A coordinated effort by the four major organizations advocating for senior living providers has resulted in a new law with a veterans healthcare and benefits package that in part expands access to assisted living for certain veterans.
Thursday, President Biden signed the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act. HR 8371 contains provisions of the Expanding Veterans’ Options for Long-Term Care Act that authorizes the US Department of Veterans Affairs to conduct a pilot program enabling 60 veterans to receive assisted living services via a three-year test that also would measure satisfaction with the effort.
Argentum President and CEO James Balda called the legislation “critically important.”
“We are confident that once policymakers see the value of assisted living, both in its cost-effectiveness and its high satisfaction, that more programs can be put in place to help more Americans choose assisted living for their care needs,” he said in a statement.
“This pilot program will provide veterans with more choices in how and where they receive the long-term care they deserve, while also helping to shape future policies to address the increasing care needs of our aging veteran population,” LaShuan Bethea, executive director of the National Center for Assisted Living, told McKnight’s Senior Living last month after Congress passed the bill and sent it off for Biden’s signature.
Balda added that Argentum will work with the VA to implement the pilot program to ensure stakeholder feedback is received and that the pilot is “as effective as possible in its objective to demonstrate the opportunities of expanding access for veterans.
American Seniors Housing Association President and CEO David Schless similarly said that ASHA would “closely watch and engage” in how the VA rolls out the pilot program.
“This program represents a win-win-win — a win for veterans, a win for the senior living industry that will have the opportunity to demonstrate its value proposition, and for the VA, which will save taxpayers money with this program,” Schless recently told McKnight’s Senior Living.
LeadingAge Senior Vice President Linda Couch said that the advocacy win is a testament to an “unwavering commitment” to advance the legislation.
“Ensuring access to critically needed services, including assisted living and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly [PACE], is important for all of us as we age — including our nation’s veterans,” Couch said. “Signing this bill into law brings us closer to achieving that goal.”
The pilot is narrowly focused on two of the 18 Veterans Integrated Service Networks, with communities required to be in geographically diverse areas — at least one must serve veterans in rural areas, one must be located in each of the VISNs selected, and at least one must be a state home. After the program ends, all participants at the time of the termination would have the option of continuing to receive assisted living services at the site to which they were assigned, at the expense of the VA.
The large national senior living associations — Argentum, ASHA, LeadingAge and NCAL — have been advocating for passage of the pilot program for years, with letters to House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee leaders about the Dole Act among the most recent efforts. The legislation also was supported by the Alzheimer’s Association and its advocacy arm, the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, along with numerous other organizations.
Bills promoting the assisted living pilot program were reintroduced in 2023 after going nowhere in 2022. By mid-2024, language from the pilot program had been rolled into the Dole Act.
The legislation was spurred by a 2020 report from the VA on the projected long-term care needs of veterans and the need to expand options such as assisted living. Today, veterans can receive VA-paid long-term care in nursing homes, but those who choose another setting, such as assisted living, face significant out-of-pocket expenses.
The VA report noted that the number of veterans aged 85 or more years who are eligible for nursing home care will increase almost 535% over the next 20 years. Veterans moving into assisted living communities instead of nursing homes could save the VA $69,000 per person, according to the publication.
“The fact is that assisted living is the most cost-effective long-term care model and routinely receives very high satisfaction marks — higher than other industries,” Balda told McKnight’s Senior Living recently, adding that assisted living isn’t always available as an option and Americans incorrectly assume that home care is more affordable. “The Department of Veterans Affairs recognized this, and that’s why they strongly supported the recently passed pilot program to allow more veterans to choose assisted living over nursing home care,” he said.
The CEO added that the industry’s work now will focus on getting more people to recognize the value of assisted living and to make that choice for their loved ones.
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