HHS Announces $36 Million to Help Older Americans and Veterans Remain Independent

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced
$36 million in new grant programs to 28 states to help older Americans
and veterans remain independent and to support people with Alzheimer's
disease to remain in their homes and communities. Just over $19 million
of this funding involves a new collaboration with the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA).

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt and VA Secretary James Peake, M.D., announced
the joint effort to provide essential consumer-directed home and
community-based services to older Americans and veterans of all ages, as
part of a Nursing Home Diversion (NHD) grants program. The new
initiative builds on the similar missions of HHS and the VA with regard
to caring for the populations they serve. In addition, Secretary
Leavitt announced a $17 million investment to improve the delivery of
home and community-based services to people with Alzheimer's disease and
their family caregivers.

In announcing the collaboration, Secretary Leavitt said, "This historic
HHS-VA initiative combines the expertise of the HHS' national network of
aging services providers with the resources of the Veterans Health
Administration to provide more people, including our nation's veterans,
with improved long-term care options. This unique effort supports the
President's New Freedom Initiative which calls upon all federal agencies
to help people who need long-term care and prefer to live in their own
homes and communities to do so. Through this joint program, many people
who would have previously been placed in nursing homes will be able to
remain at home."

"Our mission is to honor and support America's veterans, and this
collaboration provides an additional opportunity to do that by offering
more services, choices and control over decisions to veterans in the
least restrictive environment consistent with their needs and
preferences," Secretary Peake said.

The new program will be administered by HHS' Administration on Aging
(AoA) in collaboration with the Veterans Health Administration. Under
the program, $10.5 million is being provided by HHS through AoA, and
$5.7 million by the states. VA estimates purchasing at least $3 million
in veteran-directed home and community-based services for older veterans
and for recently returned veterans with long-term care needs. The
number of veterans over age 85 has tripled during the past decade,
creating a significant expansion in the need for long term care.

"The HHS funding is specifically designed to reach people who are not
eligible for Medicaid, but who are at high risk of nursing home
placement and spend-down to Medicaid -which often occurs when private
pay individuals enter a nursing home," said Assistant Secretary for
Aging Josefina G. Carbonell. "The program will also offer consumers
more control over their long-term care, including the ability to
determine the types of services they receive and the manner in which
they receive them, including the option of hiring their own care
workers."

The $17 million for individuals with Alzheimer's disease and their
caregivers involves grants to 22 states under AoA's Alzheimer's disease
demonstration programs. States were able to apply for two types of
grants: Innovation Grants and Evidence-Based Program Grants. Innovation
Grants will demonstrate new approaches to delivering services and
supports, and the Evidence-Based Grants will support the replication of
science-based interventions that have already proven to be effective at
helping people with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders to
continue to live in the community.

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VA Awards $2.2 Million to Georgia Veterans Home

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To make sure the state veterans home in Augusta remains a comfortable and safe residence for veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is awarding a grant worth $2.2 million for improvements at the Georgia state facility.

"These grants honor our commitment to care for the men and women of Georgia who have served in uniform," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. "Our federal-state partnership helps to provide comfortable and safe housing for Georgia veterans in a caring community."

VA's grants will cover 65 percent of the total cost of the projects. Total cost for the life patient and safety upgrades to the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home in Augusta are expected to total nearly $3.5 million.

The Augusta state veterans home is a 192-bed skilled nursing care facility located adjacent to the Medical College of Georgia Hospital and the Veterans Affairs Augusta Medical Center.

In fiscal year 2007, VA spent nearly $2.2 billion in Georgia to serve more than 760,000 veterans who live in the state. VA operates major medical centers in Atlanta, Dublin and Augusta (a two-division facility: downtown and uptown) with outpatient clinics and Vet Centers across the state.

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Man Pleads Guilty for Role in Scheme to Defraud Department of Veterans Affairs

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The ex-boyfriend of a former Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) social work associate pleaded guilty today for his role in a scheme to defraud the United States of the associate's honest services in connection with her work finding suitable housing and daily care for mentally ill and disabled military veterans, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias of the Northern District of Georgia announced.

Darrick O. Frazier, 33, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story in Atlanta to one count of honest services mail fraud. At sentencing, Frazier faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and $20,200 in restitution. A sentencing date has not been scheduled. Frazier was indicted on Nov. 14, 2006, along with his ex-girlfriend, Bridgette L. Davidson, 37, who was employed as a social work associate with the VA during the time the alleged criminal scheme occurred. A trial date for Davidson has not been set by the court.

In his guilty plea, Frazier admitted that from approximately November 2001 through March 2002, he and Davidson rented a home in Marietta, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, to house mentally ill and disabled military veterans in Davidson's care in exchange for monthly federal subsidy payments. Frazier admitted that he and Davidson then falsely represented to VA officials and to the military veterans' legal guardians and custodians that the home was independently owned and a certified personal care home suitable to house and care for the veterans. Frazier also admitted he and Davidson used the rental income obtained from the veterans housed at the facility to pay some of the rent, utilities and related expenses on the rental property, and then kept the excess revenue for their own personal benefit. The facility was shut down in April 2002.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Armando O. Bonilla of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section, headed by Section Chief William M. Welch II, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa D. Hoyt of the Northern District of Georgia. The case is being investigated by the VA Office of Inspector General.

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