In general, the federal government has been cracking down hard on abuses of Medicare billing by all types of health care providers. Medicare and Medicaid are probably of much more interest to you, if you are the child of an elderly parent, as sources of funding for nursing care that your parent may eventually need. Here's a run-down on how these two programs work. But Medicare's payments for nursing care outside a hospital are very limited. If your parent has been hospitalized for three days or longer, Medicare will pay for him or her to be placed in a skilled nursing care facility, as follows.
Custodial care involves help with activities of daily living, such as eating or getting dressed.
Skilled nursing refers to being given intravenous medications, having fluid intake and outgo monitored, and so forth. The facility must be Medicare-certified for any bills at all to be paid by Medicare. Medicare will pay for skilled nursing care on a part-time basis to a patient living at home, with many conditions attached. That isn't much that Medicare will cover. There is one alternative.