Oversight weaknesses and untimely eligibility reviews for 30 VA nursing homes resulted in the renewal of five ineligible nursing home contracts, the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general has said in calling for a national review to ensure veterans are not currently in ineligible nursing homes.
The Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Finance reported nursing home program expenditures totaled $614 million in fiscal 2012, expected to grow to $767 million in fiscal 2013.
Eligibility review problems occurred because VA officials did not effectively monitor the nursing home program and did not provide guidance needed to ensure the proper completion of eligibility reviews, the IG concluded.
It said that VA review teams also did not always obtain and evaluate required operational information about the nursing homes when they performed their initial and subsequent annual reviews.
Over the next five years, VHA will place about 33,500 patients at a cost of about $296.5 million in ineligible nursing homes if VHA does not strengthen program oversight and improve its eligibility reviews, the IG said.
It further called on HHS to update community nursing home policies and strengthen nursing home program oversight and monitoring.
