One of the most common mistaken ideas about Medicare is that it pays for long-term nursing home care. It does not. Medicare Part A covers only short-term skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility inpatient care, and only under very limited circumstances. It also covers limited stays in a psychiatric facility.

For patients who require a stay in a skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility, strict rules apply for Part A coverage. For example, within 30 days prior to entering the nursing or rehab facility, a patient must have had a hospital stay of at least three days. A doctor must certify that the patient needs daily, skilled nursing care or rehab services, and, even then, coverage lasts only as long as that daily skilled care is needed to recover. For each hospitalization, there's a maximum of 100 days nursing or rehab facility coverage.

Inpatient care in a psychiatric facility is also limited under Part A. Participants have a lifetime coverage total of only 190 days in a mental health care facility. Care for psychiatric or other cognitive problems for an inpatient in a regular hospital, though, is subject to regular Part A hospital coverage limits, not this special 190-day total.