Does Medicare cover compression stockings?
Original Medicare does not cover standard compression stockings for preventing or managing swelling — the one exception is when they're used as a surgical dressing to treat an open venous stasis ulcer.
What flips the answer
- Covered when
The stockings are prescribed specifically to treat an open venous stasis ulcer, billed under Medicare's surgical dressing benefit — this is the one Original Medicare pathway to coverage.
- Covered when
You're on a Medicare Advantage plan with an OTC allowance — many plans let you buy compression stockings for general use with a quarterly OTC card, separate from the medical-necessity pathway.
- Not covered when
The stockings are for prevention, general swelling, varicose veins, or travel — not tied to an active open ulcer — under Original Medicare.
Compression stockings prescribed to prevent blood clots, reduce general leg swelling, or manage varicose veins are excluded from Original Medicare. Medicare treats routine, preventive compression garments the same way it treats other non-DME support items — not primarily therapeutic equipment, even with a doctor's prescription.
The narrow exception lives in Medicare's surgical dressing benefit, not its DME benefit: when a beneficiary has an open venous stasis ulcer, compression stockings or wraps used as part of the wound-treatment plan can be covered as a surgical dressing under Part B. Once the ulcer heals, ongoing compression stockings for maintenance or prevention revert to non-covered.
This distinction — treating an existing open wound versus preventing one — is the whole ballgame for coverage, so the documentation from your provider needs to tie the stockings directly to active ulcer treatment, not general circulation support.
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