Home care for veterans and surviving spouses

How can VA benefits help pay for home care?

VA benefits can help with home care in two different ways, and families often confuse them. The first is money paid to the veteran or surviving spouse, through VA pension with an Aid and Attendance or Housebound allowance, which the family can use toward care from an agency like ours. The second is care the VA arranges itself for veterans enrolled in VA health care, such as the Homemaker and Home Health Aide program and Veteran-Directed Care. Our guide to VA benefits for home care in Pennsylvania goes deeper on each.

What are Aid and Attendance and Housebound?

Aid and Attendance and Housebound are monthly amounts added to a VA pension. They are not separate programs; a veteran or surviving spouse must qualify for the pension first.

• VA pension is a needs-based benefit. The veteran must have wartime service (for most, at least one day during a wartime period), a discharge other than dishonorable, family income and net worth within limits Congress sets, and be 65 or older or have a permanent and total disability. Surviving spouses may qualify through the Survivors Pension.
• Aid and Attendance may be added when the person needs another person's help with daily activities such as bathing, dressing or eating, is mostly confined to bed, lives in a nursing home because of lost abilities, or has severely limited eyesight.
• Housebound may be added when a permanent disability keeps the person mostly at home.

A person cannot receive both allowances at the same time. The VA's application includes VA Form 21-2680, which a medical examiner completes. VA rules also let unreimbursed payments to an in-home attendant count as medical expenses when the VA calculates income, which is why accurate records of care hours matter.

What can we provide for a VA pension claim?

We provide the care, and the paperwork that shows it: a written care plan describing the help needed, daily notes from each visit, and itemized invoices showing dates, hours and services. We do not file claims, decide eligibility or give benefits advice. For that, go to the people who do it for free.

Who can help you with a VA claim?

Every Pennsylvania county has a county director of veterans affairs, an accredited veterans service officer who helps veterans and families identify benefits, confirm eligibility and prepare applications, and who does not charge for that help. The Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs keeps the directory. Be cautious of anyone who asks for payment to help you "qualify."

Which VA medical center serves your area?

The Lebanon VA Medical Center, at 1700 South Lincoln Avenue in Lebanon, serves a nine-county area that covers much of ours: Adams, Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, Schuylkill and York counties. It also runs VA community clinics in Mechanicsburg, Wyomissing, Willow Street, Pottsville and York. Veterans in the Lehigh Valley are generally served through the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center's clinics, including the Allentown VA Clinic. In Carbon, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon and Juniata counties, ask the county veterans affairs office which VA medical center serves your address.

We can help veterans returning home from the Lebanon VA Medical Center or from WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon. It's Your Home Care is an independent, licensed agency and is not part of the VA.

Can the VA arrange home care directly?

For veterans enrolled in VA health care, the VA can arrange care directly:

• Homemaker and Home Health Aide care. A trained aide from a community agency that contracts with the VA helps with bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, moving around and errands. The veteran must be eligible for community care and meet clinical criteria, the service must be available locally, and a copay may apply depending on service-connected disability status.
• Veteran-Directed Care. The veteran receives a flexible budget for services and, with a counselor's help, hires their own workers, who can include a family member or neighbor.

Both start with a conversation with the veteran's VA social worker. These programs can also be combined with privately arranged hours when the VA-authorized hours do not cover everything. Ask the VA social worker which community agencies are authorized to serve your address.

What does care look like for a veteran?

Some veterans are private people who do not want to be fussed over; some want to talk about their service, and some do not. We ask during the consultation and match accordingly. For veterans with dementia, Parkinson's disease or the after-effects of a stroke, we follow the same careful approach as with any client. For a spouse who has been the only caregiver, respite is often the place to start.

Call (717) 695-2704 to talk it through. We can walk you through how families usually combine VA benefits with private hours, and point you to the right people for the claim itself.