Does Aid and Attendance cover non-medical home care? Pension vs the Homemaker Aide program

Does Aid and Attendance cover non-medical home care?

As a voucher sent to an agency, no. As money that can go toward non-medical help at home, yes, if he is on the pension with the add-on, and if you document what you are paying. The pension is needs-based. VA's eligibility page is gate one and gate three. The doctor's page is gate two. None of those pages is a staffing schedule.

Non-medical help at home, as this desk uses the phrase, is meals, bathing and dressing as personal care, rides, companionship, overnight presence, a reminder that it is time for the tablets already in his labeled box. It is not nursing. It is not Medicare home health. Medicare does not pay for 24-hour-a-day care at home, or for custodial or personal care when that is the only care needed. If you are waiting for Medicare to cover a companion at 2am, you will wait a long time.

Missouri describes a private-pay door for aide personal care, respite, or companion care. Families use that door while a pension claim is pending, and they keep using it after a check starts. If you want a briefing on hiring the person, the sibling desk is Hire Caregiver STL.

What is the VA Homemaker and Home Health Aide program?

A different door. VA says a Homemaker and Home Health Aide is a trained person, supervised by a registered nurse, who comes to a Veteran's home to help with personal care and daily activities so Veterans of any age can remain at home. On the long-term care benefits page, VA describes H/HHA the same way: a trained caregiver supervised by a registered nurse who comes into the home to help the Veteran care for himself.

That program lives inside VA health care, not inside the pension check. VA's geriatrics materials say Homemaker Home Health Aide services are part of the VHA Standard Medical Benefits Package, that enrolled Veterans are eligible if they meet the clinical need for the service, and that a copay may be charged based on service-connected disability status. Hours are based on assessed need. Talk to a VA social worker. An aide may come several times a week or less often. Examples of daily activities on the public materials include eating, getting dressed, grooming, bathing, and using the bathroom.

How it starts in St. Louis: he needs to be enrolled in VA health care. VA St. Louis Health Care lists Jefferson Barracks and the John Cochran campus on North Grand. Ask a social worker about Homemaker Aide hours. Do not ask a pension consultant to "set that up." They do not run VHA.

Home-based primary care is a third flavor on the same long-term care page: a VA healthcare team, led by a VA doctor, providing services in the home. Do not confuse that team with a companion. If the doctor is coming to the house, that is clinical care from VA. If you need someone at 2am so you can sleep, that is still an hours problem, and it may not be what HBPC staffs.

Can Aid and Attendance pay a family member?

Do not hear "the VA writes a check to my daughter." The pension is paid to the Veteran or surviving spouse. They decide how to spend it. Whether payments to a relative for attendant care count as unreimbursed medical expenses on the pension is a documentation question under 38 CFR 3.278, which is the UME briefing. Take invoices and a hour log to a VSO. Do not take a kitchen-table arrangement and call it a VA program.

There is a separate program that can appoint family caregivers. The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers requires the Veteran to have a VA disability rating of 70 percent or higher, need at least 6 months of continuous in-person personal care services, and be enrolled in VA health care. An eligible Veteran may appoint 1 Primary Family Caregiver and up to 2 Secondary Family Caregivers. That is not Aid and Attendance. If someone sells you PCAFC as the same thing as the pension add-on, they are mixing doors.

VA St. Louis publishes a caregiver support page. The national Caregiver Support Line is 1-855-260-3274, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. Use it for caregiver program questions. Use a VSO for the pension.