Caregiver Support Program - Implementation of Beaudette Ruling

The Veterans Administration (VA) Caregiver Support Program (CSP) administers the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC). PCAFC is for eligible Veterans who have incurred or aggravated a serious injury in the line of duty on or before May 7, 1975 or on or after September 11, 2001. This program provides resources, education, support, a financial stipend, health insurance (if eligible), and beneficiary travel (if eligible), to caregivers of eligible Veterans.

On April 19, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court) issued the following ruling:

• Decisions under PCAFC are appealable to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board).

• The Court also certified as a class, claimants who received an adverse benefits decision under PCAFC, exhausted the administrative review process within Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and have not been afforded the right to appeal to the Board. Subsequently, VA is required to “provide notice” to class members of their right to appeal PCAFC decisions to the Board and the procedure for obtaining Board review of the decisions.

Due to data limitations, VA will provide notice to every individual identified as having received a decision under PCAFC (i.e. every Veteran and Family Caregiver Applicant), currently estimated at more than 400,000.

An implication of this ruling is VA’s development of a new, multi-faceted review and appeal process for PCAFC decisions. Additionally, changes in eligibility for the PCAFC program, as a result of the MISSION Act, require CSP to reassess all PCAFC participants approved prior to October 1, 2020. Given the implications of the Beaudette ruling, CSP must begin reassessments now.

The Caregiver Program seeks to develop an appeals process and begin notifying Veterans by the date imposed by the Court. VA requires contractor support for program management, communications, education and training, policy, and human resources to successfully implement the Court approved plan (August 17, 2021) no later than November 17, 2021 in response to the ruling in the Beaudette case. The overarching implications of Beaudette are broad and involve multiple workstreams:

• Notification of Veterans and Caregivers
• Expansion of Caregiver Support Line (CSL)
• Future state appeals process (development and implementation)
• Legacy Reassessments

Should VA fail to meet the requirements of the ruling VA is at risk of Court imposed sanctions. The result and impact to VA for any imposed sanctions is unknown.

Awarded contract 36C10X21C0060 to unknown vendor for unknown amount on 2021-09-15.