If you need to stay in a nursing home to recover after being hospitalized, Medicare ordinarily covers up to 100 days of services to get you back on your feet. If you need to stay in the nursing home longer than 100 days and your Medicare coverage is over, you will need to either use your long term care insurance [if you have a policy] or apply for Medi-Cal.
Medi-Cal is for long term care insurance for low income disabled and elderly people.
If your Medicare benefits have run out and you need to stay longer in a skilled nursing home (“SKH”) keep the following in mind:
- A SKH cannot have a limited amount of beds that qualify for Medi-Cal. If the nursing home is certified by Medi-Cal, all the beds in the home must be available;
- If your Medicare benefits are finished, you do not have to leave the SKN. You can stay there as long as you need as long as you pay for the services;
- A rehab or short term SKN does not exist. If a SKN is licensed in CA it has to provide long term care;
- If you are in a Medi-Cal SKN and apply for Medi-Cal, the SKN cannot throw you out while your Medi-Cal application is being processed. If you are in a shared room, you do not have to move out of that room.
The bottom line is that you do not have to leave a SKN when your Medicare benefits are finished. In order to discharge you the SKN has to provide you with legal notice. Waiting for your Medi-Cal application to be processed is not a legal reason to throw you out of the SKN.
If you need further information on this issue, the attorneys at Santaella Legal Group, APC, are here to help you.