Anybody who answers this question with a yes is guessing with your money. Here is what is actually true.
What we are and what that means
We are a federal contractor and an approved vendor. Work reaches us as authorized work orders after a determination has already been made. We have supplied stairlifts, ramps, grab bars, bathroom safety and vehicle equipment through that route.
What we cannot do is tell you what the VA will approve for you. That determination is not ours, it depends on the veteran’s circumstances, and no vendor can promise it.
The programs people are usually asking about
HISA, the Home Improvements and Structural Alterations grant, is the one most often relevant to home access. It covers improvements necessary for access to the home or to essential lavatory and sanitary facilities.
SAH and SHA, Specially Adapted Housing and Special Home Adaptation, are larger grants tied to specific service-connected disabilities.
Automobile adaptive equipment is separate again, and covers hand controls, transfer seating and vehicle lifts rather than anything in the house.
Eligibility, amounts and rules change. Ask your VA social worker, prosthetics representative or the eligibility office rather than a vendor, including us.
The part nobody tells veterans
If your equipment has already been approved, you are generally allowed to ask for a specific provider by name.
Plenty of veterans do not know this and accept whoever is assigned. If you would rather the company that surveyed your house did the work, say so to whoever is processing the authorization. Our veterans page sets out the exact wording.
What usually slows it down
- An incomplete scope. A vague description produces a vague authorization and a second visit.
- Missing measurements. A curved staircase in particular needs a survey before anybody can quote.
- Nobody nominated. Work sits waiting for a vendor.
- Scope changes mid-job. Anything not on the authorization has to be authorized separately.
What helps: a free survey and a written scope, in the language the authorization needs, before the paperwork starts. We will do that whether or not the work comes to us.
What Medicare will not do
Worth knowing alongside, because veterans often hold both. Original Medicare generally treats a stairlift as a home modification rather than durable medical equipment, so it is usually not covered. We do not yet bill health insurance either, and we say so early rather than three weeks in.
If the answer is no
Plenty of what helps is inexpensive and needs no determination from anybody: grab bars, shower seating, transfer benches, rollators and threshold ramps all ship free from our online shop.
What to ask any vendor
Are you an approved VA vendor, and can you show it? Will you survey and write the scope before authorization? Who does the install, your people or a subcontractor? Both Bruno and Harmar require installation by authorized dealers, which affects warranty and parts.
Anybody who tells you the VA will definitely cover it has answered a question they cannot answer.
What to have ready before you call the VA
- A description of the specific difficulty, in plain terms: which stairs, what happens now, what is being avoided.
- A written scope from a vendor, with measurements.
- Photographs of the staircase from both ends.
- Anything already in the medical record that supports the need.
- The name of a provider you would like used, if you have one.
Vague requests produce vague authorizations, and a vague authorization is the commonest reason a job stalls halfway through.
Why we will survey before there is an authorization
Because the scope has to be right for the paperwork to work, and because a curved staircase cannot be quoted from a phone call. That survey is free and carries no obligation whether the job comes to us or goes to somebody else.
If you are helping a parent or spouse
Ask the veteran to make the first call themselves where they can, because the system is built around them. Then help with the documentation, which is where families genuinely add value. Our guide to that conversation may be more useful than the benefits detail.
Two things veterans tell us afterward
The first is that they did not know they could name a provider, and accepted whoever was assigned. The second is that they waited months before asking anybody, because they assumed the answer would be no and did not want to be turned down.
Both are avoidable. The determination takes as long as it takes whether or not you start today, and starting is free.
If you are not eligible, or not yet
The equipment is still needed and the house has not changed. Work through the cheaper things first: lighting, rugs, a grab bar at the toilet and the shower entry, a threshold ramp at the door. Our order of work puts those ahead of anything expensive for good reason.