A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Encouraging the United States Department of Veteran Affairs to allow veterans to receive long-term care services at facilities that do not otherwise meet the requirements set by the department.

WHEREAS, South Dakota has a population of approximately sixty-three thousand three hundred and twenty-two resident veterans, of whom twenty thousand and seventy-one veterans are older than the age of seventy; and

WHEREAS, the current and only state veterans nursing home, the Michael J. Fitzmaurice South Dakota State Veterans Home, is located in the extreme southwestern part of the state, in Hot Springs, South Dakota; and

WHEREAS, long-stay services are available for enrolled veterans who need nursing home care for life or for an extended period of time if the veterans have a service-connected disability rated sixty percent and who are unable to be employed, or if the veterans have a seventy percent or greater service-connected disability; and

WHEREAS, the community nursing home program has contracts established with VA medical centers to help meet the needs of veterans who require long-term nursing home care in their own community, close to family, and meet the enrollment and eligibility requirements; and

WHEREAS, a nursing home must meet the requirements established by the VA for veterans to receive long-term care services at the facility; and

WHEREAS, a veteran is eligible to be admitted to a community nursing home if the veteran receives an increased pension based on the need for regular aid and attendance, because the veteran must be permanently housed in a nursing home, or because the veteran is determined to be catastrophically disabled by the chief of staff, or equivalent clinical officer, of the VA facility where the veteran was examined; and

WHEREAS, any honorably discharged veteran who is at least seventy-nine years and one day old receives full access to VA medical care based solely on the veteran's honorable discharge and age; and

WHEREAS, as our nation's veteran population ages, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and rural states will face an increasing demand for long-term care services:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Ninety-Ninth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the Legislature encourages the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to amend the requirements for a long-term care service provider to admit veterans to better allow veterans to receive required and necessary care.

Adopted by the House of Representatives, February 12, 2024

Concurred in by the Senate, February 15, 2024

_____________________ _____________________ Hugh Bartels Patricia Miller Speaker of the House Chief Clerk

_____________________ _____________________ Lee Schoenbeck Peggy Laurenz President Pro Tempore Secretary of the Senate

of the Senate