Start planning the move from rehab to assisted living in the first week of the skilled nursing stay, not the last. Medicare covers up to 100 days of skilled nursing facility care per benefit period, but only while your parent needs daily skilled care, so coverage often ends sooner. You get a Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage at least two days before it ends. Use the rehab weeks to tour, schedule the assisted living assessment and finish the forms.
Your dad left the hospital for a skilled nursing facility to get stronger after a fall. Everyone agrees he can't go back to living alone, and the plan is assisted living afterward. The rehab stay gives you something a hospital discharge doesn't: a few weeks. This post shows how long those weeks may last, what happens when coverage ends, and how to line up the move so the two dates meet.
How long will Medicare pay for rehab?
Medicare covers up to 100 days of skilled nursing facility care in a benefit period, but only while your parent keeps meeting the conditions. The main one is a need for daily skilled care, such as physical therapy or IV medications, that can only practically be given in a skilled nursing facility. If your parent is there for therapy only, it counts as daily when therapy is needed and given 5 to 7 days a week.
| Days in the benefit period | What your parent pays in 2026 (Original Medicare) |
|---|---|
| Days 1 to 20 | $0 per day, after the $1,736 Part A deductible |
| Days 21 to 100 | $217 per day |
| Day 101 and after | All costs |
The deductible usually isn't paid twice. Medicare's booklet on skilled nursing care explains that if your parent already paid it for the hospital stay in the same benefit period, it doesn't apply again for the nursing facility. If your parent has a Medicare Advantage plan or other coverage, the amounts can differ, so ask the facility's business office what your parent will actually owe.
Two details are easy to miss. First, skilled care isn't only for getting better. The same booklet says it can be covered to maintain your parent's condition or slow a decline, so "he's plateaued" doesn't automatically end coverage. Second, if your parent goes back to a skilled nursing facility within 30 days of leaving, a new three-day hospital stay may not be needed.
What happens when rehab coverage ends?
When Medicare coverage is ending because daily skilled care is no longer needed, the facility gives a written Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage (often called a NOMNC) at least two days before covered services end. Put that date on your calendar the moment you see it. It is the real deadline for the assisted living move, not day 100.
- If you think coverage is ending too soon, follow the notice's instructions to call the BFCC-QIO no later than noon the day before the end date. The reviewer decides by close of business the day after it gets the information it needs.
- If your parent stays after coverage ends, with Original Medicare the facility must first give a written notice (the SNF Advance Beneficiary Notice) with the date coverage ends and the estimated private cost. You can ask for a claim to be sent to Medicare for an official decision.
- If benefit days simply run out, the facility isn't required to warn you in writing. Keep your own count.
On the day the notice arrives, do four things in this order. Write the end date on the family calendar. Call your first-choice community and ask whether it can admit by that date and what is still missing. Ask the rehab doctor's office to finish the community's medical form this week. Then decide, with your parent, whether to appeal, pay privately for a few extra days, or use a short bridge until move-in.
Our post on options when a discharge feels unsafe covers appeals in more detail. For planning, assume coverage may end on short notice and work backward from there.
What is a realistic week-by-week plan?
The plan below assumes about three weeks of rehab. If the NOMNC arrives early, compress weeks 2 and 3 into days, but keep the order.
| When | On the rehab side | On the assisted living side |
|---|---|---|
| Rehab week 1 | Meet the social worker; ask for the care conference date and the therapy goals | Agree on a budget range; list four to six licensed communities; book tours |
| Rehab week 2 | Ask for a written summary of function: transfers, walking, toileting, showering, medications | Tour; share the summary; ask the top community to assess your parent at the rehab facility or by video |
| Rehab week 3 | Ask the doctor to complete the community's medical form and TB screening; confirm the discharge date | Read the residency agreement at home; set the move-in date; pack comfort items |
| Discharge day | Reconciled medication list, discharge summary, equipment orders, home health referral if planned | Room ready, first-night items in place, community nurse has the medication list |
The medical form is where moves stall. Our post on the physician's report for assisted living explains what it asks and how to get it back quickly. For tours squeezed between therapy sessions, the assisted living tour questions fit on one printed sheet per community.
Put the rehab weeks on a calendar
Parent Move Plan counts every task back from move-in day, so once the expected rehab discharge date is known, you see exactly which week tours, forms and packing fall in. The 30-day version keeps the last week before the move intact. It's a Google Sheet your whole family can share.
Build your plan in 2 minutesWhat should you ask at the rehab care conference?
Ask the questions an assisted living community will ask you, so you get the answers from the people who know. Therapists see your parent every day and can describe function precisely.
- How does he get in and out of bed and on and off the toilet: alone, with standby help, with one person, or with two?
- How far can he walk, with which device, and is he safe at night?
- What help does he need to shower and dress?
- Can he manage his own medications, or does someone need to give them?
- What are the therapy goals, and what is the expected discharge date?
- Will he need home health therapy after discharge, and can it be delivered in assisted living?
What to say at the conference: "Our plan is assisted living after rehab, not home. The community will ask about transfers, walking, showering and medications. Could you put those four answers in writing for us this week, so we can start their assessment before discharge?"
Can assisted living meet your parent's needs?
That depends on your parent's needs and on your state's rules, because assisted living is licensed by the states. Florida's rule is a clear example. It requires a resident to be able to transfer, with assistance if needed (help from more than one person is permitted), and to perform daily activities with supervision or assistance if necessary. Other states draw the line differently, so ask each community what it can and cannot handle, and check with your state's assisted living licensing agency.
Therapy doesn't have to stop at the door. Medicare's home health rules allow home health services for someone living in an assisted living residence, as long as your parent is homebound and needs skilled care, and the services don't duplicate what the community is required to provide. Ask the rehab team to set up the referral before discharge.
If the community's nurse has doubts after the assessment, ask exactly which need is the problem. Sometimes a different apartment, a higher care level or a two-week delay solves it. Our posts on the assisted living assessment and levels of care help you understand the answer. For the move itself, see hospital discharge to assisted living, step by step, which covers the same handoff from a hospital bed.
Frequently asked questions
How long does Medicare pay for rehab in a nursing facility?
Up to 100 days per benefit period, but only as long as your parent needs daily skilled care and meets the other conditions. In 2026 your parent pays nothing for days 1 to 20 after the Part A deductible, $217 a day for days 21 to 100, and all costs after that. Coverage can end well before day 100 if the need for daily skilled care ends.
Can my parent keep getting therapy after moving to assisted living?
Possibly. Medicare can cover home health services in an assisted living residence if your parent is homebound and needs skilled care such as therapy, and if the services don't duplicate what the community is required to provide. Ask the rehab team and the community which home health agencies they work with.
What if the rehab facility says coverage ends before assisted living is ready?
You'll get a Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage at least two days before covered services end. If you think coverage is ending too soon, you can request a fast appeal by noon the day before the end date. If your parent stays after coverage ends, the facility will explain the private daily cost in writing first.
Can the assisted living community assess my parent while they're still in rehab?
Some communities do this, and policies vary. Ask whether their nurse can visit the rehab facility or do the assessment by video, and which records from the rehab team they need beforehand.
Sources
- Medicare.gov: Skilled nursing facility (SNF) care (accessed Sept 2026)
- CMS: Medicare Coverage of Skilled Nursing Facility Care, Product No. 10153 (accessed Sept 2026)
- Medicare.gov: Fast appeals (accessed Sept 2026)
- CMS: Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, Chapter 7, Home Health Services (accessed Sept 2026)
- Florida Administrative Code: Rule 59A-36.006, Admission Procedures, Appropriateness of Placement and Continued Residency Criteria (accessed Sept 2026)