CMS Nurses for Nursing Homes: Qualifying Nursing Homes in Illinois

A $275 million CMS program, announced October 23, 2026, that pays RNs and LPNs/LVNs up to $50,000 to work in a qualifying nursing home: up to $40,000 in student loan repayment plus a $10,000 stipend, for three years at an average of 30 hours a week. It is paid for with civil money penalties collected from nursing homes, $100 million from CMS and at least $175 million from the states. CMS expects it to support more than 4,000 nurses.

Licensed RNs and LPNs/LVNs, and nursing students who will be licensed by their start date, hired as W-2 employees of a qualifying home. A nurse who worked in a nursing home in the 60 days before applying cannot, except that nurses who started at a qualifying home between July 28 and October 25, 2026 may apply until January 24, 2027. The stipend without loan debt requires graduating within two years. Payments are quarterly and taxable, first come, first served until each state's money runs out. Nurses apply at NursesforNursingHomes.cms.gov.

9,181 of 14,690, or 62.5%, on CMS's list of October 22, 2026: 3,867 rural and 5,314 urban. California has the most at 785. Arizona has the lowest share at 20 of 140, then Nevada at 11 of 66 and New York at 121 of 593. Big counties split: every home in Los Angeles County (369) and Cook County, Illinois (202) qualifies, and none in Harris County, Texas (97), Cuyahoga County, Ohio (92), San Diego County (83) or Maricopa County, Arizona (77).

In two places. CMS says every rural home qualifies, but in four states only some do: Kansas has 80 of its 157 rural homes on the list, Minnesota 108 of 140, Oklahoma 115 of 144 and Maine 33 of 34. The cut runs inside towns; in Salina, Kansas, five homes qualify and one does not. And CMS adds urban areas a whole county at a time, yet some urban counties are only partly listed: Massachusetts has 219 of 309 homes in nine such counties, Marion County, Indiana 21 of 46 and Dallas County 1 of 82. A list submitted by the state, which the method allows, is the likely reason. CMS has not said how it chose among rural homes or which states submitted lists.

No. CMS chose homes by location, because a home can be short-staffed for reasons other than the local supply of nurses. Qualifying homes have about the same star ratings as the rest: 20% have 5 stars overall against 22% of the others, and 38% have 1 or 2 staffing stars against 42%.

A qualifying home signs nothing with CMS and need not hire anyone through the program; it hires as usual and CMS's contractor checks the nurse's hours. It can tell RN and LPN candidates they may earn up to $50,000 for working there, which a competitor left off the list cannot. CMS will update the list during the program; this page uses the October 22, 2026 list and is refreshed when it changes.