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Medicare has a provision of Lifetime Reserve Days. Medicare recipients have a total of 60 of these days available to be used only once in the recipientsâ lifetime. The Medicare entitlement for in-patient care is limited to 90 days per benefit period. At the end of this period the must leave the hospital.
For example, if a patient stays in the hospital or nursing facility for 100 days but is only allotted 90 days per benefit period, the patient will have to use 10 lifetime reserve days. Original Medicare requires different co-payments (co-pays) depending on the number of days a patient stays in the hospital, with lifetime reserve days beginning after day ninety. The first sixty days of hospital stay have no co-pay, days sixty-one to ninety have a daily co-pay of $304 (in 2014), and over ninety days have a $608 co-insurance per lifetime reserve day used. Planning for hospital stay expenses can help reduce the overall cost of an extended stay.