Madam Speaker, today, I am introducing H.R. 5641, a bill to allow the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to enter into contracts with adult foster homes to provide life-long care to veterans unable…
Madam Speaker, today, I am introducing H.R. 5641, a bill to allow the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to enter into contracts with adult foster homes to provide life-long care to veterans unable to live independently.
Adult foster homes are designed to provide non-institutional long- term care to veterans who prefer a more personalized, familial setting than traditional nursing homes are able to provide.
VA has been helping to place veterans in adult foster homes since 2002 and over time more than 600 veterans in need have paid to receive such care. As we speak, 219 veterans are living in these special homes.
The need for long term care is increasing as veterans from past conflicts get older, and it will continue to grow as wounded warriors return home from Iraq and Afghanistan with severe injuries that require life-long assistance. While nursing homes will always be a valuable tool for providing lasting care, for some the individualized, home-like atmosphere of an adult foster home is a much more attractive alternative than the prospect of moving into a traditional nursing home.
The advantages of adult foster homes are clear. Veterans who opt for foster home care will move into a home owned or rented by their chosen foster home caregiver. The caregiver--who has passed a VA screening, federal background check, and home inspection and agreed to undergo annual training--resides with the veteran and provides them with 24- hour supervision and personalized care. For as long as that veteran resides in the home, VA adult foster home coordinators and members of a VA Home Care Team will make both announced and unannounced visits at least three times every month to ensure the veteran is safe and the home and caregiver are in compliance with VA's high quality standards.
Additionally, the Home Care Team will provide veterans with comprehensive, interdisciplinary primary care and provide the caregivers with supportive education and training.
Many veterans who choose to reside in an adult foster home would otherwise be in need of nursing home care and would qualify for VA benefits to receive it. However, because VA is not authorized to provide veterans with assisted living benefits, these veterans must pay for the care they receive in adult foster homes out of their own pockets.
Twenty four percent of veterans who have received care in a Medical Foster Home qualify for VA's highest priority group due to having disabilities rated 50% or more service connected or having otherwise been found unemployable due to service connected conditions. Given that many of the veterans who are benefitting from this individualized, non- institutional care are disabled, afflicted with chronic disease, often elderly, and frequently 70% or more service connected, placing the entire cost burden for adult foster homes on their backs is no way to thank them for their valiant years in service. What's more, it creates an inequity of benefits between those who can afford to pay for such care and those that cannot.
The legislation I am introducing today would give VA the authority to enter into a contract with a certified adult foster home to pay for care for certain veterans already eligible for VA paid nursing home care. By doing so, it would ensure more veterans have the option to choose a treatment setting that best suits their needs free of financial constraints.
Our veterans in need of life-long care have earned the right to decide which long-term care environment would make them feel most at home. And, I encourage my colleagues to join with me in cosponsoring this legislation to make that decision easier.
