Medicare Can Cover Nursing Facility Recovery

Medicare Part A can cover your parent's stay in a skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility during recovery from an illness or injury. But this coverage kicks in only if she has first had a hospital stay of at least three days, not counting the day of discharge. It's quite common for older people to move in and out of the hospital quickly: They go to the emergency room, then get admitted to the hospital, and a day or two later enter a nursing or rehabilitation facility for short-term recovery. If your parent is in this situation, see if her treating physician and the hospitalist (the hospital's own in-house doctor) will agree to keep her in the hospital for one extra day. If so, Medicare Part A will pay the full amount for her care for the first 20 days when she's transferred to a skilled nursing or rehab facility. If not, she gets no Medicare coverage at all at the facility and will have to move home -- which she may not be ready to do -- to get Medicare Part B coverage of home healthcare.