The following information comes from page 17 of the following Medicare booklet. https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/10153.pdf
When will Medicare cover skilled nursing facility (SNF) care?
“Medicare will cover SNF care only if all of these are true:
1. You have Medicare Part A* (Hospital Insurance) and have days left in your benefit period (see next page) available to use.
2. You have a qualifying hospital stay. This means an inpatient hospital stay of 3 consecutive days or more, starting with the day the hospital admits you as an inpatient, but not including the day you leave the hospital**. You must enter the SNF within a short period of time (generally 30 days) of leaving the hospital. After you leave the SNF, if you re-enter the same or another SNF within 30 days, you may not need another qualifying 3-day hospital stay to get additional SNF benefits. See item 5 on page 18. This is also true if you stop getting skilled care while in the SNF and then start getting skilled care again within 30 days.
3. Your doctor has ordered the inpatient services you need for SNF care, which require the skills of professional personnel like registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, or audiologists, and are furnished by, or under the supervision of, these skilled personnel.
4. You get the required skilled care on a daily basis and the services must be ones that can only be provided in a SNF on an inpatient basis. If you’re in a SNF for skilled therapy services only, and these services aren’t available at the SNF 7 days a week, your care is considered daily care even if the therapy services are offered just 5 or 6 days a week.
5. You need these skilled services for:
■ An ongoing condition that was also treated during your qualifying 3-day inpatient hospital stay (even if it wasn’t the reason you were admitted to the hospital.)
■ A new condition that started while you were getting SNF care for the ongoing condition. For example, if you’re in a SNF because you broke your hip and then have a stroke, Medicare may cover therapy services for the stroke, even if you no longer need therapy for your hip.
6. The skilled services must be reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of your condition.
7. You get these skilled services in a Medicare-certified SNF.”
How long does Medicare cover my SNF care?
“Medicare uses a period of time called a benefit period to keep track of how many days of SNF benefits you use, and how many are still available. A benefit period begins on the day you start getting inpatient hospital or SNF care. You can get up to 100 days of SNF coverage in a benefit period. Once you use those 100 days, your current benefit period must end before you can renew your SNF benefits.”
For more see the medicare.gov booklet at https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/10153.pdf