Medicare Part A

Medicare Part A is otherwise known as hospital insurance. This covers emergent or medically necessary processes. Under Part A, you are covered for inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing care, hospice care, and home healthcare.

Inpatient hospital stays are classified as the days in which you are formally admitted into a hospital upon a doctor’s order. With Medicare Part A, everything including your room, food, medications, medical supplies, and nursing will be covered. For the first 60 days in which you are under inpatient care, you are eligible for a $0 copay. However, if your stay is between 61 and 90 days, you’ll pay a copayment on a day-by-day basis. After this 90-day period ends, Medicare allows you 60 days of lifetime reserve. This means that you can tap into these days if your hospital stay is longer than 90 days, but once these extra 60 days are used, you have to pay out of pocket fees for stays longer than 90 days in the future.

Skilled nursing care, or SNC, falls under the category of additional care that monitors, observes, and provides treatment for your condition. If you were in inpatient care for at least three days and still require medical care, as recommended by your doctor, your skilled nursing care could be covered. This includes your room, food, therapies, medications, and social services. For the first 20 days, your SNC has no copay, and 80 additional days are covered totaling to 100 days.

Hospice care, or palliative and end-of-life care, is covered under Medicare Part A when your physician establishes that you have six months or less of life left. Under hospice care, you no longer receive treatment, but you receive comfort care to make your days more comfortable. Starting hospice care can be a difficult decision to make, but Medicare coverage can make your choice simpler.

Home healthcare is the act of a caregiver providing health or supportive care to an individual in their own home. Under Medicare Part A, part-time care is covered. However, 24-hour care is not.