure is pulled up by Chicago
Private room $8,000-$9,800/month Similar spread Confirm facility by facility
Level-of-care surcharge $15-$55/day Comparable structure Reclassification moves one direction only
Assisted living $4,500-$6,000/month; memory care $1,000-$2,000 more Comparable private-pay, plus the Medicaid-funded Supportive Living Program The biggest structural difference between the states
Institutional Medicaid asset limit Roughly $2,000 Roughly $2,000 Verify both with the respective agency
Community / HCBS asset limit Roughly $2,000 Raised to $17,500 Illinois runs a two-track system
Income above the limit Income-cap state; medical assistance income trust Medically needy spenddown pathway Different mechanisms entirely
Estate recovery Historically among the more expansive programs Narrower in practice Can outweigh the monthly rate gap
Carrying the empty house $500-$1,100/month plus repairs Comparable Not a facility charge at all
The Medicare Cliff

Iowa Rates Versus Illinois Rates Across the Bridge

Here is the comparison Quad Cities families actually make. Iowa statewide semi-private rates have run roughly $7,500 to $9,200 a month as of 2026. Illinois statewide figures have run broadly $7,000 to $8,800 semi-private, but the Illinois statewide number is pulled upward by the Chicago metro; downstate and Quad Cities Illinois facilities frequently price below their Iowa-side counterparts, commonly by something in the $300 to $800 a month range for comparable care. Verify both against specific written rate sheets, because facility-level variation exceeds the state-level difference.

The assisted living comparison is even more interesting, and it is where the two states genuinely diverge. Illinois operates a Supportive Living Program — a Medicaid-funded assisted living alternative available at participating facilities — which gives qualifying Illinois residents a lower-cost, publicly funded option in an assisted living setting. Iowa’s Elderly Waiver funds home and community-based services on a different model. A family that only compares nursing home per diems is missing the more consequential structural difference between the two sides of the river.

What the comparison does not resolve is who can actually use which option, which is the next section.

Why You Cannot Simply Pick the Cheaper State

Medicaid is administered state by state, and eligibility follows residency. An Iowa resident applies to Iowa Medicaid; an Illinois resident applies to Illinois Medicaid. Iowa Medicaid generally does not pay for long-term care in an out-of-state facility except in narrow circumstances, and it does not become an Illinois program because the facility is fifteen minutes away.

That has four consequences for a Scott County family:

  • Private pay is portable; Medicaid is not. A family paying privately can choose the Moline facility freely. A family whose money will run out in eighteen months is choosing the state whose program will eventually pay.
  • Establishing residency in the other state is a real legal act, not a mailing address change, and doing it while a look-back is open or an application is pending creates problems. Both states apply a 60-month look-back to transfers made for less than fair market value.
  • The programs differ in ways that matter more than the rate. Illinois raised its community and home-based-services asset limit to $17,500 while keeping institutional Medicaid near $2,000, creating a two-track system; Iowa holds an unmarried institutional applicant to roughly $2,000. Illinois also has a medically needy spenddown pathway; Iowa is an income-cap state that uses a medical assistance income trust for income above the cap. Verify all four figures with the respective agencies.
  • Estate recovery differs sharply. Iowa’s estate recovery program has historically been among the more expansive in the country and has been administered through a contractor. That difference alone can be worth more than the monthly rate gap. See how Medicaid estate recovery works, and take the two-state question to an elder law attorney licensed in the state where the parent actually lives.

The honest summary: compare rates across the river to inform the private-pay years, and choose the state for the Medicaid years. Do not confuse the two.

Runway Arithmetic for a Quad Cities Family

Total the liquid assets, add monthly income, subtract the realistic all-in monthly cost — not the quoted per diem — and count the months.

Worked example on 2026 Scott County figures. Realistic all-in cost of $9,800 a month once level-of-care charges, pharmacy, supplies and carrying the empty house in Le Claire are included. Monthly income of $3,100 from Social Security and a Deere or Arsenal pension. Shortfall: $6,700 a month.

  • $100,000 in liquid assets: roughly 15 months.
  • $250,000: roughly 37 months.
  • $450,000: roughly 67 months — past the 60-month look-back, but only just.

Three refinements. Carrying an empty Scott County house runs $500 to $1,100 a month in taxes, insurance and enough heat to prevent freeze damage through an Iowa winter, plus repairs. Do not sell reflexively — proceeds are countable cash and can disrupt a pending application. Second, a resident on a Medicare Part A stay is burning zero private dollars, so the runway clock starts at the non-coverage notice. Third, an Iowa assisted living program at $4,500 to $6,000 stretches the same money roughly twice as far when skilled nursing is not yet clinically required. Our broader treatment of the private-pay runway covers more scenarios.

The One Medicaid Section: Iowa Medicaid and the Elderly Waiver

When private funds run out the payer becomes Iowa Medicaid, delivered through managed care under IA Health Link and administered by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, which was formed by merging the state’s human services and public health departments in 2023. Nursing facility coverage is one track; the Elderly Waiver funds home and community-based services for people who qualify clinically and financially.

An unmarried applicant is generally held to roughly a $2,000 countable resource limit as of 2026 — verify with Iowa HHS. Iowa applies a 60-month look-back to transfers made for less than fair market value, is an income-cap state that uses a medical assistance income trust for income above the cap, and operates an estate recovery program that has historically been more expansive than most states’. Life insurance enters through the face-value aggregation rule: Iowa adds the total face value of all policies on the applicant, and if that total exceeds the state’s burial-exclusion threshold, the entire cash value of every policy becomes countable. The SSI-based figure many states use is $1,500; verify Iowa’s number.

Applications go through Iowa HHS, which maintains a service location in Davenport; Iowa has centralized substantial parts of its eligibility processing, so confirm the current intake route and document checklist directly. The local aging office is Milestones Area Agency on Aging, based in Davenport, which serves Scott County and is the entry point for waiver screening, caregiver support and the aging and disability resource function. Iowa’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program operates as SHIIP within the Iowa Insurance Division, which is also where to verify an insurance license or file a complaint against an insurer; counseling is free and not commission-based.

For eligibility strategy, use an Iowa elder law attorney. Background only: our spend-down mechanics page, our Iowa asset and income limit summary, and the county-specific version at Scott County Medicaid spend-down.

Where a Life Insurance Policy Fits, and Where It Does Not

The Quad Cities has a distinctive insurance profile. Deere and Company’s presence in Moline, the Rock Island Arsenal as a federal employer, and the region’s manufacturing and rail history left a large population of retirees holding employer group life certificates, union-negotiated coverage, and in the federal case FEGLI. Many Iowa-side households in Davenport and Bettendorf worked their whole careers on the Illinois side, so the coverage is there even though the residence is in Scott County.

Four ways an in-force policy can produce money. A policy loan or partial withdrawal against cash value keeps coverage alive but reduces the death benefit and may have tax consequences. An accelerated death benefit rider, where the contract has one and the insured is terminally or chronically ill, can pay part of the death benefit early, often at no fee. Surrender pays cash surrender value, generally the lowest figure available. And a life settlement — a regulated sale in the secondary market — has historically paid sellers a meaningful fraction of face value and several multiples of surrender value, according to federal research on the market.

Where it does not help. FEGLI and most group term coverage has no cash value and generally cannot be sold. Term insurance with no remaining conversion right is worth nothing to anyone. A $10,000 burial policy does not move a $9,800-a-month problem. Face amounts under roughly $100,000 rarely attract secondary-market interest. An insured in good health for their age draws low offers because projected life expectancy is long. And cash received is a countable resource in the month it arrives, which can derail a pending Iowa application — sequence any sale with counsel before it happens.

Where it genuinely does help: a permanent policy of real size on an insured whose health has declined, where the premium has become unaffordable and lapse is the realistic alternative. Lapse turns a real asset into nothing at all. Read how life insurance counts as a Medicaid asset and the tax side at Iowa life settlement taxes first. A free policy review takes a cover page and a recent premium notice, obligates you to nothing, and often ends with a plain answer that the policy is not sellable.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a nursing home cost in Davenport or Bettendorf?

As a 2026 range, Iowa semi-private rates have run broadly $7,500 to $9,200 a month and private rooms $8,000 to $9,800, roughly $250 to $305 a day semi-private, with the Davenport-Bettendorf market near the Iowa figure. Add level-of-care surcharges, pharmacy and supplies and the realistic all-in number is often $9,500 to $10,500.

Facilities in Moline are cheaper. Can we just go there?

While you are paying privately, yes. Once Medicaid is the payer, no — Medicaid follows residency, and Iowa Medicaid generally does not pay for long-term care in an out-of-state facility except in narrow circumstances. Compare rates across the river to plan the private-pay years, and choose the state whose program will eventually pay for the Medicaid years.

How do Iowa and Illinois Medicaid actually differ?

Both hold institutional applicants near $2,000, but Illinois raised its community and home-based-services asset limit to $17,500, creating a two-track system, and Illinois runs a medically needy spenddown pathway plus a Medicaid-funded Supportive Living Program for assisted living. Iowa is an income-cap state using a medical assistance income trust. Iowa’s estate recovery has historically been more expansive. Verify each figure with the respective agency.

Does Medicare pay for 100 days of nursing home care?

Up to 100 days per benefit period after a qualifying hospital stay, but only while the resident needs and benefits from daily skilled care — full coverage for the first 20 days, then substantial daily coinsurance. Notice of non-coverage frequently arrives around day 25 to day 40, and the day after that notice the family is private-pay at the full local rate.

What charges are not in the quoted rate?

Level-of-care surcharges, pharmacy coinsurance and non-formulary drugs, incontinence and personal supplies, specialized equipment, salon and transportation services, bed-hold days during hospitalization, private companions, and therapy after the Medicare stay. None of it is hidden — request the complete written schedule of separately billed charges before admission.

Where does a Scott County family apply for Medicaid?

Through the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains a service location in Davenport; Iowa has centralized much of its eligibility processing, so confirm the current intake route and document list directly. Milestones Area Agency on Aging in Davenport handles waiver screening and local aging services, and Iowa’s SHIIP within the Iowa Insurance Division provides free counseling.

Can my father’s Deere or Arsenal life insurance help pay for care?

It depends on the type. FEGLI and most group term coverage has no cash value and generally cannot be sold, though its face value still has to be disclosed. Permanent policies of real size on an insured in declining health are what the secondary market transacts, generally above roughly $100,000 of death benefit. Any cash received counts as a resource the month it arrives.

Find out what your policy is worth — free, confidential, no obligation.

A 15-minute educational review covers your eligibility, every alternative, and a realistic view of what each path would net you.

Call (305) 209-7183  ·  Request a review online →

Related Reading

Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase life insurance policies and does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. Information provided is for educational purposes only. Eligibility for any option, including life settlements, is not guaranteed and depends on individual circumstances, policy terms, underwriting, and market conditions. Consult independent legal, tax, or financial professionals before making decisions regarding a life insurance policy.

Takes 30 seconds. No phone call, and no name required to start.

Important Notice: This article is provided for educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, tax, medical, or financial advice. Life settlement eligibility and outcomes depend on individual circumstances, policy structure, underwriting, and applicable regulations. Pine Lake Life Solutions does not purchase life insurance policies and does not provide legal or tax advice.