By U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud
(D-Maine)
Whether it’s Augusta, Bangor, Caribou, Scarborough, South Paris, or Machias, Maine State Veterans’ Homes has a location that is providing excellent care to our nation’s veterans. Unfortunately, a new Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program is having the unintended consequence of threatening its operations.
After hearing about the problem, I introduced a bill to fix it. I also invited Maine State Veterans’ Homes CEO Kelley Kash down to Washington to testify before the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health. On March 3rd, I held the hearing so that my colleagues on the committee could learn more about the issue and its effects on Maine and other states all over the country.
Through new regulations, the VA changed the reimbursement system for services provided by state veterans homes. The new system does not provide many state veterans homes adequate reimbursement for their actual cost of care for disabled veterans, including those in Maine.
According to testimony by Colleen Rundell, who was representing the National Association of State Veterans Homes, the impact is significant enough to have caused veterans homes in several states to incur substantial financial losses on the care of disabled veterans. It has also made others refrain from admitting veterans in order to avoid these financial losses.
Kelley Kash, CEO of the Maine State Veterans’ Homes, brought the situation in Maine to my attention and has been working with me to fix the problem. In testimony before the committee, he said that the basic problem is that the VA’s new system simply does not pay state veterans homes enough to provide skilled nursing care to veterans. Kash highlighted the fact that Maine State Veterans’ Homes, because of the demographics of Maine’s veteran population, would lose between $8 million and $16 million per year if they were to admit every veteran that reasonably could seek admission to one of their homes. At that rate, they could also be bankrupt within one and a half to three years.
The implementation of these regulations has endangered the ability of Maine State Veterans’ Homes to continue to provide the excellent care they are known for, and worse, could put the long-term care needs of our state’s veterans in jeopardy.
This is unacceptable. It’s also contrary to the intent of the VA’s program and represents the worst case scenario – severely disabled veterans not gaining access to the care they need.
That is why I’ve introduced a bill to ensure veterans have access to the care they deserve. With no exception, our severely disabled and elderly veterans deserve access to the best possible care, and no VA program should be threatening the very organizations that are devoted to their care. At the hearing, I pressed the VA to address this problem immediately. If they do not act, I will make sure Congress does.
