Page 31 - Growing Old Without a Plan for Long Term Care is not for Sissies_Neat

Uncle Sam’s Got My Back, Right? 13 Chapter 2 Uncle Sam’s Got My Back, Right? any people just assume that the government will pay for Mtheir care if the time comes when they can’t take care of themselves. There are a few reasons they assume this: f They know someone in a nursing home that receives care paid for by the government. f They think Medicare includes long term care among the various health services it pays for. f They want to believe it is true f They just don’t want to think about it. Medicare Everybody knows that Medicare pays for long term care so there’s no need to worry, right? WRONG!!! Under some circum- stances, Medicare may pay part of the cost of your skilled care for as much as 100 days after you have been hospitalized. However, this is for rehabilitative care and requires a hospital stay of at least 3 nights frst. To comply with Medicare reimbursement guidelines, hospitals often dismiss earlier than they used to and sometimes keep you overnight for observation rather than admitting you. This is making it increasingly more diffcult to get those 3 hospital nights in before moving on to a skilled care facility.