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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 120 / Friday, June 25, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
which we noted had been misapplied or misunderstood by GPD grantees. One commenter stated that this proposed change would negate the purpose of the original rule, which allowed 72 hour passes for unexcused absences and did not take into account the fact that most hospital admissions are unplanned. The commenter stated that smaller providers would be forced to choose between absorbing the cost of an unexcused absence or documenting a negative exit for the veteran. The former would negatively impact the finances of the GPD provider while the latter would adversely impact the veteran. Other commenters expressed similar concerns.
One commenter noted that a missing veteran may sometimes be unable to contact the facility right away, such as when hospitalized.
In addition, one commenter stated that the proposed change would disincentivize GPD providers from working with veterans and could result in substantial losses to larger programs.
The commenter also stated that, for GPD
providers not in compliance with performance metrics, the provider would have to weigh a negative exit which would result in no loss of funds against the risk of being placed in a Corrective Action Plan CAP proposed 61.80c3vi.
While other commenters generally expressed support for the rationale behind the proposed change, VA
acknowledges the concerns of those commenters urging a substantive change to paragraph f as proposed. VA has taken into consideration that the populations the commenters choose to serve have a higher propensity to exit their homeless programs when exigent circumstances arise. We encourage our community partners to continue serving these populations. Accordingly, based on the public comments, we are amending paragraph f to state that VA
will pay per diem up to a maximum of seven 7 days in the case of an inpatient hospitalization, or, will pay per diem up to a maximum of seventy-two 72
consecutive hours for the scheduled or unscheduled non-hospitalization absence of a veteran. Adding per diem coverage for up to 7 days of inpatient hospitalization is responsive to concerns raised by commenters.
Commenters also expressed concern regarding situations where a recipient would be forced to discharge veterans if it did not receive payment for services rendered. It is believed that a discharge under these circumstances could count against a veterans three-time allowable admission to GPD programs. Many commenters believe VA will only allow for three admissions to GPD programs.

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We believe this has been incorrectly interpreted. To clarify, VA will remove the previously proposed paragraph f altogether. Because VA allows more than three admissions to GPD programs under certain circumstances and in order to avoid incorrect applications of a perceived limitation for supportive housing bed days of care, this paragraph is removed.
Except as noted above, VA makes no edits to the rule based on these comments.
Technical edits. As discussed above, we renumber proposed 61.33 for clarity as follows. Proposed paragraph aiii is renumbered as paragraph a2. Proposed paragraph aiv is now paragraph a3. Proposed paragraph a2 is now paragraph b. Proposed paragraphs b through e are now paragraphs c through f. We have also renumbered the cross references within 61.33 to reflect the new renumbering.
Additionally, we are amending proposed 38 CFR 61.33a1ii to remove the word and at the end of the paragraph. We are also merging proposed paragraph 38 CFR
61.33a2A with proposed paragraph 38 CFR 61.33a2 and numbering it as 38 CFR 61.33a2. After reviewing the language, VA determined that it would reduce confusion by merging the two paragraphs. The paragraph at 38 CFR
61.33a2 would now read: For providers of both supportive housing and services. When the referral or authorization of the homeless veteran will not result in the project exceeding the total number of bed days of care or total obligated funding as indicated in the grant agreement and funding action document.
Proposed paragraph h states that at the time of receipt, a per diem recipient must report to VA all other sources of income for the project for which per diem was awarded. We are amending proposed paragraph h to clearly state that the paragraph relates to receipt of a federal award by VA rather than a federal award by a different federal agency such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
61.80 General Operation Requirements for Supportive Housing and Service Centers This section is in subpart F which addresses awards, monitoring and enforcement of agreements. Paragraph c of this section focuses on establishment of performance goals, periodic assessment of grant recipient performance, remedies available to VA
if a grantee fails to meet established performance goals, and actions the grant recipient must take if VA determines
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that established GPD performance goals have not been met over a certain period of time. VA proposed several nonsubstantive changes to this paragraph for purposes of clarity. In addition, we proposed that VA will establish performance goals for the initial award and update those goals annually.
Performance goals would be established based on data VA collects on veterans in all homeless programs, and VA
priorities in addressing the issue of homeless veterans. This would shift the burden of developing performance goals from the grant recipient without VA
losing any oversight capabilities. We noted at 82 FR 34460 July 25, 2017
VAs intent to also reduce the number of performance items recipients are responsible for from the range of 10 to 20 per recipient project to a number that accurately captures acceptable performance. We proposed changing the trigger point at which VA would consider remedies for failure to meet performance goals from 15 percent to five percent below any performance goals. In addition, we proposed requiring a grant recipient to submit a Corrective Action Plan CAP to the VA
GPD Liaison within sixty 60 calendar days if VA determines that established GPD performance goals have not been met for any two 2 consecutive quarters. The rationale for these proposed changes is to more closely monitor attainment of VA-established performance goals and to identify and address problem areas in a timely manner. As explained in detail below, VA is amending references to a Corrective Action Plan CAP to refer instead to a Performance Improvement Plan PIP. Accordingly, all references to CAPs in the paragraphs below will use PIP instead of CAP. In addition, all of the CAP references below are in fact referring to what is now PIP under section 61.80c3v through vii.
We received several comments related to VAs collection of data related to services provided to homeless veterans.
Commenters expressed reservations as to the integrity and accuracy of VA data and VAs reliance on that data when establishing performance goals. One commenter stated that there should be a mechanism to allow a grant awardee the ability to challenge VA data it believes is inaccurate, where the alleged inaccuracy could impact a performance review. The commenter stated that such mechanism would allow for a comparison of grantee-provided data with that of VA, and ensure continuity of payment while that mechanism was in use. Another commenter stated that it is crucially important that the
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