Minneapolis Veterans Home gets CMS certification

Listen to this article

A Minneapolis long-term care facility is the first Minnesota Veterans Home to receive certification to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement.

The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs announced the certification by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on March 18.

Certification means that Building 19, a new facility on the Minneapolis Veterans Home campus, meets rigorous care quality guidelines, according to MDVA. Residents receiving care there now may use their Medicare coverage to help pay for it.

Robin Gaustad, an assistant MDVA deputy commissioner, says that the significance of the certification is not that veterans will receive care previously denied them. MDVA has been allowed to charge a sliding fee scale for those unable pay with Medicare or Medicaid coverage, she says.

The real significance is that the Veterans Home system, at least in Building 19, will now be reimbursed for more of the care that already is delivered there, Gaustad says.

“We hope that the end game is to continue to provide expanded, improved and best-practice care for veterans who have served our country and our state,” Gaustad says. “This certainly contributes to our being able to do that.”

Building 19, a 100-bed long-term care center, opened in August 2012. It has all private rooms and is built around a neighborhood concept, where care is delivered in what MDVA describes as a “home-style atmosphere.”

Gaustad says that being a new facility made it easier for Building 19 to qualify for CMS certification. However, the process was rigorous, requiring voluminous documentation and an on-site survey by a 10-member CMS team.

“Our team worked really hard on developing policies and procedures, and doing additional trainings in order to pass that survey,” Gaustad says. “So that was a big milestone for us.”

The state Veterans Home system has four additional care centers in Fergus Falls, Hastings, Luverne and Silver Bay.

The Hastings facility is a board-and-lodge facility with no skilled nursing care. It also is oldest facility, so it is least likely to qualify for CMS certification, Gaustad says.

However, the other three facilities are either new or recently remodeled and might qualify, Gaustad says. She says that MDVA will be filing for CMS certification at those facilities in the coming years.

“We would hope to be successful there,” Gaustad says. “We want to make sure we do it at a rate that staff and residents can manage through the change that is necessary.”