Last verified: October 2026
Who licenses nursing homes in Arizona?
The Arizona Department of Health Services licenses nursing homes, which state law calls nursing care institutions, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services certifies those that take Medicare or Medicaid, which is nearly all of them.
CMS lists 24 certified nursing homes in Pima County with 3,042 certified beds, as of October 1, 2026.
How do CMS star ratings work?
CMS gives each certified nursing home an overall rating from one to five stars built from three parts: health inspections, staffing hours and quality measures; the health inspection part carries the most weight.
Of the 24 Pima County nursing homes with an overall rating, 10 have four or five stars and 7 have one or two, averaging 3.2. Ratings are relative to other nursing homes in the state, so a three-star Arizona home is near the state middle.
Is there a star rating for Arizona assisted living?
No. Neither CMS nor Arizona rates assisted living centers or homes; the closest equivalent is the inspection and enforcement record on AZ Care Check, which our directory summarizes for every Pima County facility.
Be wary of any website showing star ratings for Arizona assisted living. They are either consumer reviews or the site's own scoring, not an official rating.
What else should you check besides the overall rating?
Check the latest standard survey date and its number of health deficiencies, total nurse staffing hours per resident per day, staff turnover, and any CMS abuse icon or special focus status, all of which CMS publishes.
Our nursing home profiles show each of those fields as CMS reports them, next to the county median. Compare every Pima County nursing home →
Who pays for a nursing home in Arizona?
Medicare pays for a limited skilled nursing stay after a qualifying hospital admission, ALTCS pays for long-term nursing home care for members who qualify medically and financially, and everyone else pays privately or through long-term care insurance.
Under ALTCS the nursing facility rate includes room and board; the member contributes a share of cost from income. That is the biggest financial difference from assisted living. ALTCS eligibility →
How often are Arizona nursing homes inspected?
CMS-certified nursing homes receive standard health surveys on a federal cycle plus complaint investigations, and CMS publishes the dates and deficiency counts; our nursing home pages show the last two standard survey dates for each Pima County home.
Arizona nursing home vs. assisted living oversight
| Nursing home | Assisted living | |
|---|---|---|
| License | ADHS nursing care institution | ADHS assisted living center or home |
| Federal certification | CMS, for Medicare and Medicaid | none |
| Public rating | CMS Five-Star | none |
