Medicare and Mental Health

What coverage does Medicare provide for inpatient hospital care for mental illness?

Modern medicine recognizes that many mental and emotional problems are in fact physical illnesses or related to them. So, with either Medicare Part A hospital insurance plus Medicare Part B medical insurance, or with a Part C Medicare Advantage managed care plan, participants have extensive coverage for treatment of mental or emotional illness, including depression, Alzheimer's disease, and other forms of dementia. This includes both inpatient and outpatient care, and treatment not only by doctors but also by other Medicare-certified healthcare providers.

The amount of coverage Medicare provides depends on the kind of hospital where the person receives care.

• Care in a general hospital. If the inpatient care she receives is in a general, nonpsychiatric hospital that treats patients for all types of illness, the rules of coverage are the same as for any other hospital stay. That is, under Medicare Part A, she must pay a deductible, plus daily co-payments for a stay of more than 60 days within any one benefit period. If she's in the hospital for more than 90 days in any one benefit period, Medicare Part A pays part of the cost of up to 60 more once-in-a-lifetime "reserve days". However, there's no lifetime limit on the number of hospitalizations that Medicare Part A will pay for. If she has a Part C Medicare Advantage managed care plan, it pays for at least this same amount of inpatient care, and some plans pay more of the cost.
• Care in a psychiatric hospital. If she's an inpatient in a psychiatric hospital -- meaning one that accepts patients only for mental health care -- the rules of payment are the same as for a general hospital but the total amount of coverage is different. Medicare Part A covers only a total of 190 days in a patient's lifetime for inpatient care in a psychiatric hospital.