If your loved one is a Georgia veteran, the VA offers more senior care benefits than most families realize. VA benefits for senior care in Georgia can cover home-based medical care, nursing homes, and a higher VA pension paid every month. The challenge isn't usually eligibility. It's knowing what to ask for.

In This Guide

VA Senior Care Benefits in Georgia: Long-Term Care Options

The VA offers multiple long-term care programs. Access isn't automatic once a veteran is enrolled: VA also has to conclude the veteran needs that specific service for their ongoing treatment and personal care, and the service, or a space in the care setting, has to be available near them. The VA may also consider other factors, like the veteran's service-connected disability status or insurance coverage, so these three conditions are not a closed test.

Home Based Primary Care (HBPC)

A VA doctor leads a health care team that provides services such as nursing care, physical therapy, and help with daily tasks in the veteran's home.

Adult Day Health Care

Veterans attend a structured daytime program that provides social activities, companionship, recreation, care, and support. It also gives family caregivers reliable daytime respite. Some programs are run by the VA and others by state or community organizations.

Community Living Centers (VA Nursing Homes)

Community Living Centers are VA nursing centers designed to feel like home, providing nursing-home-level care.

A CLC stay can be short-term or long-term, and a CLC is also one of the places a veteran can stay overnight for respite care.

Community Nursing Home Program

The VA contracts with community (non-VA) nursing homes so veterans can get nursing home care near home. Don't assume the stay is free. The VA covers some extended care under a veteran's standard VA health benefits, and the veteran may still owe a copay: there is no copay for the first 21 days of geriatric or extended care in a 12-month period, and from the 22nd day the VA sets the copay from the level of care and the financial information the veteran gives on VA Form 10-10EC. Copays are not universal: some veterans do not have to pay them at all, exempt because of their disability rating, income level, or special eligibility factors. Ask the VA social worker which copay applies before you plan around the cost.

Respite Care

The VA offers respite care to give family caregivers a temporary break. All enrolled veterans are eligible for VA respite care if they meet the clinical criteria for the service and it is available, but if a community agency, an adult day health care center, or a nursing home provides the respite, the veteran also has to meet community care eligibility. Through the VA Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC), eligible Primary Family Caregivers receive at least 30 days of respite care per year, and the VA's 2026 copay page describes overnight respite and daily respite as each available up to 30 days each calendar year. Respite can be at home (a substitute caregiver, or an adult day health care program) or a short CLC or community nursing home stay; schedule it in advance. It isn't necessarily free: a veteran not exempt from extended care copays pays nothing for the first 21 days of extended care in a 12-month period, then up to $97 a day for institutional respite or $15 for non-institutional. Ask the veteran's VA social worker or case manager for the copay and to apply.

Capacity matters too. Every one of these programs depends on the service, or a space in the care setting, being available near the veteran. Enroll in VA health care as early as you can, ask the VA social worker about alternatives while you wait, and ask whether community care through the MISSION Act is an option if the VA can't offer the care within its access standards.

Not sure which VA program fits your family's situation? Chat with Brevy to get a personalized recommendation.

VA Aid and Attendance

Aid and Attendance is an increase to a monthly VA pension for veterans (or surviving spouses) who need the regular help of another person.

2026 Rates

Category Maximum Annual Pension Rate with Aid and Attendance
Veteran with no dependents $29,093 a year
Veteran with one dependent $34,488 a year
Surviving spouse with no dependents $18,697 a year

These 2026 rates are effective December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026, and the VA publishes them as yearly amounts. Each is a Maximum Annual Pension Rate, meaning the most pension payable: the VA pays the difference between the claimant's income for VA purposes and that limit, so a household with countable income receives less than the ceiling. Pension is paid monthly, and federal regulation sets the conversion: the monthly rate is the yearly rate minus countable income, divided by 12 and rounded down to the whole dollar.

Who Qualifies

To be eligible, the veteran must have:

  • Served on active duty with at least 1 day during a wartime period, for VA's minimum length (90 days if service began before September 8, 1980; generally 24 months or the full call-up for later enlisted service)
  • Not been discharged dishonorably
  • Met at least one of four alternatives: be 65 or older, have a permanent and total disability, be a patient in a nursing home for long-term care because of a disability, or be receiving Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. Any one of the four satisfies this test, so a wartime veteran under 65 who receives SSI meets it without any adjudicated disability rating.
  • Meet at least one aid-and-attendance need: another person's help with daily activities such as bathing, feeding, and dressing; having to stay in bed, or spend a large part of the day in bed, because of illness; being a nursing home patient because of lost mental or physical abilities related to a disability; or limited eyesight (5/200 or less in both eyes even with glasses or contacts, or a visual field narrowed to 5 degrees or less)
  • Have a net worth below $163,699. The VA counts the claimant's and their dependents' assets and annual income for VA purposes together against that limit; the primary home, the car, and basic home items are excluded.

The VA enforces a 3-year (36-month) look-back period on asset transfers made for less than fair market value.

How to Apply

Every claim uses VA Form 21-2680 (Examination for Housebound Status or Permanent Need for Regular Aid and Attendance), whose examination information section a medical examiner must fill out. That form covers Aid and Attendance that will be added to a veteran's monthly compensation or pension benefits, so it is the right form either way.

The steps below are the pension route, which is what most families here are pursuing: the VA's own condition is that you may be eligible for this benefit if you get a VA pension. On that route, a wartime veteran who is not already receiving a VA pension files Form 21P-527EZ (Application for Veterans Pension) alongside Form 21-2680. Form 21P-527EZ is the wartime, means-tested pension application, so a veteran whose Aid and Attendance would be added to VA disability compensation rather than pension should ask an accredited officer which application belongs with the 21-2680 before filing it. If you are still gathering information, you can file VA Form 21-0966 (Intent to File) first: submitting an intent to file can secure the earliest possible effective date for any retroactive payments you may be eligible to receive. You can file online at VA.gov, by mail to the VA Pension Intake Center, or in person at a VA regional office.

Don't do this alone. GDVS Veterans Field Service Offices offer personal assistance in all matters pertaining to veterans benefits, and GDVS says its VA-accredited Veterans Service Officers are ready to help at every step of the claims and appeals process. GDVS has described this help as free, and the VA says the services an accredited VSO representative provides on a VA benefit claim are always free, while an accredited attorney or claims agent can charge fees.

For the full application walkthrough, see our VA Aid and Attendance guide.

Aid and Attendance is federal, but Georgia runs a benefit of its own for veteran homeowners: the state exempts a large share of a qualifying disabled veteran's home value from property tax, claimed as a homestead exemption through your county rather than the VA. Our guide to Georgia's disabled veteran property tax exemption covers who qualifies, what it's worth, and how to file.

Georgia State War Veterans Homes

Georgia operates two State War Veterans Homes that provide skilled nursing care to aged and infirm Georgia war veterans. These are nursing facilities specifically for Georgia veterans, and GDVS applies one set of admission rules to both. The veteran must be a current Georgia resident who lived in the state for the two years before applying or for five or more of the past 15 years, must have served on active duty during one of the periods GDVS lists (World War II through the Persian Gulf era), must have a discharge under other than dishonorable conditions, and must be approved by the VA as eligible for skilled nursing care. GDVS lists health conditions too, so raise any behavioral or psychiatric needs with the Admissions Office in Augusta or Milledgeville, where you can also apply.

Home Location Notable Details
Georgia War Veterans Home Milledgeville 248 beds on about 17 acres; licensed and certified by the VA
Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home Augusta 130 beds, adjacent to the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center

Eligible residents may apply for the federal VA Aid and Attendance benefit to help offset their fees. Veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 70 percent or higher, or whose admission is due to a service-connected condition, have their daily fee paid in full by the VA. Contact the Georgia Department of Veterans Service for availability and current fees.

Veteran-Directed Care

The Veteran-Directed Care (VDC) program gives veterans a flexible budget to hire their own caregivers, including family members. The veteran (or their representative) manages the budget and hires and supervises the workers, who can be family, friends, or neighbors. All enrolled veterans are eligible for VDC if they are eligible for community care, meet the clinical criteria for the service, and it is available.

VA medical centers deliver VDC through aging and disability network agencies, such as area agencies on aging and aging and disability resource centers. Through an options counselor, the agency assesses the veteran's needs, helps plan care and services, arranges fiscal management services, and keeps counseling and supporting the veteran. This is a good option for veterans who want control over their care and prefer family members as caregivers.

To ask about VDC availability, contact the Geriatrics and Extended Care or social work department at your VA medical center. For most Georgia veterans, that is the Atlanta VA Health Care System or the Augusta VA Medical Center (Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center). Availability varies by site.

Community Care Through the MISSION Act

The MISSION Act (2018) expanded when veterans can receive care from community (non-VA) providers. For a Georgia veteran, the routes that usually matter are these, and only one has to be true:

  • The VA can't schedule an appointment within its access standards: a 30-minute average drive time or 20-day wait for primary care, mental health care, and non-institutional extended care services, or a 60-minute average drive time or 28-day wait for specialty care. Failing either one is enough, but the drive is an average the VA calculates, and agreeing to a later date gives up the wait-time route.
  • You need a service the VA doesn't provide at any VA health facility
  • You and your VA provider agree community care is in your best medical interest
  • The VA can't provide the service in a way that meets its quality standards

In every case, the veteran has to be enrolled in (or eligible for) VA health care and get approval from their VA care team before seeing a community provider, except in certain cases like urgent or emergency care.

In 2025, the Senator Elizabeth Dole Act streamlined the "best medical interest" pathway by removing an extra review step, making it faster for eligible veterans to access community care.

How VA Benefits Work with Medicare and Medicaid

VA benefits don't replace Medicare or Medicaid, a veteran isn't required to enroll in Medicare to keep VA health care, and a veteran or surviving spouse can qualify for and receive VA pension and Medicaid at the same time., But the VA doesn't bill Medicare or Medicaid, Medicare and the VA generally can't pay for the same service, and you choose which benefit to use each time you get care. Holding VA health care is no shield against the Medicare Part B late-enrollment penalty. If you delay Part B and later have to sign up, because you lose your VA health benefits or want more choice in where you get care, the VA says the penalty gets bigger each year you delayed and you pay it every year for the rest of your life.

  • VA + Medicare: Many veterans use both. Medicare pays for Medicare-covered services, and the VA pays for VA-authorized services in a VA or non-VA facility. "Generally" matters here: if the VA authorizes a non-VA hospital stay but not every service you get during it, Medicare may pay for the Medicare-covered services the VA didn't authorize.
  • VA + Medicaid: VA Aid and Attendance and Georgia Medicaid are separate programs with different rules. Medicaid handles VA pension income in two steps. At the eligibility step, a state applies SSI income methodology to aged, blind, and disabled applicants (42 CFR 435.601), under which VA aid and attendance and housebound allowances are not income (SSA POMS SI 00830.308), and Georgia's Medicaid Policy Manual (section 2418) says Aid and Attendance is never considered as income for determining Medicaid eligibility. At the post-eligibility step (the patient liability or cost share of an eligible resident of a nursing home or other medical institution), federal rule (42 CFR 435.725) says income disregarded at eligibility must be considered, but Georgia's manual says Aid and Attendance is not considered in determining patient liability and cost share, so in Georgia it isn't counted in what a Medicaid nursing-home resident pays. Income that does count doesn't all go to the facility: 42 CFR 435.725(c) requires the agency, in reducing its payment to the institution, to deduct in order a personal needs allowance, maintenance amounts for a spouse or other family at home, medical or remedial care expenses no third party pays, and any SSI or state supplementary payment still received. The regulation states only a minimum for the personal needs allowance, so unless the $90 pension cap below applies, confirm with Georgia Medicaid how much the state protects. That section covers institutional care by its own terms, so if the services come through a waiver at home or in assisted living, ask Georgia Medicaid how your share of cost is figured., Medicaid nursing-facility coverage can also cut the pension itself: for a veteran with no spouse or child, or a surviving spouse with no child, VA pension is capped at $90 a month, and the facility's Medicaid payment can't be reduced by that $90. The statute excludes a State home where the VA pays a nursing home per diem, and a separate federal Medicaid rule covers those homes, so check a Georgia State War Veterans Home stay with an accredited Veterans Service Officer and with Georgia DFCS. The statute starts the cap after the month of admission and VA's regulation after the month Medicaid payments begin, so check which date VA used on the award. On the VA side, unreimbursed medical expenses can reduce income for VA purposes, but only the amount above 5% of the Maximum Annual Pension Rate. Because the two programs count income and assets differently, the order and timing of applying for each can matter.
  • State War Veterans Homes charge a nominal daily fee, and eligible residents may apply Aid and Attendance toward that fee.

The interaction between these programs gets complicated, and getting the sequencing wrong can affect Medicaid eligibility in ways that are hard to undo. This is where a Veterans Service Officer or elder law attorney earns their value.

How to Access VA Senior Care Benefits in Georgia

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Step 1

Confirm VA health care enrollment

If the veteran isn't already enrolled in VA health care, apply at va.gov/health-care/how-to-apply. Once the veteran is enrolled, the VA assigns 1 of 8 priority groups based on military service history, disability rating, income, whether the veteran qualifies for Medicaid, and other benefits such as VA pension.

2
Step 2

Get help from an accredited officer

Don't file claims or applications alone. Call the Georgia Department of Veterans Service (GDVS) at 404-656-2300, visit a GDVS Veterans Field Service Office (located across the state and staffed by VA-accredited Veterans Service Officers; appointments are preferred, and walk-ins are taken as time permits), or contact your local VA medical center's enrollment or social work office.,

3
Step 3

Gather records

You'll need the veteran's DD-214 (discharge papers), medical records documenting the need for care, and financial information. If you can't find the DD-214, the National Personnel Records Center can provide copies (request through va.gov).

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have to be service-connected disabled to get VA long-term care?

No. A veteran signed up for VA health care can get VA long-term care when the VA concludes they need the service and it's available nearby. Service-connected disability mostly changes the cost: a veteran with a compensable service-connected disability is exempt from extended care copays, and whether VA benefits help pay for nursing home care depends on income and the level of service-connected disability. Aid and Attendance doesn't require a service-connected disability at all; it requires wartime service, no dishonorable discharge, a need for aid and attendance (such as another person's help with daily activities), and any one of four qualifiers: age 65 or older, a permanent and total disability, being a nursing home patient receiving long-term care because of a disability, or receiving SSDI or SSI.

Can a veteran get into a Georgia State War Veterans Home for free?

In some cases, yes. Veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 70 percent or higher, or whose admission is due to a service-connected condition, have their daily fee at a Georgia State War Veterans Home paid in full by the VA. Other eligible residents may apply Aid and Attendance toward their fees.

How long does it take to get Aid and Attendance approved?

The VA's own answer is "It depends." It works through claims in the order it receives them, unless a claim requires priority processing. Working with a GDVS Field Service Officer can reduce the chance of errors that cause delays. You can apply while your loved one is already receiving care.

What if the VA denies an Aid and Attendance claim?

A denial isn't the end. You can ask the VA to review the decision or file again with additional evidence. GDVS says its VA-accredited Veterans Service Officers help at every step of the claims and appeals process, so one can go over why the claim was denied and help you appeal or file again. The VA says an accredited VSO representative's help on a claim is always free, which is one of the strongest reasons to work with one from the start.

Does the VA pay for assisted living?

The VA doesn't directly operate assisted living facilities, but Aid and Attendance is paid to the veteran as an increase to the monthly VA compensation or pension benefits, and the household can put that money toward assisted living. The cost of the care itself can also count as a deductible medical expense when VA calculates the award. Health care from a health care provider counts, and other caregivers' help with daily activities counts if the veteran is receiving health care or custodial care in the facility and either needs aid and attendance, is housebound, or a physician, physician assistant, certified nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist has stated in writing that they need to be in a protected environment. Veteran-Directed Care is a different tool: its flexible budget is for hiring and supervising workers who help a veteran live at home or in their community, so ask the VA social worker making the referral whether it fits an assisted living plan.

Next Steps

If you're caring for a veteran who needs help, start by calling the Georgia Department of Veterans Service at 404-656-2300. They can assess which benefits apply and help you file.

Learn More

VA BenefitsVA benefits for senior care nationwideA complete guide to VA benefits for senior care: long-term care, Aid and Attendance, pensions, DIC, and home grants for older veterans and surviving spouses. VA BenefitsVA Aid and Attendance in GeorgiaVA Aid and Attendance in Georgia 2026: who qualifies, rates up to $29,093 a year, how to apply, and free help from the Georgia Department of Veterans Service. Care TypesHome Care vs Home Health in GeorgiaHome care vs. home health in Georgia: home health is skilled care a Home Health Agency provides and Medicare covers; home care is non-medical help from a PHCP. Care TypesNursing Homes in GeorgiaNursing homes in Georgia in 2026: what a skilled nursing facility costs, how to check a facility's quality, and how Medicaid pays for nursing-home care. Care TypesCost of Senior Care in GeorgiaWhat senior care costs in Georgia in 2026: assisted living about $5,300 a month, a nursing home about $105,850 a year. Every setting, plus how families pay. Care TypesAssisted Living vs Nursing Homes in GeorgiaAssisted living vs. a nursing home in Georgia turns on care needs and who pays: assisted living about $5,300/month, a semi-private nursing home $105,850/year.
Your next step Find personalized help navigating VA senior care benefits in Georgia at brevy.com.

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.

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