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Neither the federal Medicare program nor Michigan’s Medicaid program pay a nursing home to reserve your bed during a hospital stay. However,

• All nursing home residents have rights to return to their nursing home following a hospital stay if they still need nursing home care.

• All residents have the right to pay a fee to reserve their specific bed, though this is strictly voluntary.

• Residents who do not pay to reserve their bed may have to wait if the nursing home is full or until a bed becomes available at the facility.

FACILITY REQUIREMENTS

Michigan Medicaid certified nursing homes have some responsibilities in making sure residents’ basic rights are respected and granted.

• Each home must provide the resident, family member or legal representative the facility’s written bed hold policy and the resident’s right to return to the first available bed:

1. at the time of admission to the nursing home, and
2. prior to transfer to the hospital;
3. if an emergency transfer occurs, the written policy should go with the resident or follow within 24 hours.

• Each home must provide the resident with the opportunity to reserve the specific bed by a payment. There is no limit on how much a home can charge to reserve the resident’s place at the home. When the bed is not reserved through payment, the nursing home may admit someone else to it.

• All homes must readmit upon discharge from the hospital, even when payment to reserve the bed is not made. The only exception is if the resident requires care that is not available to any other resident in the facility. If the facility provides the needed care to any resident, it must readmit regardless of the special care needs.

• The facility’s obligation to readmit the resident to the next available bed continues indefinitely. Many times, hospitals ask residents to take a placement in a second nursing home rather than allowing the resident to wait until a bed is available. Residents are sill entitled to the first available bed even if they have been discharged from the hospital to a second nursing home.

• Nonpayment for earlier services is not an acceptable reason to refuse readmission.

• Medicaid residents must be readmitted to the nursing home even if the facility’s medical director or the attending physician refuses to authorize the resident’s return or care for the resident.

WHEN PAYMENT IS MADE TO RESERVE THE BED

Payment to a nursing home during a hospital stay reserves "the" bed the resident leaves, not "a" or "any" bed in the home. If payment is made, the resident and family should not be asked to remove or store the resident’s belongings.