Benefit Periods and Hospital Stays Under Medicare Questions

1. If Medicare runs out, can it be restarted?

   Medicare payments for care in a skilled nursing facility last for only 100 days within any one "benefit period." Within that 100 days, Medicare pays the full amount for the first 20 days, then requires the patient to pay a daily copayment during the next 80 days. TRICARE pays that copayment...
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2. How many days is considered in a "benefit period" ?

   Under Medicare Part A , you begin an entirely new, full benefit period as soon as you have been out of the hospital and a skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility for 60 consecutive days. For each new benefit period, you pay a hospital deductible of $1,024 (in 2008)...
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3. What are the Medicare hospital stay limits?

   Unfortunately, yes. In order for Medicare Part A coverage (up to another 90 days) to begin again -- for a new "benefit period," as Medicare calls it -- for a hospital stay, you must be out of the hospital and skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility for 60 days. And those days have to be consecutive...
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4. If a Medicare patient is readmitted to the hospital, does she have to be discharged from PT/OT?

   If a patient is receiving outpatient PT and gets admitted to the hospital then the PT must write a D/C note and discharge that patient from therapy because the patient's status has changed. Once the patient is discharged from the hospital and if they require continued outpatient therapy--they must get...
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5. Will my mother be covered by Medicare for one day stay in hospital?

   Sounds like someone at the hospital or rehab center is misinterpreting the rules about Medicare Part A hospital coverage. Whether Medicare Part A pays for your mother’s hospital or rehab center stay, and how much it pays, is measured by what's called a "benefit period" or "spell of illne...
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6. Recently, after one month in the hospital with end stage...

   Once your mother and your family choose Medicare hospice care , Medicare will cover all her hospice medical treatment while she's in the nursing facility, including medications and nursing to keep her as comfortable and pain-free as possible. But Medicare hospice only covers your mother's care and comfort...
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