The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is finally implementing a law to reimburse state nursing homes for the full cost of the care they provide for certain seriously disabled veterans. More than two years after Congress passed legislation to provide full nursing home reimbursements for veterans with disabilities rated 70% or greater, cash-strapped states and over 1000 disabled and elderly veterans stand to benefit from the law’s implementation. VA will pay retroactive reimbursements for nursing home care back to March 21, 2007. br /On May 5, 2006, Senator Akaka introduced the Veterans Long-Term Care Security Act directing VA to pay the full cost of nursing home care for certain disabled veterans. That bill was later incorporated into the omnibus Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006, which became law in December 2006. When more than a year had passed and VA had yet to implement the law, a bipartisan group of Senators called on VA to quickly issue the regulations necessary for implementation. And now they have. This is grounds for all good Americans to rejoice.
