This is general information, not a coverage decision and not medical advice. Rules change, and a Medicare Advantage plan can differ from Original Medicare. Confirm a specific stay with Medicare, the plan, the hospital discharge planner, or your county Aging and Disability Resource Connection.
After a hospital stay, families often hear three different offers described as rehab. In New Jersey they are different licenses, and Medicare treats them differently. The right one is a clinical decision. This page only separates the public categories.
Inpatient rehabilitation hospital
A comprehensive rehabilitation hospital is licensed by the Department of Health for intensive inpatient rehab. People usually need more therapy in a day than a nursing-home stay provides. It is not a wing of a nursing home, and it is not outpatient therapy.
Rehab inside a nursing home
A short stay after the hospital is often in a skilled nursing facility, which is a nursing home. This directory tags a nursing home as short-term rehab only when the state license is a hospital-based subacute unit, or when CMS publishes a short-stay quality rating. That rating means the home had enough short-stay residents to be measured. It does not mean a bed is open.
Original Medicare’s skilled nursing benefit usually depends on the 3-day inpatient hospital rule described in the Medicare guide. The building must be Medicare-certified, and a clinician must order daily skilled care.
Home health
Medicare home health is skilled nursing or therapy that comes to the house, when a clinician orders it and Medicare’s homebound and skilled-need rules are met. New Jersey licenses home health agencies. The county on the license is the office, not a promise of every town the agency visits.
A practical way to sort them
- Ask the discharge planner which license they mean, not just the word rehab.
- Ask whether the hospital stay is inpatient or observation before you count on Medicare for a nursing-home stay.
- Ask how many hours of therapy a day the inpatient rehab hospital provides, and how that differs from the nursing home.
- If the plan is to go home, ask whether the order is for Medicare home health.
Sources
- Medicare.gov coverage descriptions
Skilled nursing facility rules after a hospital stay.
Source dated 2026-10-14
- Medicare.gov, home health services
Home health as skilled care at home, not custodial help.
Source dated 2026-10-14
- New Jersey Department of Health, acute care file
Comprehensive rehabilitation hospital and home health agency licenses.
Source dated 2026-10-13
- New Jersey Department of Health, long-term care file
Nursing home and subacute licenses.
Source dated 2026-10-13
- CMS Care Compare, nursing home provider information
Short-stay quality rating used to tag nursing homes in this directory.
Source dated 2026-10-14