I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 845 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

AUGUST 2, 2007 

Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

AN ACT 

To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to 

expand and intensify programs with respect to research 

and related activities concerning elder falls. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safety of Seniors Act 

3 of 2007’’. 

4 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE 

5 ACT. 

6 Part J of title III of the Public Health Service Act 

7 (42 U.S.C. 280b et seq.) is amended— 

8 (1) by redesignating section 393B (as added by 

9 section 1401 of Public Law 106–386) as section 

10 393C and transferring such section so that it ap11 pears after section 393B (as added by section 1301 

12 of Public Law 106–310); and 

13 (2) by inserting after section 393C (as redesig14 nated by paragraph (1)) the following: 

15 ‘‘SEC. 393D. PREVENTION OF FALLS AMONG OLDER 

16 ADULTS. 

17 ‘‘(a) PUBLIC EDUCATION.—The Secretary may— 

18 ‘‘(1) oversee and support a national education 

19 campaign to be carried out by a nonprofit organiza20 tion with experience in designing and implementing 

21 national injury prevention programs, that is directed 

22 principally to older adults, their families, and health 

23 care providers, and that focuses on reducing falls 

24 among older adults and preventing repeat falls; and 

25 ‘‘(2) award grants, contracts, or cooperative 

26 agreements to qualified organizations, institutions, 


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1 or consortia of qualified organizations and institu2 tions, specializing, or demonstrating expertise, in 

3 falls or fall prevention, for the purpose of organizing 

4 State-level coalitions of appropriate State and local 

5 agencies, safety, health, senior citizen, and other or6 ganizations to design and carry out local education 

7 campaigns, focusing on reducing falls among older 

8 adults and preventing repeat falls. 

9 ‘‘(b) RESEARCH.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may— 

11 ‘‘(A) conduct and support research to— 

12 ‘‘(i) improve the identification of older 

13 adults who have a high risk of falling; 

14 ‘‘(ii) improve data collection and anal15 ysis to identify fall risk and protective fac16 tors; 

17 ‘‘(iii) design, implement, and evaluate 

18 the most effective fall prevention interven19 tions; 

20 ‘‘(iv) improve strategies that are prov21 en to be effective in reducing falls by tai22 loring these strategies to specific popu23 lations of older adults; 


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1 ‘‘(v) conduct research in order to 

2 maximize the dissemination of proven, ef3 fective fall prevention interventions; 

4 ‘‘(vi) intensify proven interventions to 

5 prevent falls among older adults; 

6 ‘‘(vii) improve the diagnosis, treat7 ment, and rehabilitation of elderly fall vic8 tims and older adults at high risk for falls; 

9 and 

10 ‘‘(viii) assess the risk of falls occur11 ring in various settings; 

12 ‘‘(B) conduct research concerning barriers 

13 to the adoption of proven interventions with re14 spect to the prevention of falls among older 

15 adults; 

16 ‘‘(C) conduct research to develop, imple17 ment, and evaluate the most effective ap18 proaches to reducing falls among high-risk older 

19 adults living in communities and long-term care 

20 and assisted living facilities; and 

21 ‘‘(D) evaluate the effectiveness of commu22 nity programs designed to prevent falls among 

23 older adults. 

24 ‘‘(2) EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT.—The Secretary, 

25 either directly or through awarding grants, conVerDate Aug 31 2005 23:09 Aug 02, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S845.RFH S845

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1 tracts, or cooperative agreements to qualified organi2 zations, institutions, or consortia of qualified organi3 zations and institutions, specializing, or dem4 onstrating expertise, in falls or fall prevention, may 

5 provide professional education for physicians and al6 lied health professionals, and aging service providers 

7 in fall prevention, evaluation, and management. 

8 ‘‘(c) DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS.—The Secretary 

9 may carry out the following: 

10 ‘‘(1) Oversee and support demonstration and 

11 research projects to be carried out by qualified orga12 nizations, institutions, or consortia of qualified orga13 nizations and institutions, specializing, or dem14 onstrating expertise, in falls or fall prevention, in the 

15 following areas: 

16 ‘‘(A) A multistate demonstration project 

17 assessing the utility of targeted fall risk screen18 ing and referral programs. 

19 ‘‘(B) Programs designed for community20 dwelling older adults that utilize multicompo21 nent fall intervention approaches, including 

22 physical activity, medication assessment and re23 duction when possible, vision enhancement, and 

24 home modification strategies. 


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1 ‘‘(C) Programs that are targeted to new 

2 fall victims who are at a high risk for second 

3 falls and which are designed to maximize inde4 pendence and quality of life for older adults, 

5 particularly those older adults with functional 

6 limitations. 

7 ‘‘(D) Private sector and public-private 

8 partnerships to develop technologies to prevent 

9 falls among older adults and prevent or reduce 

10 injuries if falls occur. 

11 ‘‘(2)(A) Award grants, contracts, or cooperative 

12 agreements to qualified organizations, institutions, 

13 or consortia of qualified organizations and institu14 tions, specializing, or demonstrating expertise, in 

15 falls or fall prevention, to design, implement, and 

16 evaluate fall prevention programs using proven inter17 vention strategies in residential and institutional set18 tings. 

19 ‘‘(B) Award 1 or more grants, contracts, or co20 operative agreements to 1 or more qualified organi21 zations, institutions, or consortia of qualified organi22 zations and institutions, specializing, or dem23 onstrating expertise, in falls or fall prevention, in 

24 order to carry out a multistate demonstration 

25 project to implement and evaluate fall prevention 


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1 programs using proven intervention strategies de2 signed for single and multifamily residential settings 

3 with high concentrations of older adults, including— 

4 ‘‘(i) identifying high-risk populations; 

5 ‘‘(ii) evaluating residential facilities; 

6 ‘‘(iii) conducting screening to identify high7 risk individuals; 

8 ‘‘(iv) providing fall assessment and risk re9 duction interventions and counseling; 

10 ‘‘(v) coordinating services with health care 

11 and social service providers; and 

12 ‘‘(vi) coordinating post-fall treatment and 

13 rehabilitation. 

14 ‘‘(3) Award 1 or more grants, contracts, or co15 operative agreements to qualified organizations, in16 stitutions, or consortia of qualified organizations and 

17 institutions, specializing, or demonstrating expertise, 

18 in falls or fall prevention, to conduct evaluations of 

19 the effectiveness of the demonstration projects de20 scribed in this subsection. 

21 ‘‘(d) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants, contracts, or 

22 cooperative agreements under this section, the Secretary 

23 may give priority to entities that explore the use of cost24 sharing with respect to activities funded under the grant, 

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1 ment of the recipients of such assistance to the projects 

2 funded under the grant, contract, or agreement. Such non3 Federal cost sharing contributions may be provided di4 rectly or through donations from public or private entities 

5 and may be in cash or in-kind, fairly evaluated, including 

6 plant, equipment, or services. 

7 ‘‘(e) STUDY OF EFFECTS OF FALLS ON HEALTH

8 CARE COSTS.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may conduct 

10 a review of the effects of falls on health care costs, 

11 the potential for reducing falls, and the most effec12 tive strategies for reducing health care costs associ13 ated with falls. 

14 ‘‘(2) REPORT.—If the Secretary conducts the 

15 review under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall, not 

16 later than 36 months after the date of enactment of 

17 the Safety of Seniors Act of 2007, submit to Con18 gress a report describing the findings of the Sec19 retary in conducting such review.’’. 

Passed the Senate August 1, 2007. 

Attest: NANCY ERICKSON, 

Secretary. 


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