What Are Medicare Lifetime Reserve Days?
Short answer
Original Medicare provides a lifetime pool of 60 reserve inpatient hospital days that can be used after the ordinary covered hospital days in a benefit period are exhausted.
Coverage
Each lifetime reserve day used is permanently deducted from the 60-day lifetime total. These days have separate daily coinsurance that changes annually.
Not Automatic
Lifetime reserve days do not reset at the start of a new year or new benefit period.
Practical Example
If a beneficiary uses 10 lifetime reserve days during one long hospital stay, only 50 remain available for the rest of that person’s life.
Questions to verify
- How many reserve days have already been used?
- What is the current-year daily coinsurance?
- Would supplemental coverage pay some of that cost?