Long Term Care Services for Veterans
Long-term medical care for veterans is a part of elder law that many experienced estate planning lawyers focus on. Just as guardianship arrangements are important to special needs children after their parents pass on, long-term care services and elder law provisions are important to veterans. Every veteran should talk to an experienced estate planning expert about the services they are entitled to and any services their spouses are entitled to as well.
Aid and Attendance
A veteran’s long-term care service that does not get enough publicity is a service called Aid and Attendance. This program is for veterans and their spouses who are housebound and require assistance from others to perform regular tasks such as eating, cleaning the house, and caring for themselves.
One of the biggest benefits of this program is that veterans and their spouses who qualify for the veteran’s pension can also apply for this program. As long as a veteran or their spouse do not exceed the annual income threshold for the program, they can qualify for thousands of dollars in assistance every year. It also helps that the amount of money veterans pay out-of-pocket for medical services also counts towards qualifying for this program.
Extended Care
Extended care is a program that will pay for nursing home services for veterans who are disabled due to injuries sustained during service. There are many different levels of service available through this program and they all depend on disabling injuries sustained during service. For example, any veteran with a service-associated disability ratio of 70 percent or higher would be eligible for complete nursing home care.
There is a graduated scale involved with this program that determines how much assistance a veteran is eligible to receive. It is best if the veteran and their family secure the services of an experienced attorney to take advantage of the extended care program.
Veteran Directed Home and Community Based Services
In 2008, the Veterans Administration developed a program called Veteran Directed Home and Community Based Services. This is a program available to any veteran of any age and it is designed to help veterans purchase services they may need to enhance their long-term care needs.
Some of the services offered through this program include at-home counseling, at-home long-term care services, and a variety of programs offered through Aging Network. Any veteran that is need of these types of services to help in their long-term or short-term care needs can contact an experienced estate planning attorney for more information.
Veterans have a variety of long-term care options to choose from. When you are a veteran preparing to put your estate together, you should keep these options in mind as a way to get you the long-term care services you need without adding the extra stress of having to pay for these services out-of-pocket.