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How to Verify a Facility's License

The state tools that show license status and inspection history, and why a clean review page means nothing about the regulatory record.

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Home›State Rules›How to Verify a Facility's License

How to check a community's record yourself

Before touring or signing anything, verify a community's actual license status directly with the state -- don't rely on a facility's website claims alone.

  • MDH Health Care Provider Directory -- MDH's free, daily-updated public lookup tool. Search by provider type ("Assisted Living Facilities" or "Assisted Living with Dementia Care Facilities"), county, city, or name to confirm current license status, address, and administrator of record. Search the MDH Health Care Provider Directory.
  • Minnesota Assisted Living Report Card -- a public quality tool showing Resident Health, Safety, and Staffing ratings drawn from MDH survey results, updated quarterly. View the Assisted Living Report Card (for nursing homes specifically, use the separate Nursing Home Report Card).
  • File or check a complaint -- MDH's Office of Health Facility Complaints takes complaints against licensed facilities at 651-201-4200 (Twin Cities metro) or 1-800-369-7994 (greater Minnesota), during normal MDH business hours. This is different from the 24/7 abuse-reporting line (MAARC) covered elsewhere on this site.

What to actually look at once you are in there

Pulling the record is easy. Reading it usefully is the part nobody explains.

  • Match the license type to your parent's needs, not just to today. Ask directly about admission and retention criteria.
  • Check the licensee name against the operator. Ownership turns over regularly, and buildings are often marketed under a brand that differs from the license holder.
  • Read deficiency narratives, do not count citations. A missing signature and an injured resident can appear in the same document, formatted identically.
  • Look for repetition across surveys. One citation is an incident. The same finding across consecutive surveys is a pattern.

Questions families ask

What senior care options exist in Anoka County?

Anoka County's north metro suburbs, including Blaine and Coon Rapids, are served by the same statewide MDH licensing framework, MAARC abuse-reporting line, and Trellis Area Agency on Aging as the rest of the Twin Cities metro — there is no separate north-metro-specific regulatory or funding structure.

What senior care options exist in Washington County?

Washington County, including Woodbury and Stillwater along the St. Croix River valley, has the metro's highest share of residents age 65+ at 18.8% — meaning it is, proportionally, the fastest-aging of the seven Twin Cities metro counties. It uses the same statewide Trellis, Senior LinkAge Line, MDH licensing, and MAARC resources as the rest of the metro.

Is care different in Bloomington versus other Hennepin County suburbs?

No — Bloomington operates under the identical Minnesota statewide licensing (Chapter 144G), Medicaid waiver (Elderly Waiver/Alternative Care), and abuse-reporting (MAARC) framework as every other city in Hennepin County and the broader metro. What varies city to city is the local supply, style, and pricing of individual communities, not the underlying regulatory or funding structure.

What's the difference between assisted living and memory care in Minnesota?

Assisted living (Minn. Stat. 144G.10, subd. 2(a)) provides housing plus health-related and supportive services for residents who need help with daily activities but not specialized dementia care. Memory care requires the separate 'assisted living facility with dementia care' license (subd. 2(b)), mandatory dementia-specific staff training (Minn. Stat. 144G.83), and a secured unit with a required written pre-admission disclosure (Minn. Stat. 325F.72).

What's the difference between the Elderly Waiver and Alternative Care in Minnesota?

The Elderly Waiver (EW) is a federal-state Medicaid HCBS waiver requiring the applicant to already be Medical Assistance eligible, while Alternative Care (AC) is a state-only-funded program (no federal match) for seniors who need EW-equivalent services but aren't yet financially MA-eligible. Both use a similar service array and cost cap and never pay room and board.

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