North Dakota Veterans Home

The North Dakota Veterans Home is at Lisbon in Ransom County, and 37-15-01 requires that it be maintained there. Its object under 37-15-02 is to provide basic care as defined in chapter 23-09.3 and long-term care as defined in chapter 23-16. Who can be admitted is wider than the ordinary definition of veteran, and deliberately so. Section 37-15-02 covers all veterans as defined in 37-01-40; all members of the armed forces, national guard or reserve discharged or released under other than dishonorable conditions who do not meet the definition of a veteran but who are or may become permanently disabled from any cause while in the line and discharge of duty and who are enrolled in VA health care before admission; and the spouse or surviving spouse of either. Residency. The applicant must be a bona fide resident of North Dakota preceding the application, but 37-15-10(1) allows that requirement to be waived where the applicant served in a North Dakota regiment or was accredited to the state. Admission also needs a formal application, the proof the home requires, and approval by the home's board of admissions. Where the home is full, 37-15-10.1 requires admission to follow priorities established by rule for each level of care. The fee formula is the most favourable in this catalog. Section 37-15-14.1 lets the governing board set fees based on each member's adjusted income, and caps them: they "may not exceed forty-nine percent of the average daily per member cost". Adjusted income is all money received from any source, including social security, less money the member spent on hospitalization for illness or injury, on other medical care or treatment or required medicines, and less anything else the board permits to be deducted in an individual case. Set that against a state that charges eighty percent of net income and the difference over a year is large. Now the provision a family needs to hear before admission, because it is the one that costs them money and it is easy to fix. If a member dies leaving property worth three thousand dollars or less, 37-15-16 requires the administrator to take charge of it immediately. If within forty-five days no heir or devisee makes a valid claim and nobody has applied for letters of administration, the administrator converts it to cash without probate, pays reasonable funeral expenses and then reasonable and necessary medical and hospital expenses of the last illness, and deposits anything left with the state treasurer for the veterans' home operating fund. If a member dies leaving more than three thousand dollars and has not disposed of it by will, 37-15-17 entitles the administrator of the home to letters of administration for the estate. If the heirs or next of kin make no valid claim for one year after letters are granted, the residue is deposited for the benefit of the home's operating fund. Neither section takes anything from a family that makes a claim in time, and 37-15-18 stops the administrator charging any fee for the work. But a resident who dies intestate with no one paying attention leaves their estate to the institution. Making a will, and making sure someone knows to claim, is the single most valuable piece of paperwork here. One more consequence of admission. Section 37-15-10(4) provides that a member who is not eligible for VA hospitalization and care and who becomes unable to care for themselves becomes a charge of the county of residence at the time of admission, and that an individual may not gain or lose legal residence by being a member of the home. Moving to Lisbon does not move the county obligation to Ransom County.