Many people believe that the cost of long term care in a nursing home is covered by Medicare.  That’s probably because they’ve known someone who: a) broke a hip; OR b) had a stroke; OR c) suffered some sort of illness or injury for which they were hospitalized for at least 3 days. Then that person was discharged from the hospital to a nursing facility for a few weeks or a couple of months and are saying that “Medicare paid for everything”.

 

Actually what Medicare paid for was rehabilitation services, not long term care.  In fact, Medicare will only pay for up to 100 days of rehabilitation services in a nursing home; then coverage ends. So, if someone you know needs long term care (not rehab) in a nursing facility, they will need to start long term care planning with a qualified Elder Law attorney in order to get some financial relief or, alternatively, be prepared to come up with the $10,000/month nursing home cost on their own.