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November 1, 1996

PROGRAM INSTRUCTION

AOA-PI-97-01

(Originally Numbered PI-97-05)

TO:STATE AGENCIES ADMINISTERING PLANS UNDER TITLES III AND VII OF THE OLDER AMERICANS ACT OF 1965, AS AMENDED

SUBJECT:Instructions for Annual State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Report to the Administration on Aging

LEGAL AND RELATED

REFERENCES:Older Americans Act, as amended

This Program Instruction transmits revised software and provides additional direction to the states for submission of their annual Long-Term Care Ombudsman Report to the Acting Assistant Secretary for Aging for fiscal year (FY) 1996, pursuant to Section 712(h)(1) of the Older Americans Act (OAA).  It also provides initial guidance for the FY 1997 state ombudsman report.

**Background**

In a Program Instruction dated September 29, 1995 (AoA-PI-95-10), the Administration on Aging (AoA) provided background information on the new National Ombudsman Reporting System (NORS) and guidance to state agencies on aging for submission of their annual ombudsman reports for FY 1995 and FY 1996.  Both the NORS report form and a brief interim FY 1995 report form, instructions and transmittal specifications approved by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), were attached to the Program Instruction.

An Information Memorandum dated October 10, 1995 (AoA-IM-96-01) transmitted software, the National Ombudsman Report Data Input Application (NORDIA), for states to use, at their option, in providing their FY 1995 data, as well as software for transmitting the State Performance Report (SPR).

The FY 1995 state reports have been compiled into a national report which will be transmitted to Congress and disseminated to the states in the near future.

**Instructions for Reporting Ombudsman Data for FY 1996**

As specified in AoA PI-95-10, pursuant to Section 712(h)(1) of the OAA, all state agencies on aging shall, beginning in FY 1996, require their State Office of the Ombudsman to collect all data and other information requested in the NORS.  This data and information shall be reported to AoA no later than 60 days after the close of the fiscal year.

AoA PI-95-10 outlined an option by which states could collect complaint and case data for six months of FY 1996 and double those numbers to extrapolate data for all of FY 1996.

The FY 1996 report must be transmitted by diskette or via the Internet, as explained in the next section.

A copy of the OMB-approved NORS form and instructions are attached to the NORDIA Users' Guide.  These copies indicate changes which will be requested when the NORS package is submitted to OMB for extension.

With one exception (see following paragraph), the proposed changes will not entail any changes in the response blanks of the NORS or transmittal specifications.  They simply expand the definitions of some complaint categories to capture situations which some states placed in the "other" categories in the FY 1995 reports and specify that states may indicate "no change" if there has been no change in certain narrative sections since the last reporting period.

One change has been made in the file transmittal requirements issued last year:  a line for total local ombudsman entities has been inserted on page 12.  (See attachment to this Program Instruction.)  The total line appears on the NORS form but was inadvertently omitted from the transmittal requirements.  The revised NORDIA contains space for this total.  Those states which are using software which conforms to the transmittal requirements issued last year, and thus contains no space to provide a total for local ombudsman entities, may either transfer their data to the NORDIA and provide a total as indicated or submit their data to AoA on their own software, and we will insert the total when the data is entered into the National Aging Program Information System (NAPIS).  As specified below, data must be submitted to AoA in DBF format.

**The National Ombudsman Report Data Input Application****(NORDIA)**

This Program Instruction officially delivers version 2.0 of the NORDIA software.  Included in this delivery are the following:

**NORDIA version 2.0 software**:  The application is provided on a floppy disk in 3.5-inch format.

**Revised NORDIA Users' Guide**:  This document includes the requirements satisfied by the application, instructions on installing the software and a guide to using the NORDIA.  As previously mentioned, a copy of the OMB-approved NORS form and instructions are attached to the NORDIA Users' Guide.

The NORDIA is designed as a data input application.  It executes in a stand-alone environment on individual workstations.  Chapter 3 of the NORDIA Users' Guide provides the minimum workstation configuration and instructions on installing the software onto the workstation hard drive.  NORDIA version 2.0 automatically copies any existing version and data to a backup directory on the user's C:\ drive, then installs the new version in a new directory.

The NORDIA cannot print a "dump" of the data.  To print a copy of the information on a particular screen, simply press the "print screen" button on the keyboard.  If the printer is already set up to handle the extended ACSII character set, an exact copy of the screen will be produced.  If not, the text and numeric information will print correctly, but the screen borders will appear as non-standard characters.  In addition, you may import the NORDIA data files to one of the more common spreadsheet packages, such as Excel or Lotus, and print the contents.

Please follow instructions carefully and make sure that the data entered is error-free.  Note that **the data entered must be transmitted as instructed before sending the report via diskette or the Internet.  If the transmit function built into the NORDIA software is not used, the data cannot be accepted into NAPIS.**

The required file format for input to NAPIS is **DBF**.  The NORDIA transmittal files are automatically created in the correct format.  If software other than the NORDIA is being used to create the transmittal files, they must be converted to **DBF** format prior to submission to the AoA central office.

If you have questions concerning the installation or use of the NORDIA, or the transmission of NORS data, call the AoA Help Desk at (202)205-6205. If you have questions concerning the content of the NORS data, call Sue Wheaton at (202)619-7585.

Two transmittal options are available, beginning with submission of the FY 1996 report.  Option 1 is mailing a diskette to the AoA central office; Option 2 is sending the files via Internet mail.  Although the modem method of transmittal is offered as an option on the diskette, it is not available this year.

**Option 1**:  Mailing diskettes to the AoA central office

Send the diskettes, accompanied by a cover letter signed by the Director, State Unit on Aging, directly to the AoA central office at the following address:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration on Aging

Division of Information Resources Management

330 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 4187

Washington, D.C.  20201

Attn:  NAPIS 1996

**Option 2**:  Sending files via Internet mail

The diskette you insert in the "Transmit" process will have six DBF files and one text file.  These are the files to send to AoA.

The following steps are generic steps to send the data files.  For questions regarding your specific mail system, please see your system administrator.

Send a message to:  NAPIS-NORS@BAN-GATE.AOA.DHHS.GOV

Attach the data files to the Internet mail message.  Note that the files are "binary attachments."  Some e-mail systems require manual conversion of the binary files to a transmittable format, or "encoding", while others handle this automatically.  The preferred encoding method is "UUEncoding" for these attachments.  Please see your system administrator on this if you have a question.

Specify that the message be sent certified, if possible.  This will return a message that the mail has been received at AoA.

In the body of the e-mail message, please identify:

state and fiscal year of the data being sent;

size of each file attached; and

name, address, and phone number of the point of contact.

Follow up with a letter to the AoA Grants Officer, indicating that data for FY 1996 has been transmitted via the Internet.

**Coordination of the State Performance and Long-Term Care Ombudsman Reports**

The following information was provided in AoA PI-95-10 and is repeated in this Program Instruction because we continue to hear concerns that local ombudsman programs are required to provide data for more than one reporting system, which results in confusion and undue burdens on local ombudsmen.  States are requested to inform their area agencies on aging of the following information regarding documentation of local ombudsman complaint and other program activity.

The SPR is not intended to collect any information on the Long- Term Care Ombudsman Program except that under SPR Section VII, State and Area Agency Staffing Profile.  Therefore, **do not include ombudsman information in the following sections of the SPR**:

!Section I, Estimated Unduplicated Counts of Clients Served Under Title III;

!Section II, Title III Utilization Profile; or

!Section III, Service Expenditures Profile (except as requested under Part B, Title VII Expenditures).

Area agency, state and national totals for both numbers of individuals served and funds expended can be achieved by adding information from the Ombudsman Report and SPR's.  These numbers must not be included in the SPR report to AoA, as they will be included in the Ombudsman report and must not be counted twice.

Local ombudsmen should be required to document their work only through the state component of the ombudsman reporting system, even if the local program is supported with Title III funds.  The number of clients served by the ombudsmen will be reflected in the number of cases opened and closed.  The number of people to whom the ombudsman program provides information and assistance/referral will be captured in Part III, Section F of the Ombudsman Report.  

If additional client information not included in the NORS, such as age, gender and ethnicity, is required for use at the area agency on aging or state level, state and area agencies may require their ombudsman programs to add these elements to their complaint documentation systems.  This ombudsman client information is not needed at the national level because it is available from other data sets on residents of long-term care facilities.

**Do include ombudsman information in the SPR Section VII, Staffing Profile.**  Ombudsman program staff who work **directly** for the state and area agency and any ombudsman volunteers who work for substate ombudsman programs located in, and/or directly sponsored by the area agency, should be included in the Staffing Profile on pages 12 and 13 of the SPR, as well as in the staffing section of the Ombudsman Report.  While the data is similar, the sets of information in the two reports serve two different purposes.  

For the SPR, count ombudsman staff full-time equivalents (FTE's) under the functional responsibility category which best describes the function they perform for the ombudsman program.  Staff or volunteers who work for agencies under contract or grant by the area agency should not be included in the Staffing Profile of the SPR.

**Preliminary Instructions for the FY 1997 Ombudsman Report**

States should require their statewide ombudsman programs to collect all information contained in the NORS for the current fiscal year, FY 1997.  OMB approval for the NORS is currently in effect; and approval of a request which will be submitted to OMB for extension of the NORS form, instructions and transmittal specifications (with changes as indicated on the attachments to this Program Instruction and the NORDIA Users' Guide) is anticipated.

DUE DATE:November 30, 1996

ATTACHMENTS:Corrected page 12 from NORS File Transmittal Requirements

NORDIA, Version 2.0

NORDIA Users' Guide, with NORS form and instructions attached

INQUIRIES:General inquiries should be addressed to AoA Regional Administrators.  Specific questions regarding the reporting content should be addressed to AoA Ombudsman Program Specialist Sue Wheaton, Tel. (202)619-7585.  Specific questions regarding the transmittal software NORDIA should be addressed to AoA HELP Desk at (202) 205-6205.

Robyn I. Stone

Acting Assistant Secretary for Aging

COPIES:State Ombudsmen