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Warrior Care: Benets Available to America’s Aging Veterans
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CITYVIEWMAG.COM JULY AUGUST 2015
All veterans enrolled in VA Health Care are eligible for home- and community-based services, but they must have a clinical need and must reside in a location where the service is available. Some of the benefits are
a geriatric evaluation to assess care needs and create a care plan, adult day health care, respite care (see below), and skilled home health care. As with health care, some of the geriatric and extended-care benefits are prioritized based on the veteran’s priority rating.
One expense that VA benefits do not cover is the cost of room and board in assisted-living or adult-fam- ily homes, but residents of either
type of facility are still eligible for home- and community-based services. The VA does operate its own nursing homes (now called community living centers) that will provide full care for those veterans who meet eligibility criteria. Besides certain community nursing homes and all state veter-
ans’ homes, the VA also inspects and approves about 1,300 assisted-living facilities, personal-care homes, fam- ily-care homes, group-living homes, and psychiatric community residen- tial care homes across the country.
In a VA community living center, veterans typically stay for a short time— although they may in some cases reside at the center for the rest of their lives. Government guidelines for the design
of these facilities emphasize a delivery model that “focuses care resources around the individual resident” and in which “essential services are near or are brought to the resident.” The facility’s environment is also meant to incorporate aspects of the veteran’s home—residents can decorate their rooms and have pets— and minimize institutional aspects. Com- munity living centers aim to maintain or restore each veteran at the “highest level of well-being,” prevent health declines, and provide end-of-life comfort.
Besides hospital care, the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center provides a community-living center on two floors. Tennessee also operates three state nursing homes for veterans in Knox- ville, Murfreesboro, and Humboldt. The Knoxville facility is the Ben Atchley Tennessee State Veterans’ Home (One Veterans Way, 865-862-8100), which in 2014 received five stars from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for offering the highest level of care based on on-site health inspections and other measures.
Respite Care
Caring for an elderly retiree can be
a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week job that makes running even routine errands difficult because of the caregiver’s desire not to leave the person unattended. To help ease the burden, many companies and agencies—as well as the U.S. gov- ernment, for qualifying veterans—offer respite care: either the provision of short- term accommodation in a facility outside the home in which a loved one may be placed or short-term help by a home- health worker within the home. The purpose of respite care is to give a break to those who are caring for family mem- bers who, without the service, would otherwise require permanent placement in a facility outside the home.
In the case of a veteran, a worker comes to the veteran’s home or a special program is provided for the veteran to attend while the family caregiver takes some down time. The period can extend to a few days during which the care provider can also leave town, knowing the loved one will be looked after. Respite care is offered to veterans of all ages who need skilled services, case management, or assistance with routine activities.
Services can include:
• paid home-health aide
• adult day health-care center
• community-living center or VA medi-
cal center for a short inpatient stay
Respite care services can cover up to 30 days in any calendar year.
If they can establish a clinical need and the service is available, all veterans enrolled in the VHA Standard Medical Benefits Package are eligible. The VA may require a co-pay for respite care based on the veteran’s service-con- nected disability status and financial information.
For more information, contact your VA social worker or case manager to complete the application for extended-care benefits (VA Form 10-10EC) to learn the amount of your co-pay.