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This page discusses CA Medigap skilled care. Skilled nursing care is medical care administered under a doctor's orders. This type of care may only be provided by or under the supervision of skilled health care professionals. Care that can be administered by non-professionals is not skilled nursing care. Rehabilitative care that requires skilled professional staff is also a form of skilled care. Medicare can help pay for the costs of skilled nursing care. A person receives skilled nursing care to help improve their medical condition or to try to keep their health condition from deteriorating. In California Medicare and Medicare supplements only pay for skilled nursing care under certain conditions. An gingival must not have used all the days in the current benefit period. The individual must have also had a qualifying hospital stay. To qualify the hospital stay must have been for a minimum of three consecutive days from the time they were admitted and this does not include the day they were discharged. An individual must also enter the skilled nursing facility within thirty days of having left the hospital. If you leave the skilled nursing facility and then have to reenter it with 30 days you do not have to have another three day hospital stay in order to qualify. The facility must be approved by Medicare to provide skilled nursing care. The condition for which a person requires skilled care must have been the same one that was being treated during the qualifying 3 day hospital stay. A doctor must have ordered the care. Medicare breaks down time periods that it will pay for skilled nursing care costs into what are referred to as benefit periods. The benefit period starts on the day an individual starts Medicare Part A hospital or skilled nursing facility benefits. There are 100 covered days in a benefit period. When these days are used up there are no more benefits available for the current benefit period. The benefit period ends when an individual has not been in a skilled nursing facility or hospital for at least 60 consecutive days or if an individual has been in a skilled nursing facility for at least 60 consecutive days without actually having received skilled care there. There aren't any limits as to the number of benefit periods a person may have during their lifetime. Some of the costs associated with skilled nursing facilities are speech therapy, meals, skilled nursing care, occupational therapy, medical supplies, medical social services, dietary counseling, ambulance transportation, medicine, physical therapy and semi-private room. These services have to be necessary in order for Medicare to pay for them. Medicare will pay for the full cost of the first twenty days of skilled nursing care. The next eighty days require an individual to pay a daily co-payment with Medicare paying the balance. Medicare will pay nothing for skilled nursing care care expenses after the first one hundred days. Some Medicare Supplements help cover the daily co-payment. With over 20 years experience helping people in California with their Medicare Supplement needs we can assist you too. Let us analyze your needs, and assist you with getting coverage. If need answers relating to Medicare then call us. We will give you the information you need right now. One phone call or email to us can take the confusion and solve your problem. |