Home care and VA benefits for veterans
If you or someone you love served, there is more help available at home than most families ever find. These free guides, tools, and local resources explain how the VA pays for care at home in Southern California — and how to actually get it started.
How the VA pays for care at home
The VA can pay a community home-health agency to care for a veteran at home — but it almost always has to be authorized by the VA first. Understanding that one step is the difference between covered care and a surprise bill.
How VA Community Care works →Home-health services for veterans
You may need just one of these, or all of them. Each page explains how the VA pays for that specific service and what to ask your VA care team.
Skilled nursing at home
A licensed nurse at home for wound care, IVs, injections, and monitoring — often authorized through VA Community Care.
Learn more →Physical, occupational & speech therapy
Rebuild strength, balance, movement, and speech at home after surgery, a stroke, a fall, or a service-connected injury.
Learn more →Home health aide & personal care
Hands-on help with bathing, dressing, and daily care — through the VA aide program, or a budget you direct yourself.
Learn more →Recovery after hospital or surgery
A safe handoff from a VA or community hospital back home, with a clear plan and fewer readmissions.
Learn more →Chronic condition care
Steady support for diabetes, heart failure, and COPD at home — including conditions the VA now presumes are service-connected.
Learn more →Medication management
Make sense of every medication, coordinate VA mail-order pharmacy, and catch harmful interactions early.
Learn more →Wound care
Specialized care for pressure sores, diabetic wounds, and surgical wounds that are slow to heal.
Learn more →Dementia & memory support
Patient care at home plus caregiver support, respite, and the VA caregiver stipend where it applies.
Learn more →
Free tools for veteran families
VA Aid & Attendance estimator
Estimate the extra monthly pension a wartime veteran or surviving spouse may receive for help with daily care.
Which VA home-care program fits?
Answer a few questions to find which VA home-care program to ask for by name.
What VA benefits are you missing?
Build a personalized list of the VA and California benefits your family may be missing.
Veteran benefit guides
Plain-language guides to the programs veterans and surviving spouses qualify for — including the ones families most often miss.
Start here — getting VA care
VA Health Care for Older Veterans: Who Qualifies and How to Enroll
Most veterans who served on active duty and did not receive a dishonorable discharge may qualify for VA health care — including many who assume they earn too much or "didn't serve enough." You apply once, for free, using VA Form 10-10EZ. VA then places you in one of 8 priority groups, which mainly decides your copays. VA health care does not replace Medicare, and accredited representatives help you enroll at no charge. Only VA can decide eligibility.
Read guide →VA Community Care: How the VA Pays a Home Health Agency to Come to Your Home
If your loved one is enrolled in VA health care, the VA can pay a non-VA ("community") home health agency to send a nurse, therapist, or home health aide to the house. This is the Veterans Community Care Program, created by the MISSION Act. The single most important rule: except for urgent and emergency care, the VA must refer and authorize the care before it starts. Care arranged on your own is usually not covered.
Read guide →Using VA Benefits and Medicare Together for Care at Home
VA health care and Medicare are two separate systems. They do not coordinate benefits the way two insurance plans do, and the VA says it does not bill Medicare. In practice, your family chooses which benefit to use each time care is needed: VA care at a VA facility or VA-authorized community provider, Medicare care with Medicare providers. The VA encourages most veterans to enroll in Medicare Part B at 65, because delaying it can create a lifetime penalty.
Read guide →
VA programs that bring care home
VA Home Based Primary Care (HBPC): A Doctor's Team That Comes to the House
VA Home Based Primary Care (HBPC) sends a VA medical team into the veteran's home to manage complex, ongoing illness — primary care visits, care management, social work, rehabilitation, psychology, nutrition, and pharmacy. VA says veterans are "often homebound, but that is not required." HBPC is part of the VHA Standard Medical Benefits Package, so there is no separate claim to file: ask the VA primary care team or a VA social worker for a referral. Copays depend on service-connected status and income. Availability varies by location.
Read guide →VA Homemaker and Home Health Aide (H/HHA) Care: How a Veteran Gets an Aide at Home
VA's Homemaker and Home Health Aide (H/HHA) program sends a trained aide into a veteran's home to help with bathing, dressing, eating, using the bathroom and moving around. The aide is not a nurse, but a registered nurse supervises the care. VA says all enrolled veterans are eligible if they are eligible for community care, meet the clinical criteria, and the service is available locally. It serves veterans of any age. A copay may apply, and VA calculates it from VA Form 10-10EC.
Read guide →Veteran-Directed Care (VDC): A VA Budget the Veteran Controls — and Family Can Be Hired
Veteran-Directed Care (VDC) gives an enrolled veteran a flexible budget and lets the veteran decide how to spend it — including hiring and paying their own workers, who may be family, friends, or neighbors. A counselor from a local aging or disability agency helps plan the spending, and a financial management service handles payroll and taxes. Clinical eligibility requires nursing home level of care, and VDC is not offered at every VA medical center, so ask your VA social worker by name.
Read guide →VA Respite Care: How Family Caregivers Get a Break
VA respite care pays for someone else to care for a veteran for a short time so the family caregiver can rest, run errands, or travel. VA describes respite in the home, through an adult day health care program, or as a short nursing home stay. Enrolled veterans may qualify if VA decides they need the service and it is available near them. Ask your VA social worker or Caregiver Support Coordinator.
Read guide →VA Adult Day Health Care: A Safe, Structured Day for Your Veteran — and Hours Back for You
VA Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) is a supervised daytime program where an enrolled veteran gets social activities, nursing oversight, therapies and meals — while the family caregiver gets hours back. Programs run half-day or full-day, several days a week, at VA medical centers, State Veterans Homes, or community organizations. The first 21 days of extended care in a 12-month period cost nothing; after that the copay is up to $15 a day (effective January 1, 2026), based on your finances. Ask your VA social worker for a referral.
Read guide →VA Hospice and Palliative Care at Home: A Family Guide
VA states there are no copays for hospice care, whether VA provides it or pays a VA-contracted agency in your home. Palliative care is broader — it has no six-month rule and can run alongside treatment. If your loved one is enrolled in VA health care and has a serious illness, you can ask a VA provider or social worker for a palliative care consult today, without waiting for a crisis or a hospice decision.
Read guide →
Money toward care
VA Aid and Attendance: Extra Monthly Money for Veterans and Spouses Who Need Help at Home
Aid and Attendance is not a separate program. It is a higher payment rate added to a VA pension for a wartime veteran or surviving spouse who needs another person's help with daily activities, is bedridden, is in a nursing home, or has severe vision loss. Under rates effective December 1, 2025, the top yearly amount for a veteran with no dependents is $29,093. Accredited Veterans Service Officers help you apply for free.
Read guide →The VA Housebound Benefit: What It Pays, and Why You Cannot Get It With Aid and Attendance
Housebound is an increased VA pension for a veteran or surviving spouse who is substantially confined to the home by a permanent disability. It raises the maximum yearly pension rate above the basic rate — but by law it cannot be paid at the same time as Aid and Attendance, which pays more. Families should apply for the one that matches the person's real daily needs, and accredited help is free.
Read guide →VA Caregiver Support: The PCAFC Stipend and Free PGCSS Help, Explained
VA runs two caregiver programs. PCAFC pays a monthly stipend to one Primary Family Caregiver and can add CHAMPVA coverage, counseling, and at least 30 days of respite a year — but the veteran generally needs a 70% or higher service-connected rating and at least six continuous months of in-person personal care needs. PGCSS is far broader: no rating requirement, no application, no need to be related. It offers training, peer support, counseling, and respite, but no stipend. Only VA can decide eligibility.
Read guide →VA Travel Pay: Mileage Reimbursement for Trips to Appointments
VA Beneficiary Travel — usually called "travel pay" — reimburses eligible veterans for mileage and other costs of getting to VA and VA-authorized community care appointments. VA lists the rate as 41.5 cents per mile, minus a deductible of $3 each way, capped at $18 a month. You generally must file within 30 days, most easily online or in the VA mobile app. Many families who drive a loved one to appointments every week never claim it at all.
Read guide →
Benefits families most often miss
The PACT Act and Presumptive Conditions: Benefits Many Veterans Assume They Don't Have
The PACT Act (signed August 10, 2022) expanded the list of health conditions the VA "presumes" were caused by toxic exposure during service, and it expanded who can enroll in VA health care. If a veteran in your family was turned down for a VA claim in the past, that decision may have been made under the old rules. The VA says there is no deadline to file, and accredited Veterans Service Officers help for free.
Read guide →VA Home Modification Grants: HISA, SAH, SHA and TRA
The VA has several separate grants that pay to make a veteran's home safer and easier to move around in. HISA, run by VA health care, is a lifetime benefit of up to $6,800 or $2,000 depending on the disability, and it covers things like roll-in showers, permanent ramps and wider doorways. SAH and SHA are much larger housing grants for veterans with certain severe service-connected disabilities. Medicare does not pay for permanent home modifications, so these grants often fill a real gap.
Read guide →County Veterans Service Officers: Free, Accredited Help With VA Claims
County Veterans Service Offices operate across California, and their staff are VA-accredited representatives who help veterans, spouses, and survivors file VA claims at no charge. They assist with disability compensation, pension and Aid and Attendance, health care enrollment, survivor benefits, appeals, and records requests. VA-recognized organizations and their accredited representatives are barred from charging fees for claims representation. If a company asks you to pay to file an initial claim, stop and find a CVSO instead.
Read guide →CalVet: California's Own Benefits for Veterans and Their Families
CalVet is California's state veterans department, and its benefits sit on top of anything the federal VA provides. The biggest one for families caring for someone at home is the Disabled Veterans' Property Tax Exemption — up to $180,671 of assessed value for the January 1, 2026 lien date, or $271,009 for lower-income households, rising to $185,889 and $278,836 for 2027. California also runs eight Veterans Homes, waives college fees for some dependents, and offers home loans, park passes, and license discounts.
Read guide →Filipino World War II Veterans: Benefits, Recognition, and Where Families Can Get Free Help
Filipino World War II veterans hold a special and complicated place in U.S. law. Some may receive the full range of VA benefits; others may receive only certain benefits, sometimes at half rate. The one-time Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation (FVEC) payment is closed — the filing deadline passed in February 2010, and VA confirmed as of March 2025 that no further payments will be made. But disability compensation, survivor benefits, burial benefits, VA health care for some groups, immigration parole, and the Congressional Gold Medal may still be available.
Read guide →VA Prescriptions, Dental, Hearing, and Vision Care for Older Veterans
If your loved one is enrolled in VA health care, four benefits often go unused: mail-order prescriptions with medication copays capped at $700 per calendar year (rates effective January 1, 2026), hearing aids, repairs and batteries at no cost when a VA audiologist finds they are appropriate, eyeglasses for veterans who meet one of several specific rules, and dental care, which is far narrower than most families expect. Medicare covers almost none of this. Here is who may qualify and how to ask. Only VA can decide eligibility.
Read guide →
Spouses, survivors & family
CHAMPVA: Health Coverage for a Veteran's Spouse, Survivors and Children
CHAMPVA is a VA health program that shares the cost of care for the spouse, surviving spouse, or child of a veteran who is permanently and totally disabled from a service-connected condition, or who died from one. It is not coverage for the veteran, and not for families eligible for TRICARE. There is a $50 per-person yearly deductible, a 25% cost share, and a $3,000 family catastrophic cap. Apply with VA Form 10-10d. Only the VA can decide eligibility.
Read guide →Benefits for Surviving Spouses of Veterans: DIC, Survivors Pension, and Aid & Attendance
If your husband or wife was a veteran, you may be eligible for a monthly, tax-free payment from the VA — and many surviving spouses never apply because no one told them. There are two main programs: DIC, tied to the veteran's service-connected condition, and Survivors Pension, based on wartime service and financial need. Aid and Attendance can be added if you need help with daily care. Accredited help with your claim is free, and this site is not affiliated with the VA.
Read guide →TRICARE vs. VA Health Care for Older Veterans: What's the Difference?
TRICARE and VA health care are two separate programs. TRICARE comes from the Defense Department and is mainly for military retirees and their families. VA health care comes from the Department of Veterans Affairs and is for veterans who meet VA's service requirements. Many older veterans may qualify for both and can use both. Neither one is a full long-term care benefit. Free, unbiased help is available from County Veterans Service Officers, VA-accredited representatives, TRICARE beneficiary counselors, and HICAP.
Read guide →
Veteran help in your county
County Veterans Service Officers help you file VA claims for free. Find yours, plus the VA facilities near you.
Ready to get care started at home?
Tell us about your veteran and their coverage, and a caring local person will help arrange trusted, licensed home-health care. Free, and with no obligation.
Get home-health careIf a veteran is in crisis, call the Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1. Available 24/7.
SoCal Home Health is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This is free educational information, not legal or benefits advice, and not a determination of eligibility. Accredited Veterans Service Officers help you file claims at no charge — you should never have to pay for help applying for VA benefits.