Does Medicare cover home health care?

• Occupational, physical and speech therapy with professional therapists to restore or improve your ability to perform everyday tasks, speak or walk after an illness or injury, or to prevent your condition from getting worse.

• Skilled nursing care on a part-time or intermittent basis that would require more active care such as changing wound dressings, assisting with feeding and injecting medicine through a feeding tube. Medicare stipulates that care must be provided fewer than seven days each week or daily for less than eight hours each day for up to 21 days.

Medicare may extend that limit if your doctor can predict when your need for daily skilled nursing care will end. Full-time or long-term nursing care typically wouldn’t qualify for home health benefits.

If you qualify, you pay nothing for home health care services from a home health agency. Other medical services, such as visits to your doctor, are covered under your other Medicare benefits.

You may also have coverage for some supplies, such as catheters and wound dressings related to your condition when your home health agency provides them. This might include durable medical equipment from the home health agency, such as walkers or wheelchairs.

Medicare Part B covers equipment and supplies. But you’ll have to pay the Part B coinsurance, which is 20 percent of the Medicare-approved amount, after you pay your $233 Part B deductible for 2022 ($226 in 2023).

What home health care services won’t Medicare cover?

Additional services that you or a supplemental insurance will have to pay for include:

• 24-hour at-home care

• Custodial or personal care for help with daily living activities — if that’s the only care you need

• Household services, such as shopping, cleaning and laundry when they’re not related to your care plan

• Meal delivery to your home

How do I find Medicare-covered home health care?

Medicare.gov has a search and comparison tool to help you find certified home health agencies in your area that Medicare covers.

If you have coverage from a private Medicare Advantage plan, rather than original Medicare, you may have to use an agency that works with that Advantage plan. Talk with a Medicare Advantage plan representative about coverage details and requirements.

Before you start receiving care, the agency should let you know, both verbally and in writing, of services provided that Medicare won’t cover and what you can expect to pay for them.

Keep in mind

You may be able to get additional caregiving support through local and state programs, which may provide services such as adult day care programs, equipment, meal delivery, respite care for caregivers and transportation. You can find out more about programs in your area through your Area Agency on Aging. Type your zip code or city and state into the U.S. Administration on Aging’s Eldercare Locator or call 800-677-1116, to find contact information for your local agency and other resources.

Updated October 20, 2022

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