The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has signaled that it will begin reimbursing Maine Veterans Homes again for providing a certain kind of care to older patients with dementia and those who can't live alone.
The VA had long reimbursed state veteran homes for providing what's known as domiciliary care. But those payments stopped about four years ago. And federal legislation, enacted in 2021, that required reimbursements to resume has been slow to get implemented.
Maine Veterans Homes CEO Sharon Fusco said the independent nonprofit used capital reserves to continue providing domiciliary care to about 130 patients.
And she believes the abrupt end in reimbursement made Maine Veterans Homes' financial challenges more difficult, because federal and state Medicaid rates have not kept up with the true cost of providing care.
"It's because those rates are set, and they're not set and tied to any inflation factors," she said. "And so we find ourselves in this position where we are literally borrowing from our future to pay for our present."
Fusco said the organization is owed about $3 million from the VA. It's unclear when exactly the VA will finalize the policy needed to start making payments, and when those payments will officially resume.
