Nursing home stays can be very costly. In a recent study conducted by AARP it was estimated that the average nursing home stay costs around $200 a day. That’s over $6,000 a month to stay in a nursing home. Many people assume that they are immune to this high expense because they have health insurance coverage. What they do not know is that many health insurance plans do not cover nursing home stays and, therefore, the expense to stay in a nursing home will have to come out of the patient’s pocket.

Luckily, there are some types of insurance coverages that will cover nursing home stays. Here is a look at the various types of insurance plans that will cover nursing home stays.

• Long Term Care Insurance. Long term care insurance is a type of supplemental insurance that is brought through a private provider. The amount of coverage that your long term insurance plan has will depend on what type of policy you brought. Plans can vary from covering just a few months in a nursing home to covering your stay indefinitely.
• Medicare. This government-provided insurance plan will cover some nursing home stays. However, the stay will have to meet certain guidelines and doctor recommendations. In most cases the nursing home stay is only covered if it is considered a rehabilitation stay and not a permanent stay in a nursing home. Even then the patient must choose from a list of Medicare-approved nursing homes in order to have the stay covered.
• Private Insurance Plans. Many private health insurance plans follow similar guidelines to Medicare. A nursing home stay is not usually covered by private insurance plans unless it is considered a rehabilitation stay.
• Medicaid. This government insurance plan will cover the cost of nursing home stays if the patient has limited income or assets. The nursing home will have to be a Medicaid-approved facility.