Rhode Island Veterans Home: Who Qualifies, Cost, How to Apply

If your veteran parent can't safely live at home anymore, the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol offers care ranging from dormitory-style housing to full skilled nursing.1 Under Rhode Island law, the Rhode Island Veterans Home charges a resident 80% of net income, never more than the actual cost of that resident's care.1 Here is who qualifies, what that charge really works out to, what happens to your parent's property, and how the Home's Admission List works.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What the Rhode Island Veterans Home Offers
• Does Your Parent Qualify?
• What Will It Cost Each Month?
• When VA Pays for Nursing Care in Full
• What Happens to Your Parent's Property
• How to Apply to the Rhode Island Veterans Home
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

What the Rhode Island Veterans Home Offers

The Rhode Island Office of Veterans Services, part of the state Department of Human Services, runs the Rhode Island Veterans Home (RIVH) at 480 Metacom Ave in Bristol. The Home was rebuilt from the ground up in 2017 on the same 100-acre parcel that has housed Rhode Island's veterans since 1890, and it is laid out as six "neighborhoods" of resident housing.1

RIVH is more than a nursing home. The Rhode Island Office of Veterans Services says the Home provides:1

• living arrangements from dormitory-style housing to fully skilled nursing care, with 24-hour nursing and CNA care and four full-time doctors;
• a Memory Care Neighborhood of 32 private rooms;
• on-site physical and occupational therapy, an aquatic therapy pool, a dental clinic, podiatry, lab and X-ray, and a pharmacy;
• social work services, on-site VA benefit counselors, and free transportation to the Providence VA Medical Center for specialized appointments.

State Veterans Homes are homes a state owns and runs, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) certifies and surveys every year, while each state sets its own admission rules.3 Our national guide to State Veterans Homes explains how the program works in every state.

Does Your Parent Qualify?

The Office of Veterans Services' page for the Rhode Island Veterans Home gives a short version: honorable discharge, 90 days of active wartime service, and either two consecutive years of Rhode Island residency before applying or having joined the service from Rhode Island.1

Rhode Island's statute is broader than that page on two points, and they can decide whether your parent applies at all. Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 30-24-10:1

• Campaign service counts. The 90 days of service can have begun or ended during any foreign war, or during any expedition or campaign for which the U.S. government issues a campaign medal.
• Short service can count. A veteran with less than 90 days of service can be admitted if honorably discharged and if the service caused a service-connected disability or disease.
• Residency works two ways. The veteran must have been credited to Rhode Island's enlistment or induction quota, or have lived in Rhode Island for at least two consecutive years right before applying.
• Need matters. The veteran must be deemed in need of the care the Home provides, and admission is subject to the rules the state adopts.

So a father who enlisted from Ohio but has lived with you in Cranston for the past three years meets the Rhode Island Veterans Home residency test.1

The Office of Veterans Services' admission rule, 180-RICR-10-00-3, lists these eligible dates of service for admission to the Rhode Island Veterans Home: World War II (December 7, 1941 to December 31, 1946), the Korean Conflict (June 27, 1950 to January 31, 1955), the Vietnam Era (August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975, or from February 28, 1961 for veterans who served in country), and the Persian Gulf Era (August 2, 1990 onward).4 If your parent's service falls outside those eras but earned a campaign medal, bring the paperwork and ask about the statute's campaign route.

Two more gates are medical. Under 180-RICR-10-00-3, the Rhode Island Veterans Home accepts any veteran with a diagnosis it is licensed to care for, and the Medical Director can approve or disapprove any admission based on the veteran's diagnosis.4 Admission to the Home is voluntary, and R.I. Gen. Laws § 30-24-10 bars discrimination in admissions based on assets or income.1

What Will It Cost Each Month?

This is usually the question behind every other one, and Rhode Island answers it differently from most nursing homes. The Rhode Island Veterans Home says it is not a Medicare or Medicaid facility.1 Instead, R.I. Gen. Laws § 30-24-10 sets a maintenance fee of 80% of the resident's net income, capped at the actual cost of that resident's care and maintenance.1

"Net income" has a legal definition, and each deduction leaves more money with your family. Under § 30-24-10 and the Office of Veterans Services' fee rule, 180-RICR-10-00-2, the Home subtracts these from gross income before taking 80%:5

• federal and state taxes;
• $150 a month for personal needs;5
• patient employee pay and therapeutic earnings, with a combined personal needs deduction of no more than $330 a month;5
• 50% of any money received for wounds for which the resident received the Purple Heart;5
• guardianship fees;
• a support allowance for a spouse, parent, minor child, or blind or permanently and totally disabled child;
• Medicare Part B, as the rule lists it.

If your mother still lives at home on her own small income, the support allowance matters most. Under 180-RICR-10-00-2, the support must have started before admission, and when the supported person's income is below the rule's cost-of-living scale for the family size, the Home deducts enough to bring that person's total income up to the scale; above the scale, no deduction is allowed.5

What counts as income is broad. Under 180-RICR-10-00-2, gross income for the Rhode Island Veterans Home fee includes Social Security, VA benefits, military retirement and gains from selling property, including a home. Retroactive benefit payments are charged the fee for the period the award covers, and every resident is required to apply for any income benefit he or she may be entitled to.5 If your parent may qualify for a VA pension with Aid and Attendance, our guide to Aid and Attendance for a nursing home in Rhode Island explains that benefit.

The paperwork runs on a calendar. Under 180-RICR-10-00-2, each resident of the Rhode Island Veterans Home files a financial statement at admission, reports any income change within 10 days, files a revised statement by March 31 every year, and pays the monthly fee by the 10th of the month. A hospital stay doesn't lower the fee unless the resident is discharged from the Home.5

If you think the fee is wrong, you can challenge it. Under 180-RICR-10-00-2, a resident or fiduciary can ask the Business Office, orally or in writing within 10 days, for an informal review by the Assistant Administrator; the Associate Director's decision can go to a formal hearing before the Director of Veterans Services, by written request within 10 days, and then to Rhode Island Superior Court. A relative, friend or lawyer can represent your parent at each step.5

Non-payment has consequences. Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 30-24-10, failing to pay the Rhode Island Veterans Home fee when due is cause for dismissal, after administrative due process.1 Under 180-RICR-10-00-2, a veteran discharged for non-payment must pay the debt to the State of Rhode Island in full before being readmitted.5

Two costs sit outside the fee. Under 180-RICR-10-00-3, a resident of the Home eligible for Medicare Parts A and B or other health insurance must keep that coverage for private hospital care, and pays for private medical services, including transportation, from his or her own funds.4 For a Medicaid-certified nursing home instead, see our guide to Medicaid and nursing home care in Rhode Island.

For a veteran who is homeless, a cheaper route exists. Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 30-24-10.1, the Rhode Island Veterans Home may run the Veterans Transitional Supportive Program (V.T.S.P.), a domiciliary program for homeless veterans that charges 10% of monthly gross income instead of the 80% fee; extended V.T.S.P. beds cost 30%, for no more than four months.1

When VA Pays for Nursing Care in Full

For some veterans, federal law changes the math. Under 38 U.S.C. 1745 and VA's regulation, 38 CFR 51.41, VA contracts with State Veterans Homes to pay for the nursing home care of:2

• a veteran who needs nursing home care for a service-connected disability (38 CFR 51.41 says 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, a group VA's regulation, 38 CFR 51.41, also lists.

For a veteran who needs nursing home care for a service-connected disability or is rated 70 percent or more, VA's payment to a State Veterans Home under 38 U.S.C. 1745 is payment in full for that nursing home care, and VA's regulation, 38 CFR 51.41, applies the same payment-in-full rule to a veteran with a TDIU rating who needs nursing home care. Under a VA State home care agreement, the State Veterans Home may not charge the veteran, an insurer or anyone other than VA for the nursing home care VA paid for.2 Section 1745(a) covers nursing home care, so VA's payment-in-full rule doesn't cover a stay in the Rhode Island Veterans Home's dormitory-style housing.2

For other eligible veterans, VA pays a State Veterans Home a basic per diem, at the lesser of one-half of the daily cost of care or the basic rate VA sets each fiscal year.2 Rhode Island's own fee rule, 180-RICR-10-00-2, prints a per diem cost table for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016 that subtracts a VA allowance from the Home's nursing care cost.5 If your parent has a qualifying rating, bring the VA decision letter and ask the Home's Business Office, in writing, how it bills VA for your parent's nursing care under 38 CFR 51.41 and how that affects the 80% fee.

A rating that arrives later still counts. Under 38 CFR 51.41, a State Veterans Home can bill VA under its State home care agreement back to the effective date of a retroactive service-connected rating, or February 2, 2013, whichever is later.2

VA's money is for veterans. VA does not pay a State Veterans Home for the care of non-veterans, and VA says some State Veterans Homes admit non-veteran spouses and Gold Star parents while others admit only veterans.3 Rhode Island's statute and admission rule describe the admission of veterans, so ask the Home directly before planning for a parent who didn't serve.

What Happens to Your Parent's Property

This is the part of the Home's rules that families most need to hear early. Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 30-24-9, all property, money and effects of a deceased Rhode Island Veterans Home resident that were not disposed of by a completed lifetime transfer or gift, or by a valid will, go to the State of Rhode Island, not to the resident's heirs, after funeral expenses (up to $10,000) and reasonable debts are paid. The director may give a surviving relative items that serve as a memento.1

Rhode Island's own admission rule, 180-RICR-10-00-3, urges each resident to have a will drafted at admission and to tell the Home where it is or provide a copy.4 If your parent has no will, make an appointment with an estate lawyer before the move, not after.

How to Apply to the Rhode Island Veterans Home

The Rhode Island Veterans Home page lays out three steps:1

Under 180-RICR-10-00-3, once the application reaches the Rhode Island Veterans Home, the veteran is placed on the Admission List and the family gets a letter with a checklist of any missing documents. When the veteran's name comes up, the Home offers an admission date, and a clinical social worker completes a clinical assessment if the family accepts.4 The Rhode Island Office of Veterans Services says the wait for admission to the Rhode Island Veterans Home is determined by the date the application is completed, so the sooner the file is complete, the better.1

Not ready when the call comes? Under 180-RICR-10-00-3, a family that declines an admission offer from the Home is offered a place on the Inactive List for up to one year; asking to be reactivated puts the veteran at the bottom of the Active Admission List, and after a year without contact the name is removed, though you can request a new application at any time.4 Families also have the right to visit the Home together before a parent moves in.4

For help with a VA disability or pension claim while you wait, our guide to VA benefits for senior care in Rhode Island points to Rhode Island's veterans resources.

Learn More

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