Does Medicare cover nursing home care?
Medicare does not cover long-term nursing home stays for custodial care — it only covers up to 100 days in a skilled nursing facility for rehab after a qualifying hospital stay.
What flips the answer
- Covered when
You had a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least 3 days and need skilled nursing or rehab care in a Medicare-certified SNF within a short window afterward — Medicare covers up to 100 days per benefit period, with coinsurance after day 20.
- Not covered when
The stay is for long-term custodial care (ongoing help with daily living) rather than short-term skilled rehabilitation after a hospitalization.
- Not covered when
You've exhausted the 100-day skilled nursing facility benefit for the current benefit period.
The nursing home question is one of the biggest and most consequential gaps in Medicare. Original Medicare does not pay for long-term custodial nursing home care — the kind of ongoing help with daily living (bathing, dressing, eating, mobility) that most people mean when they ask whether Medicare will pay for a nursing home.
What Medicare does cover is short-term care in a skilled nursing facility (SNF), and only under specific conditions: you must have had a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least 3 days, be admitted to the SNF within a short window afterward, and need skilled nursing or rehabilitation services related to that hospital stay. Coverage is capped at 100 days per benefit period, with coinsurance starting after day 20.
Because of this gap, long-term nursing home care is typically paid for out of pocket, through long-term care insurance, or eventually through Medicaid once a person's income and assets are low enough to qualify under their state's rules.
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