38 U.S.C. § 3120 — Program of independent living services and assistance

The Secretary^* may, under contracts with entities described in subsection (f) of this section, or through facilities of the Veterans Health Administration, which possess a demonstrated capability to conduct programs of independent living services for severely handicapped persons, provide, under regulations which the Secretary shall prescribe, programs of independent living services and assistance under this chapter, in various geographic regions of the United States, to veterans described in subsection (b) of this section.

A program of independent living services and assistance^* may be made available under this section only to a veteran^* who has a serious employment handicap^* resulting in substantial part from a service-connected^* disability described in section 3102(1)(A)(i) of this title and with respect to whom it is determined under section 3106(d) or (e) of this title that the achievement of a vocational goal^* currently is not reasonably feasible.

The Secretary shall, to the maximum extent feasible, include among those veterans who are provided with programs of independent living services and assistance under this section substantial numbers of veterans described in subsection (b) of this section who are receiving long-term care in Department^* of Veterans Affairs hospitals and nursing homes and in nursing homes with which the Secretary contracts for the provision of care to veterans.

A program of independent living services and assistance for a veteran shall consist of such services described in section 3104(a) of this title as the Secretary determines necessary to enable such veteran to achieve maximum independence in daily living^*. Such veteran shall have the same rights with respect to an individualized written plan of services and assistance as are afforded veterans under section 3107 of this title.

Entities described in this subsection are (1) public or nonprofit agencies or organizations, and (2) for-profit entities in cases in which the Secretary determines that services comparable in effectiveness to services available from such an entity are not available, or cannot be obtained cost-effectively from, public or nonprofit agencies or through facilities of the Veterans Health Administration.