What will Medicare pay for a nursing home stay?

How Medicare covers skilled nursing in 2026

• 1
  Days 1–20: $0Medicare pays the full cost of a covered stay.
• 2
  Days 21–100: $217 a dayYou pay a daily coinsurance unless other coverage (such as Medigap or Medicaid) pays it.
• 3
  After day 100: you pay everythingMedicare pays nothing more in that benefit period. Long-term care is usually paid privately, by long-term care insurance, or by Medicaid once a person qualifies.

To be covered, the person must need daily skilled nursing or therapy, usually after an inpatient hospital stay of at least three days, and enter the nursing home within 30 days of leaving the hospital. Medicare stops paying when skilled care is no longer needed, even before day 100. Custodial care alone (help with bathing, dressing and eating) is not covered.

Medicare Advantage plans set their own rules and costs and often drop the three-day hospital rule; check the plan’s Evidence of Coverage. Figures are the 2026 amounts published by CMS. Read our full guide to Medicare nursing home coverage →