Medicare Part A

Medicare Part A is your inpatient Hospital, Hospice, Home Health Care, and Skilled Nursing Facility Insurance policy. Inpatient means confined for at least 24 hours. Skilled nursing facilities are for people who have been confined to a hospital and need more recovery before they are ready to go home. Skilled nursing facilities are not like nursing homes. They are acute recovery units for people that are expected to recover.

With the exception of maintenance prescription drugs and the deductible, Medicare Part A covers the in-patient hospital charges for the firs 60 days. There is no 20% co-insurance. For days 61-150 Medicare covers all but the maintenance drugs and a daily co-pay. Medicare provides no coverage past 150 days. A Medicare Supplement extends the hospital coverage 365 more days.

The deductibles and co-pays for 2013 are:

• The Part A deductible for 2013 is $1,184 for each separate 60 day period of confinement.
• For days 61-90 your daily co-pay is $296 per day.
• For days 90-150 your daily co-pay is $592 per day. These are your 60 lifetime reserve days and can only be used once.
• Inpatient benefits are exhausted after 150 continuous days, or 90 days if lifetime reserve days were previously used.
• Your daily co-pay for a skilled nursing facility is $148.00 per day for days 21-100. There is no coverage for skilled nursing for more than 100 days. Nursing home custodial care is not covered by Medicare at all.