What Is a Benefit Period?

A benefit period is the timeframe Medicare uses to track your hospital or skilled nursing facility stays. It begins the day you're admitted as an inpatient and ends after you've gone 60 consecutive days without receiving inpatient hospital or skilled nursing care.

Why benefit periods matter

• Impacts your deductible: Medicare charges you a deductible for each new benefit period, affecting your total healthcare costs.
• Unlimited benefit periods: There's no cap on the number of benefit periods you can have, which means coverage resets every time a new benefit period starts.
• Tracks coverage clearly: Understanding your benefit periods helps you manage your expenses and plan better for inpatient healthcare needs.

How Solace can help

A Solace advocate can track your benefit periods, clarify billing questions related to hospital stays, and help you manage deductibles to avoid unexpected costs. Advocates can also help you coordinate care following a hospital discharge or transition into a skilled nursing facility.