Home health care includes a wide range of health and social services delivered in your home to treat illness or injury. Services covered by Medicare’s home health benefit include intermittent skilled nursing care, therapy, and care provided by a home health aide. Depending on the circumstances, home health care will
Part A
Inpatient mental health care
Medicare Part A covers inpatient mental health services that you receive in either a psychiatric hospital (a hospital that only treats mental health patients) or a general hospital. Your provider should determine which hospital setting you need. If you receive care in a psychiatric hospital, Medicare covers up to 190
Hospital discharge planning
Hospital discharge planning is a process that determines the kind of care you need after you leave the hospital. Discharge plans can help prevent future readmissions, and they should make your move from the hospital to your home or another facility as safe as possible. Medicare requires hospitals to screen
Inpatient rehabilitation hospital care
Rehabilitation hospitals are specialty hospitals or parts of acute care hospitals that offer intensive inpatient rehabilitation therapy. You may need inpatient care in a rehabilitation hospital if you are recovering from a serious illness, surgery, or injury and require a high level of specialized care that generally cannot be provided
Lifetime reserve days
Original Medicare covers up to 90 days of inpatient hospital care each benefit period. You also have an additional 60 days of coverage, called lifetime reserve days. These 60 days can be used only once, and you will pay a coinsurance for each one ($670 per day in 2018). To
Inpatient hospital basics
Part A covers medically necessary inpatient hospital care, which is care that you receive as a formally admitted hospital inpatient. You must be formally admitted into the hospital by a physician in order for your care to be considered inpatient hospital care. You may face different costs if you are
Inpatient hospital services
Inpatient hospital services Inpatient hospital basics The benefit period Lifetime reserve days Inpatient rehabilitation hospital care Hospital discharge planning
Qualifying for premium-free Part A based on your spouse’s work history
If you do not have at least 40 calendar quarters of work during which you paid Social Security taxes in the U.S., but your spouse does, you may be eligible for premium-free Medicare Part A based on your spouse’s work history when you turn 65. Note, however, that if you
Eligibility for premium-free Part A if you are under 65 and Medicare-eligible
If you are eligible for Medicare due to a disability, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), you are eligible for premium-free Part A. If you return to work, you can keep your Medicare coverage indefinitely as long as you remain medically disabled. For the first 8.5 years
Summary of Part A-covered services
Medicare Part A covers the following services: Inpatient hospital care: This is care received after you are formally admitted into a hospital by a physician. You are covered for up to 90 days each benefit period in a general hospital, plus 60 lifetime reserve days. Medicare also covers up to
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