Putting mom in nursing home; should I start interviewing now?

It's never a bad thing to gather information. Then when the time comes, you can present it to your mom and help her make a choice.

I agree with both posts below as it would be really important that your mom doesn't make assumptions about who will care for her when her needs increase, but also you will need to go to places in person, the least reason of which is that they won't tell you prices over the phone or online (and sometimes not even in the packets they mail out to you). Also, if you are able to get your mom along for the visits, she will see that the new NHs are not horrible like she is probably remembering from her youth. Make sure to ask if they provide for Medicaid residents. Not every place does. Good luck!

I would start looking into places. My brother & I went to 15 places for his Dad and his wife, for AL. It sounds that like your mother at this point doesn't have to be in a nursing home. We chose a very nice place that has a step up program, IL, AL, MC and then Nursing home, right now they are both in AL, however his wife will need to go into MC at some point.

They really like where they are, have made new friends and attend the activities. We would have engaged them more in the search however, they were being moved from AZ to Florida. If I were you, I would do the initial search narrow it down and then take her to see the best options.

Your profile doesn't suggest that there is anything amiss with your mother mentally, is that correct?

If it is correct, then with respect this is not your decision. It is for your mother to plan her own later life and end-of-life care. You can make it clear that you will not participate, and you can stick to that, but you cannot choose to place her in a nursing home without her agreement; so as she has excellent insurance I should start researching what other options are available to her.