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1991.11.15 :  Medicare Inpatient Hospital Deductible

Contact:  Bob Hardy (202) 245-6145
November 15, 1991

       HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., announced today
that the Medicare inpatient hospital deductible for calendar year
1992  will be $652, an increase of 3.8 percent from the 1991
level.
       The deductible is the Medicare beneficiary's share of
expenses for the first 60 days of inpatient hospital care. 
Medicare payments cover all other costs of necessary hospital
services during the 60-day period.
       The inpatient hospital deductible and Medicare payment
rates for hospitals are adjusted annually, according to formulas
set by law, to compensate hospitals for increases in their costs
for treating Medicare beneficiaries.
       The notice published in today's Federal Register also
establishes the 1992 coinsurance payment rates for extended
inpatient hospital care and skilled nursing facility care.
       For the 61st through the 90th day of inpatient hospital
care, the beneficiary will be responsible for a daily coinsurance
payment of $163, which is one-fourth of the hospital deductible. 
For extended care beyond 90 days, a beneficiary has 60 lifetime
reserve days.  The 1992 coinsurance rate for the use of reserve
days is set at $326, or one-half of the hospital deductible.
       If services of a skilled nursing facility are needed for
continued therapeutic care of a beneficiary after at least three 

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consecutive days of inpatient hospital care, Medicare will pay
for all covered services through the first 20 days.  From the
21st through the 100th day, the beneficiary in 1992 will be
responsible for paying $81.50 a day, or one-eighth of the
inpatient hospital deductible.
       The Medicare skilled nursing facility benefit is for the
purpose of assisting a patient's recovery from an illness or
injury that required hospitalization. Medicare does not pay for
long-term or custodial care.
       More than 34 million persons will be enrolled in 1992 in
Medicare Part A, the hospital insurance program that also covers
skilled nursing facility care. 
       Another notice published today announces the Medicare Part
B premium for 1992 at $31.80 a month, 6.4 percent higher than the
1991 level.  The premium is set at a rate to pay for 25 percent
of the cost of the Part B program, which pays for physician
services, outpatient hospital services and a variety of other
services not covered by Part A.  The premium amount for 1992 was
legislated by Congress in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
of 1990. 

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