Medicare Part B helps pay for many common types of health care:
- Doctors' services.
- Durable medical equipment (DME)1 if your doctor certifies you need it and and you buy or rent it from a Medicare-certified supplier.
- Ambulance services if your health requires ambulance transport and you are traveling to or from certain locations.
- Many preventive care services.
- Outpatient physical, speech, and occupational therapy services provided by a Medicare-certified physical, speech, or occupational therapist.
- Chiropractic care when manipulation of the spine is medically necessary to fix a subluxation of the spine. A subluxation is when one or more of the bones of the spine move out of position.
- Outpatient mental health services.
- Home health services if and need skilled nursing or therapy services.
- X-rays and lab tests.
- A few prescription drugs, such as immunosuppresant drugs, some anti-cancer drugs, some anti-emetic drugs, some dialysis drugs and physician-administered drugs that persons do not usually administer themselves.
Medicare does not cover all health care services. Medicare will only pay for Part B services and items (except most prescription drugs) that are ordered or prescribed by a Medicare-enrolled provider.
This list includes common health care services and items, but it is not a complete list of everything that Part B covers.
1In some states, Medicare will only cover durable medical equipment if received from an approved supplier.