Days of care charged to a beneficiary for inpatient hospital or skilled nursing facility (SNF) care services is always units of full days.

A day begins at midnight and ends at 11:59 p.m.

Facilities use the midnight-to-midnight method for counting days of care for Medicare reporting even if the hospital or SNF uses a different definition of day for statistical or other purposes.

A partial day counts as a full day, including day of admission and return from leave of absence.

Do not count the day of discharge or death, unless discharge or death occur on the day of admission. If this occurs, day counts as one inpatient day.

Do not count days on a leave of absence.

Resources

• CMS Internet-Only Manual (IOM), Publication 100-02, Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, Chapter 3, Section 20.1