Medicare Part A covers limited short-term skilled nursing care in a nursing home, but not long-term custodial care. Medicare Part A covers skilled nursing care in a nursing home for a limited time if you meet certain conditions. This includes skilled care for an illness or injury. Original Medicare doesn’t cover custodial care if it’s the only care you need. Custodial care helps people with activities of daily living, like bathing, dressing, and eating.
Custodial care is needed for people with dementia who may be physically healthy for many years. Or other people with chronic diseases (such as heart disease) that prevents them from taking care of themselves but don’t require skilled nursing care.
This is a very important distinction. The original subject of this thread is dementia. Custodial care (sometimes called “memory care” facilities) needed for people with dementia are not covered by Medicare.
Wendy