What does Medicare Part A cover?
Medicare Part A is hospital insurance. It's the piece of Original Medicare that pays for care you get as an admitted hospital inpatient, a stay in a skilled nursing facility after a hospitalization, hospice care, and some home health services — the settings where you're formally under a facility's or program's care rather than seeing a doctor for an office visit.
Most people don't pay a monthly premium for Part A because they or a spouse paid Medicare payroll taxes for at least 10 years. But "premium-free" doesn't mean "free" — deductibles and coinsurance still apply to covered stays.
Covered
- Inpatient hospital care
Semi-private room, meals, general nursing, drugs given during the stay, and other hospital services once you're formally admitted as an inpatient.
- Skilled nursing facility (SNF) care
Covered only after a qualifying hospital stay, and only for a limited number of days — it's for skilled recovery care, not long-term custodial stays.
- Hospice care
For terminal illness with a life expectancy of six months or less; covers pain management, symptom control, and support services.
- Home health care
Part-time, doctor-ordered skilled nursing or therapy for people who are homebound; typically billed jointly with Part B depending on the service.
- Inpatient care in a psychiatric hospital
Covered similarly to general inpatient hospital care, subject to a lifetime limit on days.
- Blood
Covered as part of an inpatient stay after the first three pints in a benefit period.
Not covered
- Long-term or custodial care
Help with daily activities like bathing and dressing, when that's the only care needed, isn't covered by Part A — this is the coverage gap that drives most Medicaid long-term-care planning.
- Most doctor services
The physician's fee for treating you in the hospital is billed under Part B, not Part A, even during an inpatient stay.
- A private room
Only covered if medically necessary; otherwise you pay the difference over a semi-private room.
- Dental, vision, and hearing care
Routine exams, cleanings, glasses, and hearing aids are excluded from Original Medicare entirely.
- Outpatient prescription drugs
Drugs you take home from a pharmacy fall under Part D, not Part A.
- SNF stays without a qualifying hospital admission
Going straight into a nursing facility without a preceding inpatient hospital stay generally isn't covered.
Bottom line
Part A covers the big, acute-care moments — an inpatient hospital stay, a recovery stint in a skilled nursing facility, hospice, and limited home health — but it was never designed to pay for ongoing custodial care or routine outpatient medicine. An annual deductible and daily coinsurance apply to hospital and SNF stays once you pass certain day thresholds, and the exact dollar figures change every year, so check medicare.gov for the current numbers before assuming what a stay will cost you.
That's the general picture. Yours is written in your actual documents.
Check my coverage →