Medicare: Cost of rehab for seniors - Aug. 7, 2012

Medicare fully covers 20 days in a skilled nursing facility as long as you've spent three days in the hospital as an inpatient (among other criteria). Sickels, though, didn't meet that standard.
For four nights and five days, she had slept in a hospital bed and donned a hospital bracelet while doctors ran tests and prescribed medications. Yet she'd been held under observation, a designation intended for patients who aren't ready to go home but don't need as intensive care as a fully admitted patient does. And with Medicare, observation services don't count toward rehab coverage.

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