It turns out that the home care agency is the party that pays the "Veterans Care Coordination" agency for their efforts to get the benefit from the VA.

When I see how impossible it is to deal with the VA directly, I can believe that "VCC" earns what it gets. It is, indeed, very analogous to using a law firm to get Social Security Disability Income. The "VCC" person, who has briefed me extensively on the phone (The company is located in Missouri.), knows all the information that I had hoped the VA social worker would know.

The VA social worker said she doubted my friend would be eligible for anything because she sort of thought that a veteran's income had to be below $12,000/year to qualify. She was fuzzy about everything. There are 3 "tiers" of benefits available through the "Improved Veteran's Pension" benefit. One of those levels does, indeed, require that annual income be slightly less than $12,000. My friend qualifies for the most advanced level, which allows for a higher income.

I would never have figured that out on my own.

Another requirement is that the Veteran has to already be getting an expensive amount of home care before the VA will approve his application. This is where the 2nd role of "VCC" comes in. They will actually underwrite the loan that will pay the home care agency, while the application is pending. When approved, my friend will receive retroactive payments from the VA of over $1700/month for every month that he has been receiving home care. He must agree that he will use those funds to reimburse "VCC" for the outlays they have made to Addus Homecare. (Again, somewhat analogous to the contract with a law firm that helps you get SSDI.)

VCC has an office full of people who hound everyone who is needed to contribute documentation necessary for getting the application for pension benefit approved. And a hound is what you need. You would think that the medical part of the VA could just nicely pass along the needed info to the benefits part of the VA. But no. That's not how they do things . . . as I've found out pounded my head against a brick wall at the VAMC for weeks now. VCC told me that families have spent as long as 18 months trying to get the different parts of the VA to collaborate. Meanwhile, they spend out of pocket for home care help.

Plus, VCC knows exactly how all the paperwork needs to be filled out. They review everything and make sure everyone fills everything out correctly. They will talk me through the 25 page form that I have to help my friend fill out. They will pester the doctors whose input is needed. I know how reluctant doctors can be to fill stuff out.

I have a lot of paperwork to wade through, but I think this will be worth it. I feel less depressed now. Once my friend has some home care that will help him with shopping, laundry, meal prep., housekeeping, etc., then maybe I can focus on so much that I need to do for me.