Yes. A Medicare-certified skilled nursing facility (SNF) is not required to take you as a patient simply because your doctor has prescribed care for you and you qualify for SNF care under Original Medicare. Facilities are allowed to select which patients they accept, as long as they do not violate discrimination laws.

To find out when Original Medicare may pay for SNF care, click on the link in the GO TO box.

A skilled nursing facility can also limit the kinds of services it provides and the types of conditions it will care for. If you need services that the SNF does not provide, the SNF can decide not to accept you as a patient. For example, a SNF can decide it will not treat patients with dementia.

Sometimes the SNF will not take you as a patient because it believes you do not meet Medicare’s criteria for coverage, or because it has no staff available to take on new patients.

If you are in a Medicare private health plan (like an HMO), your plan will generally only pay for you to get care from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) that are within the plan’s network.

Note: If you are in a Medicare private health plan, you may be able to get care from a non-network SNF (and pay your plan’s rates) if you were staying in the SNF before a hospitalization, if the SNF is a part of your continuing care retirement community, or if your spouse lives in the SNF at the time of your hospital discharge

To find out what you can do if a SNF will not take you as a patient, click on the link in the GO TO box.