Life Care Center Of Banner Elk is certified as a Medicare and Medicaid facility and has been approved to provide these services since 1981-10-01. Medicare covers short-term skilled nursing care (typically up to 100 days after a qualifying hospital stay). Medicaid covers long-term care for residents who meet financial eligibility requirements. Contact the facility at (828) 898-5136 or your local Medicaid office to verify current eligibility.

Life Care Center Of Banner Elk holds an overall CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) rating of 5 out of 5 stars. This is made up of three components: Health Inspection (4★), Staffing (2★), and Quality of Resident Care (5★). Our independent composite quality score — which uses the raw underlying CMS numbers to break ties between similarly-rated facilities — is 81.3/100, placing it #3107 of 14703 facilities nationally and #67 of 418 in North Carolina. Star ratings are a useful starting point, but the composite score and individual sub-ratings give a more complete picture for families comparing facilities.

Each resident at Life Care Center Of Banner Elk receives a reported average of 3 hours 2 minutes of total nurse staffing per day. This breaks down as: Registered Nurse (RN) coverage — 25 minutes; Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) — 1 hour 1 minute; Nurse Aide — 1 hour 37 minutes. On weekends, total nurse staffing is 2 hours 42 minutes per resident per day. The CMS Staffing Rating for this facility is 2 out of 5. The national average for total nursing hours is approximately 3.5 hrs/day. Total nursing staff turnover is 30.8%. Families are encouraged to ask about current staffing schedules during their facility visit.

Life Care Center Of Banner Elk has received zero fines across all five years of available data (2022–2026), reflecting a strong regulatory compliance record. No substantiated complaints have been recorded in the available data. In the most recent CMS reporting period, the facility received 0 fine(s) totaling $0, and 0 Medicare payment denial(s). Total penalties: 0. The Total Weighted Health Survey Score is 13.0 (lower scores are better). Full inspection history and complaint details are available at medicare.gov/care-compare.

Nationally, Life Care Center Of Banner Elk ranks 3107th out of 14,703 facilities (composite score: 81.3/100), placing it in the top 25% nationwide. Within NC, it ranks 67th out of 418 nursing homes. For 2026 staffing: total nurse hours rank #12,991 nationally and RN hours rank #10,720 nationally (#282 in NC). Our composite quality score of 81.3/100 weighs health inspections, quality of resident care, staffing hours, compliance record, and five-year performance trends — giving a more complete picture than CMS star ratings alone, which can place hundreds of facilities in the same 5-star bucket. To browse and compare all nursing homes in Banner Elk, visit: https://nursinghomesnearme.org/north_carolina/banner-elk/