Does Medicare Cover Long Term Care?

A common misconception is that Medicare will cover long term care needs.  Unfortunately, Medicare is designed to cover what is known as Acute Recovery Care. This means that you’re receiving care and showing signs of improvement. Or you’re getting better. While Medicare will cover your recovery care after an injury or illness, they will not cover care that extends into Long Term Care needs.

Long Term Care, or Custodial Care, is the type of care you receive when you need assistance with things like going to the bathroom, getting dressed, eating, getting from the bed to the chair, etc.  These are called Activities of Daily Living.  As you can probably see, the Custodial Care activities are not things that need to be supervised by a RN.  A lot of times you will have a trained caregiver or a family member helping with these types of activities.

Many people like to plan for these services and try to find ways to pay for them that won’t wipe them out of their life savings.  Lately I have been working with a lot of my clients to find ways to help prepare for a Long Term Care need. 

There isn’t just one solution for everyone.  As you know with the rest of life, we are all unique and we all have different circumstances.  Because of that, it’s good to plan out how a Long Term Care event will affect you and your family. 

Sometimes it’s very helpful to have a third party involved in the conversation who has had experience and training in planning for this type of care.  I am always happy to help in a nonintrusive way. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. I can help. Call or text to schedule a time to chat 720-655-6015