Skilled Nursing Facility Care

Home health care and hospice care — Medicare Part A, the hospital insurance component of Original Medicare, covers inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing facility care, home health care, and hospice care. Part A is the primary payer for hospice care for terminally ill beneficiaries, including symptom management, nursing, and other hospice services, and it covers home health care for beneficiaries who need skilled care and meet the homebound requirement. These benefits are the core of the Part A package, which is why Part A is described as hospital-oriented coverage. Items such as routine dental care, prescription drugs, and eyeglasses fall outside Part A entirely.

National insurance concept

Medicare covers only limited skilled care and does not pay for extended custodial care — Medicare is an acute-care program: Part A covers skilled nursing facility care only after a qualifying hospital stay and only for a limited benefit period, and it does not pay for custodial care — the personal help with bathing, dressing, and feeding that makes up most long-term care costs. This gap is the fundamental reason private long-term care insurance exists. The exam objective AH-V.1a frames long-term care insurance as filling exactly this hole in Medicare coverage.

National insurance concept