All About Long Term Care and Medicare

Medicare will not take care of long term care needs. It is a tremendous mistake to believe that Medicare will cover the long term care bill. This is an undisputed fact. Medicare is government health insurance for people over the age of 65 and the disabled. Long term care is custodial care that many people may need, especially as they get older. Medicare does not pay for long term care as a general rule.

Medicare provides limited long term care coverage. Medicare is limited in scope and in some limited situations, will pay some of the costs for Medicare beneficiaries who require skilled nursing or rehabilitative services for a limited amount of days. To receive these payments for a limited amount of days for rehabilitation, the Medicare beneficiary must receive services from a Medicare certified nursing home after a qualifying hospital stay.

Medicare will provide skilled nursing facility care for up to 100 days. Medicare will only pay for care that requires professional medical care. Medicare is designed to cure or medically improve a person's life. Long term care is to take care of a person. In the skilled nursing benefit of Medicare the patient must be admitted into a nursing facility within 30 days of a three-day hospital stay.