VA Aid and Attendance for Nursing Home Care in Colorado

VA Aid and Attendance can raise a qualifying wartime veteran's monthly VA pension to as much as $2,424, and a surviving spouse's to $1,558.1 That money can go straight toward a Colorado nursing home bill, a meaningful offset in a state where nursing home costs run well above the national median.

In This Guide

• How much a nursing home costs in Colorado
• How Aid and Attendance helps pay for it
• How nursing home costs lower your countable income
• Who qualifies
• The nursing-home pension cap when Medicaid pays
• How Aid and Attendance works with Colorado Medicaid (Health First Colorado)
• How to apply and get free help
• Frequently asked questions

How Much a Nursing Home Costs in Colorado

Per the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey (released March 2026, the most recent state-level data), a semi-private room in a Colorado nursing home costs about $121,910 a year, roughly $10,159 a month. A private room runs about $146,183 a year (roughly $12,182 a month).2 Colorado's nursing home costs exceed the national medians of about $114,975 for a semi-private room and $129,575 for a private room.3

These are industry-survey medians; the Denver and mountain-resort areas generally run higher than rural counties.

If the family keeps the house while one spouse is in a nursing home, that property tax bill runs alongside the facility's. Colorado exempts qualifying disabled veterans from part of the property tax on their primary residence, so check Colorado's disabled veteran property tax exemption before you budget the year.

How VA Aid and Attendance Helps Pay for a Colorado Nursing Home

VA Aid and Attendance is a qualifying veteran's or survivor's VA pension paid at a higher maximum rate when the person needs help with daily activities, is bedridden, lives in a nursing home due to physical or mental incapacity, or has severely limited eyesight.5 It is not a separate program, and the higher rate is the most the whole pension can pay, not a supplement paid beside the basic rate.

The VA sets these rates as Maximum Annual Pension Rates (MAPR); a monthly payment is the yearly award divided by 12. For 2026:1

The MAPR is a ceiling, not a payment: the VA pays the difference between countable income and the MAPR for your category, so the actual monthly amount depends on income after allowed deductions.1 Against a Colorado nursing home running about $10,159 a month, a veteran receiving the full single-veteran rate would cover roughly 24 percent of the cost, about $29,000 a year.2,1 Most veterans receive less than the maximum.

How Nursing Home Costs Lower Your Countable Income

VA pension, including its Aid and Attendance increase, is a needs-based benefit. To be eligible, a veteran's yearly family income and net worth have to meet limits set by Congress. Because the benefit is keyed to the income the VA counts, large recurring care expenses can help a veteran qualify even when their income appears too high at first glance.1

Here is how it works: only the portion of unreimbursed medical expenses (UMEs) that exceeds 5 percent of the applicable MAPR is deductible. For 2026:1

• The floor is $872 a year for a veteran with no spouse or child.1
• It rises for a veteran with dependents, but it never reflects the Aid and Attendance or housebound increase.1

Example: a single veteran has $22,000 in annual income and pays $121,910 a year for a Colorado nursing home. After subtracting the $872 floor, roughly $121,038 in nursing home expenses become deductible, far more than enough to wipe out the income the VA counts.1

Health, medical, hospitalization, and long-term care insurance premiums count as medical expenses too under 38 CFR 3.278, including premiums for Medicare Parts A, B, and D.1

Who Qualifies for VA Aid and Attendance

To receive VA Aid and Attendance, a veteran must meet all of the following:5

1. No dishonorable discharge, and wartime service: the veteran must not have received a dishonorable discharge. VA lists three service paths, and at least one has to fit: service that began before September 8, 1980, with at least 90 days of active duty and at least one day during a recognized wartime period (World War II, Korea, Vietnam, or the Gulf War); enlisted service that began after September 7, 1980, with at least 24 months (with some exceptions) or the full period for which the veteran was called or ordered to active duty; or service that began as an officer after October 16, 1981, where the veteran had not previously served on active duty for at least 24 months.1
2. Age or status: at least one of these has to be true. The veteran is at least 65 years old; has a permanent and total disability; is a patient in a nursing home for long-term care because of a disability; or is getting Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. A permanent-and-total rating is not the only route: the nursing-home and SSDI/SSI branches stand on their own.5
3. Net worth under $163,699 (for 2026): VA's net-worth calculation includes the claimant's and their dependents' assets and annual income, so comparing assets alone against the limit gives the wrong answer.5 The primary home, one personal vehicle, and basic home items like appliances you would not take with you if you moved are excluded, so the house you live in does not push you over the limit.1 What does count is counted net of debt: assets are the fair market value of the real and personal property the claimant owns, minus the amount of any mortgages, and VA may subtract unreimbursed medical and educational expenses when it assesses income for VA purposes and net worth. For a married veteran this is a household test rather than an individual one, because net worth includes the spouse's.5
4. Need for aid and attendance: requires help with daily activities (bathing, dressing, feeding), is bedridden, is a patient in a nursing home due to mental or physical incapacity, or has severely limited vision.

The VA also applies a 36-month look-back on asset transfers for less than fair market value. Transfers made on or after October 18, 2018 can trigger a penalty period of up to five years.5

Surviving spouses of qualifying wartime veterans may be eligible for the Survivors Pension with Aid and Attendance at up to $1,558/month.1

The $90/Month Nursing-Home Pension Cap

This is one of the most important planning facts for families weighing both VA pension and Medicaid.

When a single veteran with no spouse or child is receiving Medicaid-covered nursing facility care, federal law generally limits VA pension, including the Aid and Attendance amount, to no more than $90 per month for any period after the month of admission (38 U.S.C. 5503(d)(2), implemented at 38 CFR 3.551(i)).4,6 That cap turns on a defined term rather than the everyday sense of a nursing home: for purposes of that subsection, 38 U.S.C. 5503(d)(1)(B) defines "nursing facility" as one described in section 1919 of the Social Security Act "other than a facility that is a State home with respect to which the Secretary makes per diem payments for nursing home care pursuant to section 1741(a) of this title," so if the facility is a State veterans home, have that checked against the statutory definition rather than assume the cap applies.4 The VA says that where it awards the $90 rate, the facility "can't count this monthly payment as income toward your cost of care" and that you "would keep the full $90 for personal expenses."6 The same $90 limit applies to a surviving spouse who has no child, under 38 U.S.C. 5503(d)(5)(A).4

That federal rule caps the pension and keeps the $90 out of the facility's cost-of-care calculation. It does not decide how the retained $90 relates to a state's own Medicaid personal needs allowance, which is a separate deduction each state sets in its post-eligibility rules, and the treatment varies from state to state.6 It does not stack everywhere: Rhode Island's rule, for instance, provides the $90 improved pension instead of that state's regular monthly personal needs allowance, not on top of it.4 So do not assume the $90 and a Colorado personal needs allowance add together. Ask HCPF how Health First Colorado applies the $90 in its patient-liability calculation before planning around a figure.

What this means practically: if a veteran enters a nursing home that Health First Colorado is already paying for, the VA pension does not continue at the full Aid and Attendance rate. Given Colorado's above-average nursing home costs, families should coordinate both applications carefully before the veteran enters a Medicaid-funded facility. An accredited VA representative or elder law attorney can help map out the timing to preserve as much benefit as possible.6

How Aid and Attendance Works with Colorado Medicaid (Health First Colorado)

VA Aid and Attendance and Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid program, administered by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, or HCPF) are separate programs that can interact for a veteran needing long-term care. Under the general federal framework, the VA reduces countable income by qualifying unreimbursed medical expenses before calculating pension eligibility, so paying for nursing home care can help a veteran qualify for the VA benefit.5

How that VA income is then treated for Health First Colorado eligibility and the Medicaid long-term-care cost-share (patient liability) is governed by Medicaid rules, not VA rules. Federal rules make SSI methodologies the benchmark for aged, blind, and disabled groups, but they also let a state apply methodologies less restrictive than the cash-assistance methodologies (42 CFR 435.601), so what Colorado counts is a state-plan choice.5

Eligibility is only the first step. By its own terms, 42 CFR 435.725 reaches only individuals in medical institutions and intermediate care facilities, and only in SSI states; it does not settle post-eligibility in a 209(b) state or for home- and community-based waiver services, where you have to check your own state's rule instead. Where that section governs, income that was disregarded in determining eligibility must be considered in the post-eligibility process that reduces Medicaid's payment to the institution, and the agency must deduct specified amounts in a specified order, beginning with a personal needs allowance and including "[a]mounts for incurred expenses for medical or remedial care that are not subject to payment by a third party." That deduction is not open-ended: the category covering care recognized under state law but not covered by the state plan is "subject to reasonable limits the agency may establish."6 So income excluded at the eligibility step can raise the amount owed where 42 CFR 435.725 governs. But whether a particular Aid and Attendance amount lands in Colorado's patient-liability calculation, and how it is treated alongside the personal needs allowance, is set by Colorado's own post-eligibility policy, which the federal sources do not state. Because the exact treatment is fact-specific, a Colorado family should confirm the interaction with a County Veterans Service Officer, Health First Colorado/HCPF, or an accredited benefits counselor, and should not assume either that the two stack at full value or that one cancels the other.5

How to Apply for VA Aid and Attendance for a Nursing Home in Colorado

The steps below are the pension route: VA's condition for this benefit is "You may be eligible for this benefit if you get a VA pension." Aid and Attendance is not always a pension matter, though. VA Form 21-2680 also covers Aid and Attendance that will be added to monthly compensation, so a veteran who receives VA disability compensation rather than pension should not be sent to the pension application.7

To apply through the pension route, you will need:7

• VA Form 21-0966 (Intent to File), first, if you are still gathering information. VA says submitting an intent to file "can secure the earliest possible effective date for any retroactive payments you may be eligible to receive."
• VA Form 21-2680 (Examination for Housebound Status or Permanent Need for Regular Aid and Attendance), with the examination information section filled out by a medical examiner to document the need for assistance. This is the form used for Aid and Attendance that will be added to monthly compensation or pension benefits.
• VA Form 21P-527EZ (Application for Veterans Pension), for a wartime veteran pursuing the pension route who is not already receiving VA pension. This is the wartime, means-tested pension application.
• VA Form 21-0779 (Request for Nursing Home Information in Connection with Claim for Aid and Attendance), which will also need to be filled out for a veteran who is already a nursing home patient. Ask the facility's staff how it should be completed.

You can apply online at VA.gov, by mail to the VA Pension Intake Center, or in person at a VA regional office. An accredited attorney, accredited claims agent, or accredited Veterans Service Organization representative can also help you file the claim. On how long a decision takes, VA's answer is "It depends"; it processes claims in the order it receives them, unless a claim requires priority processing.7

Free help in Colorado: Every Colorado county has a County Veterans Service Office that offers free assistance, and its service officers specialize in helping veterans and their family members with claims, applications, and appeals to the VA.8 The Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs strongly recommends contacting yours before you submit an application to the VA; visit vets.colorado.gov to find your nearest office.8

Never pay someone to file an initial VA claim. Accredited representatives are prohibited from charging fees for this service.

Compare Care Settings in Colorado

Aid and Attendance can help pay for any care setting. See how it works for the others:

• How Aid and Attendance Pays for Assisted Living in Colorado
• How Aid and Attendance Pays for In-Home Care in Colorado
• How Aid and Attendance Pays for Memory Care in Colorado

Learn More

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.