Omaha Senior AdvisorWho licenses nursing homes in Omaha, Nebraska?
The Nebraska DHHS Licensure Unit licenses nursing homes as nursing facilities (NF) or skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and its long-term care licenses expire on March 31 each year; most Omaha-area homes are also certified by CMS for Medicare and Medicaid, which adds federal inspections and star ratings.
The DHHS long-term care roster lists 38 licensed nursing homes in the five counties with 4,367 licensed beds; CMS rates 36 of them, 11 with four or five stars overall (Care Compare data as of October 1, 2026). The roster shows each home's certification type. “SNF/NF dual certification” means every certified bed can take Medicare and Medicaid residents; a “distinct part” home certifies only part of the building for one program; “NF (Medicaid) only” homes take Medicaid but not Medicare skilled stays; and “licensed only” homes are state-licensed without federal certification. The Eastern Nebraska Veterans' Home in Bellevue and the Nebraska Masonic Home in Plattsmouth are licensed but not CMS-certified, so they have no CMS star rating.
How are certified nursing homes inspected in Nebraska?
Certified nursing homes receive unannounced standard health inspections under federal rules, carried out in Nebraska by DHHS as CMS's state survey agency, plus complaint investigations and infection-control inspections; CMS publishes the results, the number of deficiencies and any fines on Care Compare.
CMS turns those results into its health inspection rating, which is combined with staffing and quality-measure ratings into the overall star rating from one to five. Our nursing home pages show the date of each home's latest standard survey, the number of health deficiencies from the survey and from complaints, the prior cycle's count, infection-control citations, fines and payment denials, and compare them with the median for the five Omaha-area counties. The stars are CMS's, not ours.
What do CMS star ratings measure, and what don't they?
CMS's overall rating combines a health inspection rating based on three years of inspections, a staffing rating based on payroll-reported nursing hours and turnover, and a quality-measure rating based on resident assessments and claims; it does not measure food, culture, how a home handles your parent's specific condition, or anything that changed after the data date.
Use the stars to build a short list, then look underneath them. A home can have a high overall rating and a weak staffing rating, or few deficiencies but high turnover. Our facility pages put total nurse hours per resident day, registered-nurse hours, weekend staffing and turnover next to the Omaha-area medians so you can see which way a home leans before you tour.
What does the Alzheimer's or special care unit flag mean for a nursing home?
On the DHHS long-term care roster, “Alzheimer's/special care unit” in a home's services means it operates a distinct program or unit for residents with dementia, which brings it under the Alzheimer's Special Care Disclosure Act's written disclosure requirements.
Nursing home dementia units serve residents who need both a secured environment and nursing care that an ALF cannot provide. Many homes without a listed unit still admit residents with dementia on general halls. Ask any home how it manages wandering, what activities it runs for residents with dementia, and how it uses antipsychotic medications, a quality measure CMS tracks.
Who decides whether someone qualifies for nursing home care in Nebraska?
For Medicaid payment, Nebraska requires a person to meet Nursing Facility Level of Care, determined through a DHHS assessment; for Medicare, a qualifying inpatient hospital stay and a daily need for skilled care decide coverage of a short-term stay, not admission itself.
Federal rules also require a pre-admission screening for serious mental illness or intellectual disability (PASRR) before admission to a certified nursing facility. The same Nursing Facility Level of Care standard is the gateway to Nebraska's Aged and Disabled Waiver, which is why a family's first assessment often answers two questions at once: whether a nursing home would be covered, and whether waiver services at home or in assisted living are an option instead.
At a glance
| A certified Nebraska nursing home has | A certified Nebraska nursing home does not have | |
|---|---|---|
| License | A DHHS NF or SNF license renewed by March 31 | An assisted living license |
| Oversight | CMS standards and inspections | Exemption from state rules |
| Ratings | CMS star ratings by data date | Ratings from us or the state |
| Payment | Medicare short stays, Medicaid long stays | Unlimited Medicare coverage |
Sources include 175 NAC 4 (assisted-living facilities), the Nebraska Revised Statutes cited above, Nebraska DHHS program and licensure pages, CMS, CareScout and VA rate tables; see our editorial standards.
