WASHINGTON – Three senators introduced legislation this week designed to expand home and community-based services for aging and homebound veterans residing in the United States.
The bill, which is called the Elizabeth Dole Home and Community-based Services for Veterans and Caregivers Act, was introduced Tuesday by Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
It accompanies legislation by Reps. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., and Julia Brownley, D-Calif., introduced earlier in March. The House bill, also called “The Elizabeth Dole Act,” will increase the expenditure cap for noninstitutional care programs from 65% to 100%, establish partnerships for alternative care programs within the community and require the VA to coordinate with its other programs, and also expand home and community-based services for aging and homebound veterans residing in the U.S., among other initiatives.
Both bills are in the early stages in each chamber, but along with a Department of Veteran Affairs announcement earlier this week that the agency would not remove or decrease support for legacy participants in its caregivers program, lawmakers and VA leaders are working to enhance support for veterans and their caregivers.
“As we work toward enabling veterans to delay the need for institutional care through legislation like the Elizabeth Dole Act, it is important that we don’t lose sight of making certain related laws we previously enacted are implemented properly,” Moran said Wednesday at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that focused on the challenges of the VA’s caregiver support programs, particularly the program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers.
The program is one of two services of its caregiver support program and was established in 2010. Initially, the Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers program provided support, financial stipends, other resources, and education to only caregivers of veterans who were seriously injured or their injuries worsened in the line of duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001, said Beth Taylor, VA’s chief nursing officer and assistant undersecretary for health, patient care services.
Through the MISSION Act of 2018, the VA expanded the program to veterans of all service eras, beginning Oct. 1, 2020, which is phase one of the program’s expansion.
The revised eligibility meant participants of the program before October 2020 — known as legacy participants — were being reevaluated to determine whether they met the new criteria. This has led many veterans to be dropped from the program or denied access. Moran said the VA is failing at implementing this expansion.
“From the two-year initial delay and implementing phase and implementing phase one to the inexcusably high denial rates, we continue to hear from advocates and caregivers alike about the real fear of being unfairly denied or discharged from the program because of how the VA runs it,” he said Wednesday during the Senate hearing. “Today’s hearing is both timely and necessary as we work to make certain the laws we pass are implemented in ways that work as Congress intended. We have a duty to see that the VA is faithfully executing these laws and investing resources as intended into family caregivers.”
Caira Benson, the wife and caregiver of Eric Benson, an Army veteran, said Wednesday at the hearing that they were enrolled in the program in 2017 before he was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and the brain disease encephalopathy in 2018. The family was dropped in 2018 because of a “non-permanent address.” Benson said…
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