What Memory Care Costs in Nassau County, NY
Real numbers, what the monthly fee actually covers, and how families pay for it.
Schedule a TourMost families start looking into memory care during a hard week. A parent has wandered, or a diagnosis has landed, or the person caring for them at home has reached the end of what they can manage alone. Cost is usually the first practical question, and it is often the hardest one to get a straight answer to.
This page provides real pricing information for Nassau County and Esplanade specifically, explains what the monthly fee covers, and outlines how families typically pay for memory care. No form to fill out first.
The Short Answer
Two families can be quoted a similar monthly figure by two communities and be buying very different things. That is what makes memory care pricing in Nassau County so hard to compare on a spreadsheet.
You will see county-wide averages quoted online, and they are worth reading carefully. A Place for Mom currently puts the average cost of senior living in Nassau County at around $8,875 a month, but that figure pools independent living, assisted living and memory care into a single number, and memory care sits at the top of that range rather than in the middle of it. Setting a memory care fee against it is not comparing like with like.
Some communities add on hidden fees at move-in. Some bill medication management or a higher staffing tier separately. Others quote a single all-inclusive figure. The number in the brochure and the number on the invoice a year later are often not the same, and the gap tends to be widest where the opening figure looks lowest.
The comparison that actually tells you something is a narrower one: the same level of care, with the same things included, at the communities in the Five Towns and the parts of Nassau County you would realistically travel from.
So the question worth asking is not which community advertises the smallest number. It is what that number covers, what it becomes when your relative needs more help, and whether the community was built for dementia or has adapted part of a building to it.
That is the price of our most affordable apartment, which also includes meals prepared in our Vaad-certified kosher kitchen, personalized activity programming, 24/7 care in a secure environment, and more.
DEDICATED MEMORY CARE COMMUNITY
We are a memory care community and nothing else. There is no assisted living wing here with a secured unit attached to it. Every apartment, every member of our team and every hour of the daily program was built for people living with dementia, which carries a higher staffing cost than a mixed community running a small memory unit.
PERSONALIZED CARE APPROACH
Care here is planned around the person rather than sorted into tiers, using our Montessori Moments in Time approach. We build the day around what your relative can still do, what settles them and what unsettles them, and we revisit it as that changes.
AFFORDABLE MEMORY CARE IN NASSAU COUNTY
Compared like for like, we cost less than the memory care communities families here shortlist. That is rarely obvious from a first phone call, and it is worth understanding why. Most communities near us quote a base rent and then charge for additional services on top that we include such as medication management, laundry, and activities. At Esplanade we strive to keep additional costs to a minimum while ensuring your loved one gets the care they require.
Private apartment, monthly, with basic care included. Based on a September 2026 comparison of published and quoted rates at memory care communities in the surrounding area. Each community's figure is its entry-level rate and can rise as care needs increase.
So compare the totals rather than the headlines. Ask every community you visit the same two questions: what does this figure include today, and what gets added as my relative needs more help? We will go through our figure line by line with you, and we would encourage you to ask everyone else to do the same.
What the Monthly Fee Actually Includes
Most memory care communities separate core services from certain personal or optional expenses. The lists below show what is typically included in our monthly fee and what may be billed separately.
"If my mother's needs increase next year, does the price change, and by how much?"
A resident’s care needs may be reassessed over time. While assistance with activities of daily living is included at the base level, enhanced care may affect the monthly cost. Ask each community what triggers a higher level of care, how those charges are calculated, and how families are notified before pricing changes.
How Families Pay For It
Most families use more than one of the routes below.
Private Pay
The majority of memory care in New York is paid privately, from savings, pensions, Social Security, retirement accounts, or the sale of a home. Families often combine several of these, and adult children frequently contribute. If a house is being sold to fund care, bridge loans exist specifically to cover the gap between moving in and the sale completing.
Long-Term Care Insurance
If a policy was bought years ago, it may well cover memory care. Check three things before assuming:
- Does it cover residential care, or only care delivered at home? Older policies are sometimes home-care only.
- What is the elimination period? Most policies require you to pay out of pocket for the first 30 to 100 days.
- What triggers a claim? Typically needing help with two or more activities of daily living, or a documented cognitive impairment, which a dementia diagnosis usually satisfies.
Bring the policy to your first meeting. Communities that handle claims regularly can often tell you in one reading what it will and will not pay.
Veterans Benefits: Aid and Attendance
This is the most commonly missed source of funding, and it is substantial. The VA’s Aid and Attendance pension is paid on top of the basic veterans pension to those who need help with daily activities. For the period running 1 December 2025 to 30 November 2026, the maximum rates are:
| Who qualifies | Maximum monthly | Maximum annual |
|---|---|---|
| Surviving spouse | $1,558 | $18,697 |
| Single veteran | $2,424 | $29,093 |
| Married veteran | $2,874 | $34,488 |
A surviving spouse who never served can qualify on their late husband’s or wife’s service. That single fact is why so many families leave this money unclaimed.
Esplanade of Woodmere has partnered with Elderlife Financial Services to help families work through eligibility and the application, which is genuinely tedious and where most self-filed claims stall.
Medicaid: The Honest Answer
Esplanade of Woodmere is private pay. We do not accept Medicaid.
We would rather tell you that on this page than after a tour. If Medicaid is how your family needs to fund care, we are not the right community, and we will happily point you toward options that are.
It is worth understanding why Medicaid rarely covers this kind of care in New York. Medicaid funds long-term care services through the Assisted Living Program, but that program does not pay room and board, only care services. It operates in licensed adult care facilities rather than private memory care residences, and it is not an entitlement, so bed numbers are capped and waiting lists are common. Eligibility in 2026 is strict, at roughly $1,836 a month in income and $33,038 in assets for an individual, and a dementia diagnosis on its own does not qualify anyone.
There are other routes that do reduce what a family pays out of pocket, and several of them are regularly missed. We keep them together on our resources page, including our partnership with Elderlife Financial Services.
Get Help Paying For Care
What families actually pay
Families almost always weigh residential care against bringing help into the house. The comparison is worth doing properly, because the intuition that home is cheaper often does not survive contact with the arithmetic.
Home care in New York runs at a benchmark $34 an hour. At that rate:
| Cover at home | Hours a week | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Part-time help | 20 | about $2,947 |
| Weekday cover | 40 | about $5,893 |
| Eight hours a day, every day | 56 | about $8,249 |
| Overnight cover only | 84 | about $12,376 |
| Round-the-clock | 168 | about $24,752 |
Downstate rates, meaning New York City, Long Island and Westchester, typically run above that benchmark.
The point is not that home care is bad. It is that dementia does not keep office hours. Wandering, sundowning and night waking are what push families past what part-time help can cover, and the moment care needs to be continuous, in-home costs pass residential memory care and keep going. The monthly fee at a memory care community also buys the housing, the meals, the utilities, the secured doors and the trained overnight staff, all of which sit on top of the hourly rate when someone stays at home.
Questions Families Ask
Is memory care more expensive than assisted living?
Yes, typically by a meaningful margin. Memory care carries higher staffing ratios, dementia-trained staff, secured premises and specialist programming. You are paying for supervision and expertise, not square footage.
Does Medicare pay for memory care?
No. Medicare covers medical treatment, meaning doctors, hospital stays and some short-term rehabilitation after a hospital admission. It does not pay for long-term residential care or help with daily living. This is the single most common misunderstanding families arrive with.
What happens if the money runs out?
Ask every community you tour this question directly, and get the answer in writing. Policies differ sharply.
Can we start with a short stay?
Often yes. A respite or short-term stay lets a family test whether a community suits their relative without committing, and gives a caregiver a genuine break.
How quickly can someone move in?
It depends on availability and on completing a care assessment. Ask about the assessment first, because it determines both the level of care and the price.
What does memory care cost in Nassau County?
Memory care costs vary depending on the level of support, services and amenities included. Some communities advertise a lower starting rate and then add care, medication management and other fees as a resident’s needs increase. At Esplanade of Woodmere, rates start at $10,500 per month and the figure is all-inclusive, which for a comparable private apartment with care included puts us below the other memory care communities in this area. When you compare, ask what is included and work out the full monthly cost rather than the advertised starting price. Come tour our facility to learn more about our pricing and personalized care.
Which Nassau County towns do your families usually come from?
Most live in the Five Towns, right around us in Woodmere, or along the South Shore. We also have families traveling in from Garden City, Hempstead, Plainview and Great Neck. You can see the full picture, and why we think distance deserves more weight than families usually give it, on the towns we serve.
What happens if my loved one needs more care in the future?
Our team will reassess your loved one’s needs and discuss any recommended changes with your family. The base monthly rate includes routine assistance with activities of daily living, but enhanced care or additional services may affect the monthly cost. We will explain the available care options and applicable pricing so your family can make an informed decision.
Talk to Someone Who Can Give You a Real Number
Averages only take you so far. The honest answer to what care will cost your family depends on your relative's needs, and that takes a conversation and an assessment.
130 Irving Place, Woodmere, NY 11598
