Short-term rehabilitation and long-term nursing care often happen in the same building, under the same Ohio nursing-home license, but Medicare treats them completely differently -- it can pay for short-term rehab after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay, and essentially never pays for long-term custodial nursing care.
What Medicare's skilled-nursing benefit actually requires
A qualifying inpatient hospital admission -- observation status does not count, no matter how many nights were spent in a hospital bed. Ask the hospital directly whether your parent is classified as inpatient or under observation, and ask in writing.
How Ohio licenses the building
Nursing homes are licensed under OAC 3701-17, a separate rule chapter from assisted living's OAC 3701-16 -- one license, but two very different populations can live under that single roof.
Why the same building houses both
A short-term rehab patient recovering from a hip replacement and a long-term resident with advanced dementia can be on the same hallway, receiving very different care and paying through very different mechanisms -- Medicare for one, private pay or Medicaid for the other.
