S. 668 — SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025

This section provides the short title of the Act as the “Supporting Access to Falls Education and Prevention and Strengthening Training Efforts and Promoting Safety Initiatives for Veterans Act of 2025” or the “SAFE STEPS for Veterans Act of 2025”.

This section establishes the Office of Falls Prevention in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), to be located at the Department's Central Office and headed by a Chief Officer reporting to the Under Secretary for Health, with staffing, support, and reorganization authority as needed to carry out its functions without duplication. The office's functions include (1) monitoring, evaluating, and improving VHA falls prevention activities and standards of care; (2) providing technical assistance and oversight to Department facilities and home-support programs; (3) addressing community care deficiencies; (4) overseeing resource distribution; (5) promoting clinical, research, and educational activities, including coordination with the Office of Research and Development and National Institute on Aging; (6) developing quality improvement processes; (7) coordinating home modification programs under section 1717(a)(2) (i.e., structural alterations for home health services, currently capped at $6,800 or $2,000 depending on eligibility) and chapter 21; and (8) other duties as assigned. The Chief Officer must oversee a national public education campaign on falls prevention targeted at at-risk veterans, families, and providers—including awareness of Department benefits—and award grants or contracts for local campaigns. The office must collaborate on falls prevention research, including home modifications, service-connected disabilities, medication risks, and safe patient handling, with a joint expert panel to develop related recommendations.

This section extends the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requirement to provide nursing home care to veterans in need due to a service-connected disability or with a service-connected disability rated at 70% or more through September 30, 2028 (from September 30, 2025); and requires, for any such veteran (or other nursing home resident) determined by a physician to have fallen or been at risk of falling in the prior year, that a licensed physical therapist or occupational therapist conduct a falls risk assessment and provide fall prevention services during the stay. (As background, VA nursing home care under this authority prioritizes veterans with significant service-connected needs.) The section also adds annual falls risk assessments and fall prevention services by a licensed physical therapist or occupational therapist to the list of authorized extended care services.