What are the differences between Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B?
Medicare has 2 parts: Part A (Hospital Insurance), and Part B (Medical Insurance). Medicare Part A helps to cover your inpatient care in hospitals, critical access hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities. Skilled nursing facility care does not include long-term care; it is skilled care only. Medicare Part A also helps to cover hospice care and some home health care if certain conditions are met. Most people don’t pay a premium for Part A because they or a spouse already paid for it through their payroll taxes while working. Medicare Part B helps to cover your doctors’ services and outpatient hospital care. It also covers some other medical services that Part A does not cover, such as some of the services of physical and occupational therapies, and some home health care. Part B helps pay for these covered services and supplies when they are medically necessary, or needed for the diagnosis and treatment of your medical condition.
