Medicare Part A generally covers inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing facility care, hospice, and some limited home health care when certain conditions are met.

Big picture: What Part A is

Medicare Part A is the hospital insurance part of Medicare, focused on care you get as an inpatient rather than routine doctor visits. Most people get it premiumā€‘free if they or a spouse worked and paid Medicare taxes long enough (usually 10 years).

What Medicare Part A covers

In most cases, Medicare Part A helps pay for:

  • Inpatient hospital care (acute-care hospitals, critical access hospitals, psychiatric hospitals).
  • Skilled nursing facility (SNF) care after a qualifying hospital stay (not longā€‘term ā€œcustodialā€ care).
  • Hospice care for people with a terminal illness who choose comfortā€‘focused care instead of curative treatment.
  • Limited home health care, such as intermittent skilled nursing and therapy, when you are homebound and meet Medicare rules.

Whatā€™s included during a hospital or SNF stay

When Part A is covering an inpatient stay, it typically includes:

  • Semiā€‘private room, meals, and general nursing services.
  • Drugs and medical supplies you receive as an inpatient, plus operating room and recovery room services.
  • Rehabilitation therapies in a hospital or SNF, like physical, occupational, or speech therapy, when medically necessary.

What Part A does not cover

Some common things people are surprised are not covered by Part A include:

  • Private room (unless medically necessary), privateā€‘duty nurses, TV or phone in your room, or personal items like razors or slippers.
  • Longā€‘term custodial care in a nursing home, such as help only with bathing, dressing, or eating, when no skilled care is needed.
  • Most doctor services you get while in the hospital are billed to Part B, which is why people often still see separate doctor bills.

Costs and limits under Part A

Medicare Part A is not ā€œfree careā€: you still have costā€‘sharing.

  • You pay a Part A deductible for each benefit period before Medicare pays its share for a hospital stay.
  • For hospital stays, Part A pays in full for the first 60 days after the deductible, then daily coinsurance starts for days 61ā€“90 and for any lifetime reserve days after that.
  • In a skilled nursing facility, the first 20 days are fully covered, then you pay a daily copay from days 21ā€“100; beyond 100 days, you pay all costs.

Quick recap (for ā€œmedicare part a covers whatā€):
Medicare Part A covers inpatient hospital care, skilled nursing facility care after a qualifying stay, hospice, and limited home health care, including room, meals, nursing, and necessary inpatient drugs and suppliesā€”but not longā€‘term custodial care, private rooms for comfort, or most doctor services, which fall under Part B instead.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.