Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs seeks funding to cover rising costs at state veterans homes

Jay Bynum, executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, asked the Legislature’s Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Health for continued funding to cover higher-than-expected costs at the department’s veterans homes and to support operations as a new facility in Sallisaw opens.

Bynum told the subcommittee the agency manages a $175,000,000 enterprise that largely consists of its HOMES mission — roughly $145,000,000 of that total — and supports about 1,598 employees. He said the agency’s typical funding model blends federal reimbursements tied to resident census, private pay, and a state-appropriated share that historically represented about 22% of cost for care at the homes. “Our goal now … is to serve the veterans and their families in the state of Oklahoma,” Bynum said, describing a two-track focus on services and long-term care operations.

Why it matters: costs of delivering nursing and long-term care rose sharply in recent years and state appropriations have been…