Veterans Home of Wyoming

The Veterans Home of Wyoming, at Buffalo in the northern part of the state, is Wyoming's only state veterans home. It provides assisted living and skilled nursing care, authorized by Wyoming Statute 25-9-101. Eligibility has an unusual shape that a reader should not gloss over. Alongside the honorable discharge and at least one year of Wyoming residency, the statute conditions admission on the veteran being unable to earn a living or having no adequate means of support. That is a needs test rather than purely a clinical one, and it is closer to the nineteenth-century soldiers home tradition than to the modern skilled nursing model most states now run. Fees are based on ability to pay, so a resident with limited means pays accordingly. Because there is one home rather than several, distance is a genuine consideration in a state as large and sparsely populated as Wyoming. A family in the southwest corner is several hours from Buffalo. There is no alternative state facility, so a family should weigh that against the cost difference from a commercial facility closer to home. Wyoming does not operate a second veterans home, and the federal VA medical centers serving Wyoming are at Cheyenne and Sheridan, with Sheridan being nearer to Buffalo. Admission is based on eligibility and bed availability. Apply through the home or the Wyoming Veterans Commission, which can also help with the VA documentation. A veteran who needs care but does not meet the means test should ask the Veterans Commission about VA community nursing home placement and about the VA per diem and full-cost rules, which turn on the service-connected rating rather than on means and can reach a veteran this home would not.