Glossary

Equipment to give medicine in a mist form to your lungs.

Free or low-cost health insurance is available now in your state for uninsured children under age 19. State Children’s Health Insurance Programs help reach uninsured children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to get private coverage. Information on your state’s program is available through Insure Kids Now at 1-877-KIDS NOW (1-877-543-7669). You can also look at www.insurekidsnow.gov on the web for more information.

In the Original Medicare Plan, this means a doctor agrees to accept the Medicare-approved amount as full payment. If you are in the Original Medicare Plan, it can save you money if your doctor accepts assignment. You still pay your share of the cost of the doctor's visit.

Limited part-time or intermittent skilled nursing care and home health aide services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, medical social services, durable medical equipment (such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen, and walkers), medical supplies, and other services.

Nonskilled, personal care, such as help with activities of daily living like bathing, dressing, eating, getting in or out of a bed or chair, moving round, and using the bathroom. It may also include care that most people do themselves, like using eye drops. In most cases, Medicare doesn’t pay for custodial care.

PD uses a cleaning solution, called dialysate, that flows through a special tube into your abdomen. After a few hours, the dialysate gets drained from your abdomen, taking the wastes from your blood with it. Then you fill your abdomen with fresh dialysate and the cleaning process begins again. This treatment can be done at home, at your workplace, or at another convenient location (See dialysis and hemodialysis.).

Pumps for giving fluid or medication into your vein at a specific rate or over a set amount of time.

This is a level of care that requires the daily involvement of skilled nursing or rehabilitation staff. Examples of skilled nursing facility care include intravenous injections and physical therapy. The need for custodial care (for example, assistance with activities of daily living, like bathing and dressing) cannot, in itself, qualify you for Medicare coverage in a skilled nursing facility. However, if you qualify for coverage based on your need for skilled nursing or rehabilitation, Medicare will cover all of your care needs in the facility, including assistance with activities of daily living.

This kind of insurance pays a certain cash amount for each day you are in the hospital up to a certain number of days. Indemnity insurance doesn’t fill gaps in your Medicare coverage.

(Formerly the Coverage Issues Manual) The National Coverage Determinations Manual contains implementing instructions for National Coverage Determinations. The manual includes information whether specific medical items, services, treatment procedures, or technologies are paid for under the Medicare program on a national level.