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This page talks about California Medigap skilled care. Skilled nursing care is medical care provided under a doctor's orders. This form of care can only be provided by or under the supervision of skilled medical care professionals. Care that can be administered by non-professionals isn't skilled nursing care. Rehabilitative care which requires skilled professional staff is also a form of skilled care. Medicare can help to cover for skilled nursing care. An individual receives skilled nursing care to help improve their health condition or to attempt to keep their health condition from deteriorating. In California Medicare and Medicare supplements will only pay for the costs of skilled nursing care under certain conditions. A person must have days left in the current benefit period. They must have also had a hospital stay that qualified. To qualify the stay must have been at least for 3 consecutive days from the time they were admitted and this doesn't include the day they were discharged. A person must also enter the skilled nursing facility within 30 days of when they were discharged from the hospital. If you leave the skilled nursing facility and then have to go back into it with 30 days you don't 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 and individual requires skilled care must have been the same one that had been during the qualifying three day hospital stay. A doctor must have ordered the skilled nursing care. Medicare breaks down time periods that it will cover skilled nursing care costs into what are called benefit periods. The benefit period starts on the first day an individual begins 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 a person 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 can have. Some of the costs associated with skilled nursing facilities are dietary counseling, ambulance transportation, medical supplies, semi-private room, occupational therapy, skilled nursing care, medical social services, speech therapy, physical therapy, meals and medicine. These services must be necessary in order for Medicare to cover them. Medicare will pay for the full cost of the first twenty days of skilled nursing care. The next eighty days require a person to pay a daily co-payment with Medicare paying the balance. Medicare pays nothing for skilled nursing care after the first one hundred days. Some Medicare Supplements help cover the daily co-payment. With more than 20 years experience assisting Californians with their Medicare Supplement needs we will assist you as well. Let us analyze your requirements, and assist you with getting coverage. Medicare is a very complex topic. There is a huge amount of information out there about Medicare. Getting the information you need can be time consuming and tedious. Let us give you the information you need. |