VA Benefits You Can Use for Senior Care in Indiana

Indiana veterans who need home care, a nursing home, or help with daily living can tap a menu of VA long-term care programs, plus an Aid and Attendance pension ceiling of up to $34,488 a year.1 If your loved one is a veteran, the challenge usually isn't eligibility. It's knowing what to ask for.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• VA Senior Care Benefits
• The Indiana Veterans' Home
• Aid and Attendance
• Veteran-Directed Care
• Community Care (MISSION Act)
• How VA Benefits Work with Medicare and Medicaid
• How to Get Started
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Next Steps

VA Senior Care Benefits: Long-Term Care Programs

The VA offers multiple long-term care programs.2 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. VA may also consider other factors, like the veteran's service-connected disability status or insurance coverage.6

Home Based Primary Care (HBPC)

A VA doctor-led health care team provides services in the veteran's home, such as nursing care, physical therapy, and help with daily tasks.2

Adult Day Health Care

Veterans attend a structured daytime program that provides social activities, companionship, recreation, and care and support.2 VA counts it as home respite, a break for the family caregiver.2

Community Living Centers (VA Nursing Homes)

Community Living Centers are VA nursing centers designed to feel like home, providing nursing-home-level care.2 A CLC stay can be short- or long-term, including nursing-home respite.6,2

Community Nursing Home Program

The VA contracts with community (non-VA) nursing homes so veterans can get nursing home care near home.2 Whether VA benefits help pay for nursing home care depends on the veteran's income and the level of their service-connected disability. The extended care copay rules apply too: there is no copay for geriatric or extended care for the first 21 days of care in a 12-month period, and starting on the 22nd day the VA bases the copay on the level of care being received and the financial information the veteran provides on the Application for Extended Care Services (VA Form 10-10EC). Some veterans don't have to pay copays at all; they are exempt because of their disability rating, income level, or special eligibility factors.6 Confirm the copay that will apply before assuming the cost is covered.

Respite Care

The VA offers respite care to give family caregivers a temporary break, and all enrolled veterans are eligible for it if they meet the clinical criteria for the service and it is available.7 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.7 Respite can be in-home, where a substitute caregiver comes to the house or the veteran attends an adult day health care program, or facility-based, where the veteran stays temporarily in a CLC or community nursing home. VA's 2026 copay page describes both overnight and daily respite care as available up to 30 days each calendar year.7 Respite from a community agency, an adult day health care center, or a nursing home also requires community care eligibility. And it isn't always free: exempt veterans (a compensable service-connected disability, for example) pay nothing, while for others the first 21 days of extended care in a 12-month period are free and later days cost up to $97 (institutional respite) or $15 (non-institutional respite) a day.7 To learn the copay or apply, contact the veteran's VA social worker or case manager.7 For caregiver support, call the VA Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274, weekdays 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern.8

The Indiana Veterans' Home

Indiana operates the Indiana Veterans' Home (IVH), a full-service care facility in West Lafayette on a campus of more than 250 acres.3 IVH welcomed its first resident in 1896 and offers independent living, long-term nursing care, short-term rehabilitation, and memory care. It falls under the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs (IDVA).

Eligibility to apply extends to an honorably discharged veteran, the veteran's spouse or surviving spouse, and Gold Star parents.3 IVH's own page sets no marriage-length condition for a spouse, but the National Association of State Veterans Homes' Indiana listing says spouses and surviving spouses must have been married to an eligible veteran for at least five years, so ask admissions which rule applies.3 Applicants must have been an Indiana resident for at least one year immediately before applying, though residency waivers may apply for service members who enlisted from, or discharged to, Indiana. There is no wartime-service requirement; all periods of service are accepted, and all applicants must pass a criminal background check conducted by the home.3

Applications and current details are available from the IVH Admissions and Marketing Department at 765-497-8072.3 You can learn more through the Indiana Veterans' Home and the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs.

VA Aid and Attendance

The Aid and Attendance pension is a monthly cash benefit for veterans (or surviving spouses) who need help with daily activities.1 It is paid as part of a qualified veteran's or survivor's VA pension, at a higher ceiling on that pension rather than as a standalone benefit.9

2026 Rates

The VA publishes these as Maximum Annual Pension Rates, effective December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026. Pension is paid monthly, and the regulation sets the arithmetic: the yearly maximum minus countable income, divided by 12, rounded down to the whole dollar. The one monthly figure VA itself publishes here is $2,874, the penalty period rate, which 38 CFR 3.276(e)(1) defines as the one-dependent Aid and Attendance rate divided by 12 and rounded down. A Maximum Annual Pension Rate is a ceiling, not a payment. VA bases the payment amount on the difference between the claimant's income for VA purposes and that limit, so a household with countable income gets less than the figures above.1

Who Qualifies

Aid and Attendance is added to a VA pension, so the veteran has to qualify for the pension and need aid and attendance. To be eligible, the veteran must:10

• Meet VA's wartime service test: at least 90 days of active duty for service that started before September 8, 1980, or, for most who started later, 24 months or the full period called to active duty (with some exceptions), in every case with at least one day during wartime
• Not have a dishonorable discharge
• Meet 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 getting Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income
• Need aid and attendance, shown by at least one of these: needing another person's help with daily activities like bathing, feeding, and dressing; having to stay in bed, or spend a large portion of the day in bed, because of illness; being a patient in a nursing home because of the loss of mental or physical abilities related to a disability; or limited eyesight (5/200 or less in both eyes, or a visual field of 5 degrees or less)
• Have yearly family income and net worth within VA's limits, with net worth below $163,699. VA's net worth calculation counts the claimant's and their dependents' assets plus income for VA purposes, including a spouse's net worth, and excludes the primary home, the car, and basic home items10

The VA enforces a 3-year (36-month) look-back period before the date it receives the claim. Giving away an asset for less than fair market value in that window, when keeping it would have pushed net worth over the limit, can bring a penalty period of up to 5 years.10

How to Apply

The steps below are the pension route: VA's own condition is that you may be eligible for this benefit if you get a VA pension. Apply using 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 same form also covers aid and attendance that will be added to monthly compensation benefits, so a veteran drawing VA disability compensation rather than a pension still uses it. A wartime veteran pursuing the pension route who isn't already receiving a VA pension files a pension claim on Form 21P-527EZ (Application for Veterans Pension) as well. If the veteran is a nursing-home patient, the claim also needs VA Form 21-0779, which a nursing home official uses to verify the stay.11 If you are still gathering information, you can submit VA Form 21-0966 (Intent to File) first: VA says submitting an intent to file can secure the earliest possible effective date for any retroactive payments you may be eligible to receive.11 You can file online at VA.gov, by mail to the VA Pension Intake Center, or in person at a VA regional office. Asked how long a decision takes, VA's answer is "It depends." It processes claims in the order received, unless a claim requires priority processing.11

You don't have to file this on your own. The Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs publishes a county-by-county locator for Indiana's County Veterans Service Offices, the local points of contact that assist veterans and their family members with benefits they may be eligible for as a result of their military service.5

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

Aid and Attendance isn't the only benefit worth claiming if the veteran owns their home. Indiana offers property tax relief on a disabled veteran's residence as well, filed with the county rather than the VA, and our guide to the Indiana disabled veteran property tax exemption explains which version fits, what a surviving spouse can claim, and the form and filing deadline involved.

Veteran-Directed Care

The Veteran-Directed Care (VDC) program gives veterans a flexible budget to hire their own caregivers, including family members.12 The veteran (or their representative) decides who provides care, what services to purchase, and how to manage the budget.

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 providing counseling and support.12 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.12 This is a good option for veterans who want control over their care and prefer family members as caregivers.

Contact your local VA medical center's social work department to ask about VDC availability in your area.

Community Care Through the MISSION Act

The VA MISSION Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-182) has, since 2019, let an enrolled veteran get care from a community (non-VA) provider at the VA's expense.4 Two requirements always apply: the veteran has to be enrolled in or eligible for VA health care, and has to get approval from their VA health care team before seeing a community provider, except in cases like urgent or emergency care.4 Beyond that, at least one of six conditions must also be true:

• No VA health facility provides the service you need
• Your state or territory has no full-service VA health facility
• You met the old 40-mile distance rule in June 2018 and live in Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, or a similar location
• You asked VA for the care and it can't offer an appointment within a 30-minute average drive or 20 days (primary care, mental health care, and non-institutional extended care services) or a 60-minute drive or 28 days (specialty care); failing either one is enough, unless you agreed to a later date
• You and your VA provider agree in-network community care is in your best medical interest
• The VA can't provide the service to its quality standards4

On May 19, 2025, the VA streamlined the best-medical-interest pathway under the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, dropping the extra review by a second VA doctor so eligible veterans get community care faster.4

How VA Benefits Work with Medicare and Medicaid

VA benefits don't replace Medicare or Medicaid, no one has 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.13,14 Generally, though, VA and Medicare can't pay for the same items or services: you choose which coverage to use at each visit, the VA doesn't bill Medicare, and holding VA health care is no shield against Medicare's Part B late-enrollment penalty. Delay Part B, then sign up later because you lose VA health care or want more choice in care, and VA says you'll pay a penalty that grows each year you waited, for life.13

• VA + Medicare: Medicare pays for Medicare-covered items and services, and the VA pays for VA-authorized items or services in a VA or non-VA facility. If the VA authorizes only some of the services during a stay in a non-VA hospital, Medicare may pay for the Medicare-covered services the VA didn't authorize.13
• VA + Medicaid: Indiana Medicaid covers long-term care for low-income aged, blind, and disabled residents through nursing facility coverage and home- and community-based pathways, including the Indiana PathWays for Aging program for members age 60 and older.9 Under general federal pension rules, VA pension (including the A&A increase) counts as income, but unreimbursed medical expenses the veteran actually pays out of pocket can reduce the income that counts for VA pension purposes.9 At the Indiana Medicaid eligibility step the treatment is different: Indiana applies SSI income methodologies for aged, blind, and disabled applicants, and under SSI methodology VA aid and attendance and housebound allowances are not income, so only the basic pension counts toward the income limit.9 Eligibility is only the first step, though. The federal share-of-cost rule, 42 CFR 435.725, is written for individuals in medical institutions and intermediate care facilities, and where it governs, income disregarded in determining eligibility must be considered in the post-eligibility calculation, so a full-rate A&A amount left out at eligibility can raise what a nursing-facility resident owes.9,14 Indiana's own rule, 405 IAC 2-1.1-7, doesn't mention veterans' benefits, so ask the Indiana Medicaid eligibility office how it treats full-rate A&A.9 Before anything goes to the facility, the agency must deduct five amounts, in this order: a personal needs allowance; an amount for a spouse at home; an amount for a family at home; medical or remedial expenses no third party pays; and any SSI and state supplement the resident still receives.9 Each is required, not something a family applies for; Indiana sets the personal needs and spousal maintenance amounts, so ask that office for them.9 That regulation is written for institutional care, so it does not settle the post-eligibility result for home and community-based waiver services such as Indiana PathWays for Aging; ask the eligibility office which rule governs that setting.9,14 Federal law (38 U.S.C. 5503(d)) caps VA pension at $90 a month once Medicaid covers nursing-facility care, from the month after admission, but only for a veteran with no spouse or child, a surviving spouse with no child, or a surviving child.9,14 The Medicaid payment to the facility can't be reduced by that permitted pension.9 The statute excludes a State home where VA pays nursing home per diem (a separate Medicaid rule governs there), so ask an accredited Veterans Service Officer whether the cap applies to a given stay.9 VA's regulation dates the cap from when Medicaid payments begin instead, so a resident who started as a private payer should check which date VA used.14
• The Indiana Veterans' Home serves veterans across care levels: independent living, long-term nursing care, short-term rehabilitation, and memory care. For how a particular resident's care is arranged and paid for, contact the IVH Admissions and Marketing Department at 765-497-8072.3

Because how a VA pension is treated for Medicaid eligibility depends on the specific Medicaid pathway and a household's circumstances, families should confirm their situation with a County Veterans Service Officer and the Indiana Medicaid eligibility office before relying on any single rule.9

How to Get Started

Next Steps

If you're caring for a veteran who needs help, start with your County Veterans Service Office, which you can find through the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs' county-by-county locator. CVSOs assist veterans and their family members with the benefits they may be eligible for as a result of their military service.5

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.