Caretaker expenses....

[MJ]

I thought I read on here somewhere that caretaker expenses, if paid to a family member,were considered a medical expense.
My mother has been in hospital intensive care for 2 weeks now.

We anticipate that she will need 24/7 care at home for awhile. My sister who is an RN is willing to take the time off her job but she needs the income.

Is it OK to pay my sister what she is losing by being out off of her job in order to care for our mother and use this expense at the annual reconciliation?

[vetadmin]

MJ,

Your sister can provide the care, but you need to have a contract in place just like you would with any other agency for your mom to be able to justify her expenses of care.

Generally what you would want to do is to check with a Home Care Agency to determnine what a going rate is in your area so that the charges are in line with that. 

Remember that you mom needs to keep an accurate accounting of what she is spending so that next year when the VA sends the EVR she will have proper records of all her yearly expenses.