From the VA San Diego Healthcare System in La Jolla to Aid & Attendance, here's how local veterans can access help paying for home care, assisted living, and nursing care.
By Patricia Nguyen, CDP · July 24, 2026
The VA San Diego Healthcare System, anchored by the Jennifer Moreno Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in La Jolla, is the hub for most benefits and care-coordination questions local veterans and their families will have. Beyond hospital care, the system runs a Geriatrics and Extended Care program that can screen a veteran for home-based primary care, adult day health care, and both short-term and long-term nursing home placement through VA-contracted community facilities.
The first practical step for most families is a conversation with the veteran's VA primary care team or a VA social worker, who can request a Geriatrics and Extended Care evaluation. That evaluation determines which programs a veteran qualifies for and is generally a prerequisite before VA will authorize community-based long-term care services.
Veterans Pension with Aid & Attendance is a needs-based monthly benefit, on top of any VA pension, for veterans and surviving spouses who need help with daily activities like bathing, dressing, or supervision due to a disability — including age-related decline. It can be used toward the cost of in-home caregiving, assisted living, or a board and care home; it is not restricted to VA facilities.
Eligibility depends on wartime service, financial need, and a medical need for assistance, and the application requires both a VA Form 21-2680 (medical examination for housebound status or Aid & Attendance) and financial disclosures. Because the rules around countable income and net worth changed in recent years, families should not assume they earn too much to qualify without actually running the numbers — a local Veterans Service Officer can do this at no cost.
San Diego County's Veterans Service Office and organizations like the San Diego chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion post service officers who are accredited to help file VA claims, including Aid & Attendance, free of charge. Using an accredited Veterans Service Officer instead of a paid claims consultant is worth doing — VA accreditation is free, and unaccredited paid 'benefits planners' have been a source of complaints nationally.
Under the VA's community care program, a veteran who can't get timely access to a needed service at a VA facility, or who lives beyond a certain drive-time standard, may be authorized to receive that care from a private provider with VA paying the bill. For San Diego veterans facing a long wait for a VA-run adult day program or nursing home bed, this can open up options at community-based providers, including assisted living communities licensed by the California Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD).
It's worth understanding that VA disability compensation, VA pension, and Aid & Attendance are separate programs with separate rules, and a veteran can potentially draw more than one. A veteran already receiving a service-connected disability rating should still ask specifically about Aid & Attendance if daily care needs have increased, since the two benefits are evaluated differently.
Most veterans are also enrolled in Medicare, and VA benefits generally work alongside it rather than replacing it — Medicare will not pay for care received at a VA facility, and VA benefits generally don't cover services billed to Medicare, so families need to be clear with each provider about which coverage is being used for which service. A veteran who is also Medi-Cal eligible, including through the Assisted Living Waiver, may be able to layer VA Aid & Attendance with Medi-Cal to cover a larger share of assisted living costs, though the interaction between the two affects countable income and should be reviewed with a benefits counselor before assuming both will stack cleanly.
For veterans navigating a hospital discharge at Sharp, Scripps, UC San Diego Health, or the VA Medical Center itself, it's worth telling the discharge planner about veteran status early, since VA care coordination and Aid & Attendance applications take time to process and are easier to start before a placement decision is urgent.
The San Diego County Veterans Service Office helps with VA claims, including Aid & Attendance, at no cost and can be reached through the County's veterans services line. San Diego County's Aging & Independence Services, the local Area Agency on Aging, is reachable at 800-339-4661 and can help coordinate benefits counseling alongside VA options for veterans and non-veterans alike. And the VA San Diego Healthcare System's Geriatrics and Extended Care social workers, accessible through the veteran's care team at the La Jolla medical center, remain the best starting point for anything involving VA-authorized home or community care.
Free, no-pressure call. We work for families, not facilities.