Will Medicare pay for rehab?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Robert, we were talking about Medicaid and Medicare and a lot of people when Mom falls down and breaks her hip and they say, "Mom needs to go to rehab," and they go, "Well, Mom's on Medicare. We got it all covered." Well, that's true. Medicare is going to pay for that rehab, but only for a period of time.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Yes. Once their rehab days either run out or the facility determines that they're not rehabbing, then you're looking at a private pay situation. Then the family has a couple choices. Is the person well enough to come home? Well, then, they come home. If they're not well enough to come home, they're looking at either having to private pay at a rate of probably close to 300 to 400 a day, or we can have them qualify for Medicaid when they're not going to have to spend $300 or $400 a day and protect all of their assets.

Then the wonderful part of Medicaid, how things have changed a little bit. Let's say someone's in rehab, Tom, and we qualify them for Medicaid, institutional care at a nursing home and let's say they get better. We can then switch them to Medicaid's long term care waiver so they can transition home and then get home healthcare if their health dictates that.

Tom: Okay. Again, we know that a lot of people have a misconception about Medicare versus Medicaid and what will pay for what, but they hear that Medicare's going to pay for the rehab and they think, "Well, until Mom's better, she's going to stay there under, Medicare are paying for it," but that's not true. Typically it's going to be like about 30 days or so.

Robert: Yes. Medicare will pay for a rehab, but it doesn't pay for the room and board portion of it when you stop rehabbing. That's what Medicaid does. A lot of people think, "Oh, I'm on Medicaid, it's all new doctors. It's all new everything. It's not." Medicaid pays for it, Medicare doesn't, being the room and board portion of it, which is obviously the most expensive.

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