Are You Eligible

If you have Medicare Part A and meet all of these conditions, you are covered:

  • You must be under the care of a doctor, and you must be getting services under a plan of care established and reviewed regularly by a doctor.
  • You must need, and a doctor must certify that you need, one or more of these:
    • Intermittent skilled nursing care (other than just drawing blood)
    • The home health agency caring for you must be Medicare-certified.
    • You must be homebound, and a doctor must certify that you're homebound.
    • Physical therapy, speech-language pathology, or continued occupational therapy services.
      The amount, frequency and time period of the services needs to be reasonable, and they need to be complex or only qualified therapists can do them safely and effectively. To be eligible, either:
      • your condition must be expected to improve in a reasonable and generally-predictable period of time, or
      • you need a skilled therapist to safely and effectively make a maintenance program for your condition, or
      • you need a skilled therapist to safely and effectively do maintenance therapy for your condition.

You're NOT eligible for the home health benefit if you need more than part-time or "intermittent" skilled nursing care.


What Is NOT Covered

The following services do not qualify as part of home health services covered by Medicare Part A:

  • 24-hour-a-day care at home
  • Meals delivered to your home
  • Homemaker services
  • Personal care

What Is Covered

Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) covers eligible home health services like:

  • intermittent skilled nursing care
  • physical therapy
  • speech-language pathology services
  • continued occupational services
    and more…
Information provided here for your convenience is replicated from the Medicare website and is up to date. For more information regarding Medicare and Home Health Care services, visit Medicare's official site.