Minnesota Veterans Homes: Who Qualifies, Cost, How to Apply

When a veteran parent needs round-the-clock nursing care, a Minnesota Veterans Home may be the answer, and neither savings nor widowhood has to rule the family out. Minnesota has seven Veterans Homes, in Bemidji, Fergus Falls, Luverne, Minneapolis, Montevideo, Preston and Silver Bay, and the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs (MDVA) also runs a Domiciliary Program at Hastings and Minneapolis that is not a nursing home. Minnesota law lets surviving spouses apply for a Minnesota Veterans Home and lets a veteran with savings be admitted on a payment contract.1

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What a Minnesota Veterans Home Is
• Where the Minnesota Veterans Homes Are
• Who Qualifies for a Minnesota Veterans Home
• What a Minnesota Veterans Home Costs
• When VA Pays for Nursing Care in Full
• How to Apply and How the Waiting List Works
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

What a Minnesota Veterans Home Is

A State Veterans Home is owned, operated and managed by a state government, not by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), though VA must formally recognize and certify each State Veterans Home and then surveys it every year against VA standards. Each state sets its own eligibility and admission rules for its State Veterans Homes.2

Minnesota's State Veterans Homes are the Minnesota Veterans Homes, and who gets in, what residents pay and how the waiting list moves are set by Minnesota Statutes sections 198.022 and 198.03 and Minnesota Rules parts 9050.0050 and 9050.0055.1,2 That matters for your family in a practical way, because several of those Minnesota rules are broader than MDVA's short admission list.

If you're weighing a Minnesota Veterans Home against a VA-run nursing home, our guide to VA nursing home care explains what VA runs itself, and our national guide to State Veterans Homes shows how the program works in every state.

Where the Minnesota Veterans Homes Are

The home that's easy to visit is the home you'll keep visiting, so start with the map. MDVA's Admissions Information page lists these eight locations, and each home's own MDVA page describes the care it offers:1

If your parent has dementia, the newer and smaller settings are worth a close look. MDVA says the Luverne Veterans Home has a 17-bed special care unit for residents with advanced dementia, the Fergus Falls Veterans Home opened a Veterans Village in 2011 of two households of 10 and 11 residents designed as a familiar, home-like place for residents with dementia, and the Bemidji Veterans Home offers private bedrooms with private baths in four 18-resident households.1

MDVA's Domiciliary Program at Hastings and Minneapolis is a different kind of place. MDVA says its Domiciliary Program is licensed as a boarding care facility and is not a nursing home, and that every Domiciliary Program resident must be independently mobile and able to manage their own daily living activities.1

A veteran still living at home has one more option in the Twin Cities. MDVA's Adult Day Center, in Building 4 on the Minneapolis Veterans Home campus, is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and gives family caregivers a break along with support services.1 Our guide to VA adult day care explains VA's own adult day health care benefit.

Who Qualifies for a Minnesota Veterans Home

MDVA's own list is short. According to MDVA, every Minnesota Veterans Home resident must require skilled nursing care, and eligible residents include:1

• The veteran: discharged under honorable conditions from any branch of the U.S. armed forces, a current Minnesota resident, and someone who served 181 consecutive days on active duty, unless discharged earlier because of a disability incurred in the line of duty.
• The veteran's spouse: at least 55 years old and meeting Minnesota's residency requirements.

The Minnesota law behind that list says more, and three parts of it can change your answer.1

• Widows and widowers count. Minnesota Statutes section 198.022 covers "spouses and surviving spouses of eligible veterans," who must be at least 55, have been Minnesota residents before applying, and meet the home's admission criteria. A mother whose veteran husband has died can apply on her own.
• Residency has two halves. Under Minnesota Rules part 9050.0050, a person counts as a Minnesota resident for veterans home admission only if the person lives in Minnesota and intends to stay permanently, and does not own or maintain a home in another state. If Dad still owns the lake place in Wisconsin, raise it with the admissions staff before you apply.
• Minnesota service can stand in for residency. Under Minnesota Statutes section 198.022, a veteran meets the statute's Minnesota-connection test by having served in a Minnesota regiment, having been credited to the state of Minnesota, or having been a Minnesota resident under the chapter's rules before applying.

Savings don't bar the door either. Minnesota Statutes section 198.022 says that, except as provided in section 198.03, applicants must be "without adequate means of support," but Minnesota Statutes section 198.03 lets a person who is otherwise eligible and has means of support be admitted, at the commissioner's discretion, on a contract to pay the state reasonable compensation for care.1 The cost section below explains the $3,000 asset line and the income test that together decide which route an applicant takes.2

What a Minnesota Veterans Home Costs

Cost is usually the question behind every other question, and Minnesota's answer is more protective than families expect. A Minnesota Veterans Home isn't free, but Minnesota Statutes section 198.03 ties the bill to what your parent has and caps it.2

• A ceiling on the charge. Minnesota Statutes section 198.03 requires the average cost of care to be figured every year, separately for domiciliary and nursing care residents, and says each resident's maintenance charge, if any, must be based on that average and the resident's assets and income "but must not exceed the appropriate average cost of care."2
• Service connection is part of the math. MDVA says an applicant's assets, income and service connection are used to calculate the applicant's financial obligation toward the cost of care at a Minnesota Veterans Home.2
• A $3,000 line for "adequate means." Minnesota Rules part 9050.0050 treats a veterans home applicant as having adequate means of support if the applicant has assets over $3,000 or income sufficient to meet basic needs, and an applicant with adequate means comes in on the section 198.03 contract route.2
• Some money doesn't count. Under Minnesota Statutes section 198.03, earnings from a work therapy program while a resident of the home and rebates of federal and state taxes are not treated as a means of support.2

MDVA doesn't publish a dollar figure for the maintenance charge on the pages we rely on, so we don't print one. Ask the Reimbursement Specialist at the home you're considering, whom MDVA names as the contact for cost questions.2 You won't be guessing for long: under Minnesota Rules part 9050.0055, a home's financial staff reviews the finances of an applicant who has been approved or is expected to reach the top of the waiting list within 60 days, to work out ability to pay and the maintenance charge.2

Two warnings are worth knowing before you sign. Under Minnesota Rules part 9050.0050, an applicant who owes the state for maintenance from an earlier stay at a Minnesota Veterans Home must pay that debt, or sign an agreement to repay it, before being placed on the active waiting list. And under Minnesota Statutes section 198.03, a resident who doesn't promptly pay maintenance, or doesn't keep an agreement to pay overdue maintenance, may be discharged from the home.2

VA money helps pay the home's side. Under VA's State Veterans Home per diem, VA pays the state for each eligible veteran at the lesser of one-half of the daily cost of care or the basic per diem rate VA sets each fiscal year.3 VA does not pay a State Veterans Home for the care of non-veterans, so a non-veteran spouse's care in Minnesota's homes is paid without VA per diem.2 If your parent may qualify for a VA pension with Aid and Attendance, our guide to Aid and Attendance for a nursing home in Minnesota explains how that money works alongside nursing home costs.

Medicare Part A covers skilled nursing facility care only on a short-term, post-acute basis, not long-term custodial care, so Medicare won't carry a long stay in one of Minnesota's homes.4

When VA Pays for Nursing Care in Full

For some veterans, the nursing care bill at a contracted State Veterans Home can be zero. Under 38 U.S.C. 1745 and 38 CFR 51.41, VA contracts with State Veterans Homes to pay for the nursing home care of:3

• a veteran who needs nursing home care for a VA adjudicated service-connected disability;
• a veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 70 percent or more who needs nursing home care;
• a veteran with a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) who needs nursing home care.

For a veteran in one of those three groups, VA's payment to the State Veterans Home under 38 U.S.C. 1745 and 38 CFR 51.41 is payment in full for that nursing home care, and under a State home care agreement the home may not charge the veteran, an insurer or anyone other than VA for the care VA paid for.3

None of our sources says whether a particular Minnesota Veterans Home holds that VA State home care agreement. Because MDVA counts service connection when it sets a resident's financial obligation, bring your parent's current VA rating letter and ask the Reimbursement Specialist to confirm in writing how the home bills VA under 38 CFR 51.41.2

How to Apply and How the Waiting List Works

Applying is paperwork, but the waiting list has rules that can quietly cost you your place. Minnesota Rules part 9050.0055 sets the process for all of Minnesota's veterans homes.1

Each Minnesota Veterans Home keeps two waiting lists. The active waiting list is for applicants who want the first available bed at their level of care; the inactive waiting list is for applicants who don't want admission yet or haven't met the admission criteria. Place on either Minnesota Veterans Home waiting list is set by the date the home receives the application form, and an applicant who switches lists goes to the bottom of the new one.1

When a Minnesota Veterans Home offers a bed, the clock starts:1

• Three working days to decide. A person offered admission has three working days to consider the offer, and the home holds the bed without charge for up to three working days after the offer is accepted.
• Saying no moves you down. Declining the offer puts the applicant at the bottom of the active waiting list, unless the applicant asks to be removed or moved to the inactive list.
• Silence ends the application. An applicant who doesn't respond to the offer within three working days has the file closed, comes off every waiting list, and must reapply.
• Two refusals mean a year on the inactive list. An applicant who twice refuses an offer of admission goes to the inactive list and can't return to the active list for one year, unless an attending physician verifies a significant change in health.

Make sure the phone number on the application reaches someone who can say yes quickly, especially if your parent can't take calls.

Learn More

Find personalized help choosing and applying to a veterans home in Minnesota 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.