# Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act: Plain Language Summary

This bill gives veterans who need long-term nursing care a new option: instead of staying in a VA nursing home, they can choose to live in a medical foster home—essentially a private family home that provides care for people who can't live on their own. If a veteran wants this option and qualifies, the VA will pay for it, just like they would pay for a traditional nursing home. The catch is that veterans who choose this route must also accept home health services that the VA provides, and there's a limit of about 900 veterans per year who can use this program.

The bill creates a five-year pilot program to test out this idea. It applies to veterans who are already eligible for VA nursing home care, and it even covers veterans who were already living in medical foster homes before this law passes. The VA will need to make sure these private homes meet the same standards as VA facilities, and they'll track how many veterans request this option, how many are approved or denied, and whether the program is actually working the way it's supposed to.

To make sure the program stays on track, the bill requires the VA to monitor everything closely and report back to Congress about what's working and what needs to change. Additionally, an independent government auditor will check in after three years and again after six years to evaluate whether veterans are actually getting good care through this option and to suggest improvements. The basic idea is simple: give veterans more choices about where and how they receive long-term care, while making sure the quality of that care is maintained and the program doesn't become too expensive or overwhelming.

Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act

Long-Term Care Veterans Choice Act This bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to enter into contracts to pay for specified veterans (i.e., certain veterans who have service-connected disabilities and require nursing home care) to be placed in medical foster homes at their request. A medical foster home is a home designed to provide non-institutional, long-term, supportive care for veterans who are unable to live independently and prefer a family setting. Veterans receiving such care must agree, as a condition of payment for their care, to accept home health services furnished by the VA. Under the bill, no more than a daily average of 900 veterans may have their care in a medical foster home covered by the VA. The VA must create a monitoring system to assess its workload in carrying out the medical foster home payments. Additionally, the Government Accountability Office must submit to Congress reports that assess the implementation of this program and provide recommendations for improvements.