Senate Committee Approves Veterans Long-Term Care Bill
The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee on Tuesday by unanimous voice vote approved a bill (S 1156) to extend long-term care services for veterans and authorize funds for several health care facilities, according to CongressDaily Markup Reports. The bill would extend benefits under the 1999 Millennium Healthcare Act to Dec. 31, 2008. Under the legislation, the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary would have to provide nursing home or adult day health care to veterans with service-related disabilities who are at least 50% disabled and require such care; the original law applies to veterans with service-related disabilities who are at least 70% disabled. The bill also would authorize the VA secretary to award contracts to private health care facilities to provide nursing home or adult day health care to eligible veterans. In addition, the bill would expand benefits for eligible veterans to include noninstitutional extended care and services such as hospice and rehabilitation care and would authorize funds for several VA construction projects (Davis, CongressDaily Markup Reports, 9/30).
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