Idaho State Veterans Homes: Who Qualifies, Cost, How to Apply

Some veterans owe an Idaho State Veterans Home nothing for their nursing home care. Under VA's State home payment-in-full rule, VA's payment is payment in full for a veteran who needs nursing home care for a service-connected disability, has a service-connected disability rated 70% or more, or has a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU), and the Idaho State Veterans Home may not charge the family for the nursing home care VA paid for.1 For everyone else, the Idaho Division of Veterans Services (IDVS) lists nursing-care rates, effective July 1, 2026, from $343.46 a day in Pocatello to $441.18 a day in Post Falls.2

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What an Idaho State Veterans Home Is
• The Four Idaho State Veterans Homes
• Who Can Live in an Idaho State Veterans Home?
• What a Day Costs at Each Idaho State Veterans Home
• When VA Pays the Whole Bill at an Idaho State Veterans Home
• Medicaid, VA Pension and Medicare at an Idaho State Veterans Home
• How to Apply and How the Waiting List Works
• If an Idaho State Veterans Home Isn't the Right Fit
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

What an Idaho State Veterans Home Is

Under the federal VA State Veterans Homes program, VA formally recognizes and certifies each state home and surveys it every year against VA standards, but VA doesn't manage the homes, and each state sets its own eligibility and admission rules.2 In Idaho, the Idaho Division of Veterans Services operates all four Idaho State Veterans Homes, and says the homes share one goal: responsive medical and supportive care for veterans who can no longer provide for themselves.3 Idaho's admission and charge rules for the homes live in IDAPA 21.01.01, the Idaho administrative rule for the Idaho State Veterans Homes.2 For how the program works in every state, see our national guide to State Veterans Homes.

The Four Idaho State Veterans Homes

IDVS describes the Boise home as an 80-bed skilled nursing care facility that includes a 17-bed special care unit for veterans with Alzheimer's disease or related conditions.3 On its own pages, IDVS calls the Lewiston home, established in 1994, a 66-bed home; calls the Pocatello home a 66-bed skilled nursing facility; and calls the Post Falls home, dedicated on November 11, 2022, a 64-bed skilled nursing facility.4

One number doesn't line up. The National Association of State Veterans Homes (NASVH) directory, in an entry dated July 13, 2023, lists the Boise home's capacity as 122 skilled care beds and 36 domiciliary or residential beds, which differs from IDVS's own 80-bed description of the Boise home.4 NASVH also lists residential and domiciliary care among the Idaho homes' services, but neither NASVH nor IDVS's Boise page states a separate admission test for that level of care.3 If your parent may not need nursing-home-level care, ask the Boise home directly which levels of care it offers today. VA's payment-in-full rule, covered below, applies to nursing home care only.1

For most families the real choice is distance. Pick the Idaho State Veterans Home the family can visit most often.

Who Can Live in an Idaho State Veterans Home?

IDAPA 21.01.01 says applicants for and residents of an Idaho State Veterans Home must be a veteran or the spouse of a veteran who is eligible for admission to a Home.2 IDVS's Boise home page then spells out the tests, and IDVS and NASVH word several of them differently, so read them side by side before ruling your parent out.3

The Boise page adds that applicants may be peacetime or wartime veterans or spouses of eligible veterans, with wartime veterans keeping priority admission status.3 The service, discharge, residency and health tests in the table come from IDVS's Boise page, the NASVH directory and IDVS's admission application.3,2 Idaho's rule for its veterans homes, IDAPA 21.01.01, words eligibility more generally: an applicant must be a veteran or the spouse of a veteran eligible for admission to a Home, and must meet the requirements for the level of care applied for.2 A veteran with a general discharge, or one who may not need nursing-home-level care, should ask the Idaho State Veterans Home rather than self-exclude on the narrower wording.3

Two more Idaho rules shape who gets in. Under IDAPA 21.01.01, applicants must meet the requirements for the level of care they apply for, and an Idaho State Veterans Home won't accept an applicant whose care needs it doesn't have the capability or services to meet.2 For spouses, IDAPA 21.01.01 adds a capacity limit: unless the Division Administrator waives it in writing, an Idaho State Veterans Home won't admit a spouse when the home is at 95% or more of capacity, or when spouses would then make up more than 25% of its residents.2 Nationally, VA says admission to a State Veterans Home turns on clinical need and on whether a bed in the right setting is available.2

What a Day Costs at Each Idaho State Veterans Home

IDVS lists its daily rates in its admission application; here they are in one place.2

Every one of those Idaho State Veterans Home rates runs to hundreds of dollars a day, and a long stay paid privately can drain the savings a parent spent a lifetime building.2 That is why the next two sections matter so much: for some veterans VA pays the whole bill, and for many others Medicaid and a VA pension are what keep the stay affordable.

Each Idaho State Veterans Home nursing-care rate includes medical supplies, with ancillary items, special items and service charges billed on top.2 The form's spouse rates for Boise and Pocatello don't come through legibly in its text, so ask either home's business office for the spouse rate in writing.2 Under IDVS's application, every resident of an Idaho State Veterans Home is responsible for the cost of care, charges are due on the first of each month and must be paid in full by the 10th, and income and savings (including Social Security and pensions), private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare can all be payment sources.2

Behind the posted rate sits Idaho's own rule. Under IDAPA 21.01.01, the Division Administrator sets the maximum monthly charges for the Idaho State Veterans Homes with the advice of the Idaho Veterans Affairs Commission, each home keeps the schedule of charges in its business office, and residents or their families get written notice when charges change.2

Why a spouse's rate can differ from the veteran's

VA doesn't pay for the care of a non-veteran in a State Veterans Home, and the cost to the resident varies by state.2 For a veteran, VA pays the state a per diem at the lesser of one-half of the daily cost of the care or the basic per diem rate VA sets each fiscal year, and by statute those payments can never exceed half the cost of the veteran's care.1 IDVS's Idaho State Veterans Home admission application, effective July 1, 2026, describes the non-veteran spouse rate at Boise, Lewiston and Pocatello as including the current VA per diem rate, and lists $414.07 a day for a non-veteran spouse against $345.96 a day for a veteran at the Lewiston home.2 At the Post Falls home, the same application lists one rate, $441.18 a day, for a veteran and an eligible non-veteran spouse alike.2 If Mom will move in beside Dad, ask for her rate separately from his.

When VA Pays the Whole Bill at an Idaho State Veterans Home

For some Idaho veterans, the posted veteran rate isn't the family's bill. Under 38 U.S.C. 1745 and 38 CFR 51.41, VA contracts with a State home, or enters a State home care agreement, to pay for nursing home care for a veteran who needs nursing home care and who falls in one of three groups:1

• a veteran who needs that nursing home care for a VA adjudicated service-connected disability;
• a veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 70% or more who needs nursing home care;1
• a veteran rated for total disability based on individual unemployability (TDIU) who needs nursing home care, a group 38 CFR 51.41 adds.

For a veteran who needs nursing home care for a service-connected disability, has a service-connected disability rated 70% or more, or has a TDIU rating, VA's payment to the State home is payment in full, and under a State home care agreement the Idaho State Veterans Home may not charge any individual, insurer or other entity besides VA for the nursing home care VA paid for.1 IDVS's own application puts it more loosely: it says veterans with a service-connected rating of 70% or higher are eligible to have the cost of nursing care covered by VA, and that other service-connected ratings may be covered in rare circumstances.2 VA's payment-in-full rule under 38 U.S.C. 1745 and 38 CFR 51.41 governs over IDVS's looser wording, and because that federal rule covers nursing home care only, it does not reach a domiciliary or residential bed at an Idaho State Veterans Home.1 If your parent may fit any of the three federal groups, ask the Idaho State Veterans Home's business office to confirm how it bills VA before you sign anything.

A disability claim still pending at admission isn't wasted. Under 38 CFR 51.41, when a veteran gets a retroactive service-connected rating that brings him within the payment-in-full rule, the State home can request VA payment for nursing home care back to the rating's retroactive effective date or February 2, 2013, whichever is later.1

Medicaid, VA Pension and Medicare at an Idaho State Veterans Home

For a family, the money rule at an Idaho State Veterans Home comes down to one choice: a nursing care resident admitted on or after July 1, 2000 must either apply for and become eligible for Medicaid or pay the maximum monthly charge.3 That makes the Medicaid and VA pension paperwork as important to Mom or Dad's savings as finding the bed itself. The door stays open to a veteran with little money, since IDVS says veterans may be admitted without regard to their financial status.3 IDAPA 21.01.01 applies the same Medicaid-or-pay rule to all residents, including re-admitted residents, and a Medicaid-eligible resident pays a fee equal to his liability as Idaho Medicaid determines it.2 Our guide to Idaho Medicaid for nursing home care explains the income and asset rules.

Every veteran resident of an Idaho State Veterans Home must receive or apply for a VA pension, and IDVS's Boise page adds Aid and Attendance and says IDVS will help with the pension application.3,2 A State Service Officer at each home can help too. The one difference that matters is in IDAPA 21.01.01, which applies the pension rule to a wartime veteran and lets the Home Administrator waive it.2 For what the pension pays toward nursing home care, see how Aid and Attendance helps pay for a nursing home in Idaho.

One federal rule protects that pension. When a veteran with no spouse or child is on Medicaid in a nursing facility, federal law generally caps his VA pension at $90 a month, but the statute's definition of "nursing facility" for that cap, 38 U.S.C. 5503(d)(1)(B), excludes a State home for which VA pays per diem for nursing home care. So the $90 VA pension cap must not be applied to a Medicaid-covered veteran living in a per-diem State home such as an Idaho State Veterans Home.5 Check how VA has applied it to your parent's own award.

Medicare is a requirement too. Under IDAPA 21.01.01 and IDVS's application, an applicant eligible for Medicare must elect to participate unless the Home Administrator waives it.2

How to Apply and How the Waiting List Works

IDVS's admission application, effective July 1, 2026, covers all four Idaho State Veterans Homes, which it describes as Idaho's four facilities in Boise, Lewiston, Pocatello and Post Falls.4

IDAPA 21.01.01 says an approved applicant for whom no vacancy exists goes on a waiting list and is accepted first come, first served, depending on the Idaho State Veterans Home's ability to provide the right level of care.2 The Home Administrator may give priority status, placing a name near the top of the list, to someone who has finished every preadmission requirement and meets a listed criterion, such as a veteran who served during any war or conflict, or a former resident discharged for treatment or to a lower level of care whose discharge plan calls for readmission priority.2 No IDVS source publishes how long the list runs at any home, so ask when you call. For help pulling the VA paperwork together, start with VA benefits for senior care in Idaho.

If an Idaho State Veterans Home Isn't the Right Fit

The home you want may have no open bed, or it may sit too far from family. VA has two nursing home programs of its own. A VA Community Living Center is a VA-run nursing home, most often for short stays after a hospital discharge, and eligibility turns on clinical need, setting availability, service-connected status, disability level and income.6 A VA Community Nursing Home is a non-VA nursing home VA contracts with, and VA pays only if the veteran meets its service-connected, disability and income criteria.7 Our guide to VA nursing home care compares them, and VA long-term care copays explains what a veteran may owe there.

For private options, see Idaho nursing homes and memory care vs. a nursing home in Idaho.

Learn More

Find personalized help choosing and applying to an Idaho veterans home 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.