What are Medicare Lifetime reserve days?

Medicare Lifetime Reserve Days refer to a specific benefit provided by Medicare Part A (hospital insurance). Under Original Medicare, you are initially entitled to a certain number of days of inpatient hospital care known as "benefit periods." These benefit periods reset once you have been out of the hospital or skilled nursing facility for 60 consecutive days. Medicare Lifetime Reserve Days are a set of extra hospitalization days that are available to Medicare beneficiaries. These are a type of Medicare benefit that is available to help cover the cost of extended hospital stays.

Under Medicare Part A, you have a total of 90 days of hospitalization coverage per benefit period. After you use up these 90 days, you have an additional "60 Lifetime Reserve Days" that you can use if you need to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time. During each benefit period, you are allocated a set number of Medicare-covered hospital days. In general, Medicare Part A covers up to 90 days of inpatient hospital care per benefit period. However, once you have exhausted your initial 90 days, you enter what is known as the "Medicare Lifetime Reserve Days."

Medicare Lifetime Reserve Days provide an additional 60 days of coverage for inpatient hospital services. These are essentially extra days of coverage that you can use throughout your lifetime. However, they are not renewable or replenished once they are used up. Once you have used all of your Lifetime Reserve Days, Medicare will no longer cover any further inpatient hospital stays within that benefit period.

Medicare covers a portion of the costs for each day of inpatient hospital care during both the initial 90 days and the Lifetime Reserve Days, you may still be responsible for certain out-of-pocket expenses, such as deductibles and coinsurance.

MedHelpCenter.us recommends that you call the Senior Health Insurance Agency at 813-592-8568 for further explanation.