Medicare covers a limited skilled-nursing-facility stay only after a qualifying inpatient hospital admission, for rehabilitation, not long-term placement. Time spent under observation status does not count, even after multiple nights in a hospital bed -- ask the hospital directly which status applies.
Inside the discharge window
The observation-status trap catches more families than any other Medicare rule in this space. A patient can spend two or three nights in a hospital bed, receiving the same care as an admitted patient, and still not qualify for the skilled-nursing benefit if the hospital classified the stay as observation rather than inpatient. Ask the question directly and in writing: was my parent admitted as an inpatient, or held under observation? The answer determines whether Medicare will cover any part of a subsequent rehab stay, and it is worth asking before, not after, discharge.
