The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to expand its Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers in a move anticipated to give thousands more veterans and their caregivers access to the program.
The proposed changes were published in a 198-page proposed rule in the Federal Register on Dec. 6.
"We understand the critical role that family caregivers play in supporting the health and wellbeing of veterans, which is why VA is committed to ensuring our programs are meeting the needs of veterans and their caregivers," VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. “These proposed changes would expand the program to tens of thousands of veterans and their family caregivers - ensuring we can provide these caregivers with the respite care, education, support, and resources they need to care for their veteran."
PCAFC provides family caregivers of eligible veterans with access to services and support, including training and education, financial assistance, health care coverage, beneficiary travel and peer support.
VA currently provides services, resources and assistance to nearly 90,000 caregivers.
The proposed changes include expanding certain program eligibility criteria to include a more expansive definition of “serious injury.” It would also include veterans who meet the criteria for “individual unemployability” as those suffering from a “serious injury,” broadening access to the program for certain veterans.
Caregivers, their advocates and lawmakers were harshly critical of an earlier attempt by VA to bring changes to the program, leading to a suspension of those efforts. Things are different this time, Executive Director of the Caregiver Support Program Dr. Colleen Richardson told reporters on Dec. 5.
"We didn't get it right that first time," she said. "Now that we've had four years worth of data to look at, we've heard from our community, we've heard from our veterans' service organizations. We've evaluated over 200,000 applications in the last couple of years. So, we have a really good idea of what we're looking for now."
Under the proposed rule, VA would reassess program eligibility less frequently. Specifically, eligible veterans’ need for personal care services would be reassessed not more frequently than every two years, with certain exceptions, rather than the current one-year standard period between reassessments.
The proposed rule would further delay discharges from the program based on eligibility reassessments for legacy participants, legacy applicants, and their family caregivers for an additional 18 months after the effective date of a final rule. The delay in discharges is currently slated to expire in September 2025.
The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed changes. Comments must be received through Regulations.gov on or before Feb. 4, 2025.
Eligibility details would be finalized after the public comment period. That would be after President-elect Donald Trump and a new VA leadership team take office. They could decide to accept the proposed changes, change them or do away with them completely.
VA estimates that the new PCAFC regulation could go into effect by March of 2026.
"The exact extension remains to be seen because we don't know how many comments we are going to get," explained VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal. "The complexity of those comments, how they might change the proposed rule to the final, all that is variable on public comment.”
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.