Provision of Home & Community Based Services to Veterans by Race, Rurality, and Neighborhood Deprivation Index

Home and community-based services (HCBS) enable frail patients to remain at home. We examined whether there were neighborhood-deprivation, racial, or rural disparities in HCBS utilization provided to Veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or Medicare by comparing the adjusted utilization rate of a historically disadvantaged group with the predicted utilization rate had it been treated as the historically dominant group. Among the 2.7 million VA patients over 66 years old in 2019, 11.0% were Black, 39.2% lived in rural settings, 15.3%/29.2%/30.9%/24.7% lived in least/mild/moderate/most-deprived neighborhoods. On average, 11.2% received VA or Medicare HCBS. Veterans residing in more deprived neighborhoods had 0.11-0.95% higher adjusted probability of receiving HCBS than expected had they resided in the least deprived neighborhoods. Veterans residing in rural areas had 0-0.7% lower HCBS rates than expected had they been treated like urban Veterans. Black Veterans were 0.8-1.2% more likely to receive HCBS than expected had they been treated like White Veterans. Findings indicate that VA resources were equitably employed, aligning with probable HCBS needs, suggesting that VA's substantial and long-standing investment in HCBS for care of frail Veterans could serve as a model for other payers and providers in the U.S.