Does Medicare pay for rehab?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Over the years, a lot of people have come to me and said, "Mom's going into rehab, doesn't Medicare pay for that if she has to go into a nursing home?" Tell us about rehab and Medicare.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Medicare does pay [crosstalk]--

Tom: Let's first say, Medicare is what everybody's entitled to when they turn age 65. Okay.

Robert: Correct.

Tom: You don't qualify for it. You turn 65, you get it.

Robert: You've paid for that while you're working. It's just something that you get when you hit 65. Medicare will pay for hospital visits, it will pay for drugs if you have that supplement added on to it, and Medicare will pay for rehab, and that's great. As long as you're rehabbing, Medicare will pay for it. Unfortunately, if you come to a point where you can't rehab anymore or you're not progressing, Medicare stops paying for rehab, and then you're faced with skilled nursing. That's what Medicare won't pay for, and that's where you have a choice of private paying, again, $300, $400 a day, $10,000 to $12,000 a month, or going into asset protection mode and applying for Medicaid, have the state pay for your care, and your family can continue to protect the assets. Almost like, Tom, you create the estate plan for somebody. When I Medicaid or asset protect, my plan is to replicate your estate plan. The assets are still going to the same place, just in a different time.

Tom: All right, folks, we'd love to give you more information about that. You can get it through a booklet that we have or by coming to one of Robert's workshops. It starts by contacting the Olson Law Group by calling us or going to our website, olsonlawgroup.com.

[00:01:48] [END OF AUDIO]