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Nursing home care is expensive and it is important to conider how you would pay for this care. Contrary to general perception, Medicare does not pay for Skilled Nursing Care beyond 100 days.
Medicare pays for skilled nursing care for 100 days only after a 3 day qualified medicare covered inpatient stay in an acute care facility such as a hospital.
Most of the long stay residents pay for the nursing home care with their own personal resources such as Social Security, bank account or long term care insurance. Once you exhaust your personal resources, Medicaid kicks in. As per Medicare, medicaid pays for care of 7 out of 10 residents.
Personal Resources
Most of the people start paying for the nursing home care by using their personal assets. If you have a life insurance policy, check with your insurance. Some times life insurance allows you to tap funds for nursing home care. Don't use your own funds to pay for nursing home before checking to see if you are eligible for medicaid or other assistance through government.
Long Term Insurance
This is private insurance that you can buy. Please check with the insurance provider to see when you can enroll and what their policies are regarding skilled nursing care. Some will pay for nursing care and some will pay for home health care.
Medicaid
Medicaid is a program run jointly by Federal and state. Medicaid pays for health related expenses for people under a certain income level and personal resources. More can be found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/medicaid.asp. You must qaulify, based on your assets, for medicaid to pay for certail health and nursing home related exepnses. Not all nursing homes accepts medicaid. You must check with individual nursing homes to see if they accept medicaid or not. Make sure they accept medicaid for the kind of services you are expecting from the nursing home. Do not forget to ask them if they have a medicaid certified bed.
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