Glossary
Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance)
The part of Medicare that helps pay for inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing care, hospice, and some home health care.
Part A is the hospital side of Medicare. It helps pay for inpatient care in a hospital, care in a skilled nursing facility after a qualifying hospital stay, hospice care, and some home health care. Most people pay no monthly premium for Part A, because they or a spouse paid Medicare taxes through years of work. Part A is not free of cost, though: there is a deductible for each benefit period, and daily amounts apply once a stay runs long. This matters to you because Part A covers the room and the nursing while you are admitted, and it does not cover the doctor who visits you at your bedside. That doctor is billed under Part B. The two parts work as a pair, and understanding which one is paying is what makes a hospital bill readable later.