Part A covers hospital stays (including stays in a skilled nursing facility)  as long as certain criteria are met:

• The hospital stay must be at least three days and three nights, not counting the discharge date.
• Nursing home stays must be due to the main cause of the hospital stay, or for something diagnosed during the initial hospital stay. For instance, a hospital stay for a broken hip and then a nursing home stay for physical therapy would not be covered.
• If the patient is not receiving rehabilitation but has some other ailment that requires skilled nursing supervision then the nursing home stay would be covered.
• The care received from a nursing home must be skilled. Custodial, non-skilled and long term activities, including activities of daily living (ADLs – ie personal hygiene, cooking cleaning, etc), are not covered under Medicare Part A.

Medicare will pay in full the first 20 days and the remaining 80 days will require a co-payment (as of 2009 the co-payment is $133.50 per day). Many insurance companies have a provision for skilled nursing care in the policies they sell.

If a beneficiary uses some portion of their Part A benefit and then goes at least 60 days without receiving facility-based skilled services, the 100-day clock is reset and the person qualifies for a new 100-day benefit period.

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