Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-192
Sponsor: Sen. Alexander, Lamar [R-TN]
Introduced: 2015-01-20 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Adult day care
Aging
Congressional oversight
Crime victims
Employee benefits and pensions
Food assistance and relief
Government information and archives
Government studies and investigations
Health facilities and institutions
Health programs administration and funding
Health promotion and preventive care
Indian social and development programs
Long-term, rehabilitative, and terminal care
Mental health
Social work, volunteer service, charitable organizations
Transportation costs
War crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity

Summary:
action_date: 2015-01-20
text: 

Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2015

 
 Reauthorizes the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA) and funding for its programs for FY2016-FY2018.
 
Requires the Director of the Office of Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs (in the Administration on Aging [AOA] of the Department of Health and Human Services) to collect, analyze, and report on best practices related to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in long-term care facilities.
 
Requires the Assistant Secretary for Aging of the AOA to focus: (1) on the health and economic needs and welfare of older individuals; and (2) ensure that authorized programs include appropriate training in the prevention of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and provision of services that address elder justice and the exploitation of older individuals.
 
Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2016-FY2018, and revises requirements, for allotments to sates, the AOA, the Eldercare Locator Service, pension counseling and information programs, supportive services, congregate nutrition services, disease prevention and health promotion services, family caregiver support, the nutrition services incentive program, the Community Service Senior Opportunity Act, and grants for Native Americans.
 
Revises requirements for the national family caregiver support program and the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, revising conflict-of-interest requirements and prohibitions for the latter.
 
Requires health programs for older individuals to cover behavioral health.
 
Directs the Assistant Secretary to issue guidance to applicable to states, area agencies on aging, and providers of services for older individuals, with respect to serving Holocaust survivors.

action_date: 2015-02-03
text: 
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)
 

Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2015

 
 (Sec. 3) Amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA), with respect to the Administration on Aging, to require the Director of the Office of Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs to collect and analyze best practices related to responding to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in long-term care facilities, and publish a report of such best practices.
 
Makes it a duty and function of the Administration to: (1) provide information and technical assistance to states, area agencies on aging, and service providers, in collaboration with relevant federal agencies, on delivering efficient person-centered transportation services, including across geographic boundaries; (2) identify model programs and provide information and technical assistance to the same entities to support modernization of multipurpose senior centers; and (3) provide technical assistance to and share best practices with states, area agencies on again, and Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) on how to collaborate and coordinate services with health care entities in order to improve care coordination for individuals with multiple chronic illnesses.
 
Directs the Assistant Secretary of Aging to: (1) develop, when feasible, a consumer-friendly tool to assist older individuals and their families in choosing home and community-based services, with a particular focus on ways for consumers to assess how providers protect the health, safety, welfare, and rights of older individuals; and (2) ensure that programs authorized under the OAA include training in the prevention of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and provision of services that address elder justice and exploitation of older individuals.
 
Requires ADRCs to provide information and referrals regarding available home and community-based services for individuals who are at risk for residing in, or who reside in, institutional settings, so that the individuals have the choice to remain in or to return to the community.
 
Extends through FY2018 the authorization of appropriations for the Administration, including the Eldercare Locator Service and pension counseling and information programs.
 
(Sec. 4) Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2016-FY2018 for: (1) specified supportive services, (2) congregate nutrition services, (3) home delivered nutrition services, (4) disease prevention and heath promotion services, and (5) family caregiver support.
 
Revises requirements for allotments to states to prohibit any allotment of less than: (1) 99% of the allotment for the previous year for each of FY2016-FY2018; or (2) 100% of the FY2018 allotment for FY2019 and each subsequent fiscal year.
 
Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2016-FY2018 for the Nutrition Services Incentive Program.
 
Requires an area agency on aging plan to: (1) support modernization of multipurpose senior centers (including a plan to use the skills and services of older individuals in paid and unpaid work, including multigenerational and older individual to older individual work); and (2) arrange to increase public awareness of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and remove barriers to education, prevention, investigation, and treatment of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
Directs the Assistant Secretary to make grants to states for supportive services that include chronic condition self-care management and falls prevention services. Requires health screening services to include: (1) mental and behavioral health screening and falls prevention screening; as well as (2) screening for elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
Requires state nutritional projects to: (1) encourage the use of locally grown foods in meal preparations, and (2) contract with local producers and providers of locally grown foods.
 
Specifies that grants to states to provide, at multipurpose senior centers, at congregate meal sites, through home delivered meals programs, or at other appropriate sites disease prevention and health promotion services and information (as under current law) must be evidence-based.
 
Modifies the National Family Caregiver Support Program, making permanent the funding for the caregiver allotment. Redesignates grandparents and older individuals who are relative caregivers "older relative caregivers."
 
(Sec. 5) Authorizes the Assistant Secretary to make grants for continuing support for program integrity initiatives concerning the Medicare program that train senior volunteers to prevent and identify health care fraud and abuse.
 
Extends through FY2018 training, research, and discretionary projects and programs grant programs relating to older Americans.
 
Requires that specified grants and contracts provide for national trainings for directors of grant programs on aging instead of (as currently) an annual national meeting to train such directors.
 
Repeals the restriction of certain grants to national nonprofit organizations experienced in providing nationwide support and technical assistance to entities interested in the legal rights of older individuals. Allows such grants to go to any nonprofit organization so experienced.
 
Repeals certain grants for multidisciplinary centers and multidisciplinary systems, computer training, and ombudsman and advocacy demonstration project.
 
(Sec. 6) Extends through FY2018 the authorization of appropriations for community service senior opportunities programs.
 
(Sec. 7) Extends through FY2018 the authorization of appropriations for grants for the delivery of supportive services, including nutrition services to older American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians.
 
(Sec. 8) Revises requirements for ombudsman programs and vulnerable elder rights protection activities, among other changes: (1) extending a State Long-Term Care Ombudsman's responsibility to any resident of a long-term care facility regardless of age; (2) making the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman responsible for the management, including fiscal management, of his or her Office; and (3) requiring the Ombudsman, when feasible, to continue to carry out certain functions on behalf of residents transitioning from a long-term care facility to a home care setting.
 
Requires the State Ombudsman and any designated local Ombudsman entity to identify, investigate, and resolve complaints of any residents of a long-term care facility, including residents with limited or no decisionmaking capacity and who have no known legal representative.
 
Requires a state to ensure that the access of Office representatives to long-term care facilities and residents be private and unimpeded.
 
Considers the Ombudsman and an Office representative to be a "health oversight agency" for purposes of the
 
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) so that release of residents' individually identifiable health information to the Ombudsman or representative is not precluded in cases in which specified requirements are otherwise met.
 
Revises conflict of interest requirements in the designation of an Ombudsman and any situation in which the Office is placed in a state organization.
 
Requires a state agency on aging to: (1) promote the submission of data on elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation for appropriate Administration or other designated databases; and (2) support and study innovative practices in communities to develop elder justice partnerships across disciplines for the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
(Sec. 9) Includes behavioral health in programs for mental health.
 
(Sec. 10) Directs the Assistant Secretary for Aging to issue guidance to states on serving Holocaust survivors.

action_date: 2015-07-16
text: 
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the Senate reported version is repeated here.)
 

Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2015

 
(Sec. 3) Amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA), with respect to the Administration on Aging, to require the Director of the Office of Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs to collect and analyze best practices related to responding to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in long-term care facilities, and publish a report of such best practices.
 
Makes it a duty and function of the Administration to: (1) provide information and technical assistance to states, area agencies on aging, and service providers, in collaboration with relevant federal agencies, on delivering efficient person-centered transportation services, including across geographic boundaries; (2) identify model programs and provide information and technical assistance to the same entities to support modernization of multipurpose senior centers; and (3) provide technical assistance to and share best practices with states, area agencies on again, and Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) on how to collaborate and coordinate services with health care entities in order to improve care coordination for individuals with multiple chronic illnesses.
 
Directs the Assistant Secretary of Aging to: (1) develop, when feasible, a consumer-friendly tool to assist older individuals and their families in choosing home and community-based services, with a particular focus on ways for consumers to assess how providers protect the health, safety, welfare, and rights of older individuals; and (2) ensure that programs authorized under the OAA include training in the prevention of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and provision of services that address elder justice and exploitation of older individuals.
 
Requires ADRCs to provide information and referrals regarding available home and community-based services for individuals who are at risk for residing in, or who reside in, institutional settings, so that the individuals have the choice to remain in or to return to the community.
 
Extends through FY2018 the authorization of appropriations for the Administration, including the Eldercare Locator Service and pension counseling and information programs.
 
(Sec. 4) Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2016-FY2018 for: (1) specified supportive services, (2) congregate nutrition services, (3) home delivered nutrition services, (4) disease prevention and heath promotion services, and (5) family caregiver support.
 
Revises requirements for allotments to states to prohibit any allotment of less than: (1) 99% of the allotment for the previous year for each of FY2016-FY2018; or (2) 100% of the FY2018 allotment for FY2019 and each subsequent fiscal year.
 
Reauthorizes appropriations for FY2016-FY2018 for the Nutrition Services Incentive Program.
 
Requires an area agency on aging plan to: (1) support modernization of multipurpose senior centers (including a plan to use the skills and services of older individuals in paid and unpaid work, including multigenerational and older individual to older individual work); and (2) arrange to increase public awareness of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and remove barriers to education, prevention, investigation, and treatment of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
Directs the Assistant Secretary to make grants to states for supportive services that include chronic condition self-care management and falls prevention services. Requires health screening services to include: (1) mental and behavioral health screening and falls prevention screening; as well as (2) screening for elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
Requires state nutritional projects to: (1) encourage the use of locally grown foods in meal preparations, and (2) contract with local producers and providers of locally grown foods.
 
Specifies that grants to states to provide, at multipurpose senior centers, at congregate meal sites, through home delivered meals programs, or at other appropriate sites disease prevention and health promotion services and information (as under current law) must be evidence-based.
 
Modifies the National Family Caregiver Support Program, making permanent the funding for the caregiver allotment. Redesignates grandparents and older individuals who are relative caregivers "older relative caregivers."
 
(Sec. 5) Authorizes the Assistant Secretary to make grants for continuing support for program integrity initiatives concerning the Medicare program that train senior volunteers to prevent and identify health care fraud and abuse.
 
Extends through FY2018 training, research, and discretionary projects and programs grant programs relating to older Americans.
 
Requires that specified grants and contracts provide for national trainings for directors of grant programs on aging instead of (as currently) an annual national meeting to train such directors.
 
Repeals the restriction of certain grants to national nonprofit organizations experienced in providing nationwide support and technical assistance to entities interested in the legal rights of older individuals. Allows such grants to go to any nonprofit organization so experienced.
 
Repeals certain grants for multidisciplinary centers and multidisciplinary systems, computer training, and ombudsman and advocacy demonstration project.
 
(Sec. 6) Extends through FY2018 the authorization of appropriations for community service senior opportunities programs.
 
(Sec. 7) Extends through FY2018 the authorization of appropriations for grants for the delivery of supportive services, including nutrition services to older American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians.
 
(Sec. 8) Revises requirements for ombudsman programs and vulnerable elder rights protection activities, among other changes: (1) extending a State Long-Term Care Ombudsman's responsibility to any resident of a long-term care facility regardless of age; (2) making the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman responsible for the management, including fiscal management, of his or her Office; and (3) requiring the Ombudsman, when feasible, to continue to carry out certain functions on behalf of residents transitioning from a long-term care facility to a home care setting.
 
Requires the State Ombudsman and any designated local Ombudsman entity to identify, investigate, and resolve complaints of any residents of a long-term care facility, including residents with limited or no decisionmaking capacity and who have no known legal representative.
 
Requires a state to ensure that the access of Office representatives to long-term care facilities and residents be private and unimpeded.
 
Considers the Ombudsman and an Office representative to be a "health oversight agency" for purposes of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) so that release of residents' individually identifiable health information to the Ombudsman or representative is not precluded in cases in which specified requirements are otherwise met.
 
Revises conflict of interest requirements in the designation of an Ombudsman and any situation in which the Office is placed in a state organization.
 
Requires a state agency on aging to: (1) promote the submission of data on elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation for appropriate Administration or other designated databases; and (2) support and study innovative practices in communities to develop elder justice partnerships across disciplines for the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
(Sec. 9) Includes behavioral health in programs for mental health.
 
(Sec. 10) Directs the Assistant Secretary for Aging to issue guidance to states on serving Holocaust survivors.

action_date: 2016-03-21
text: 

Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2016

 
(Sec. 3) This bill amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA), with respect to the Administration on Aging, to require the Office of Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs to collect and analyze best practices related to responding to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in long-term care facilities, and publish a report on them.
 
 The Administration shall have a duty and function to:
 
 
provide information and technical assistance to states, area agencies on aging, and service providers, in collaboration with relevant federal agencies, on delivering efficient person-centered transportation services, including across geographic boundaries;
 
identify model programs and provide information and technical assistance to the same entities to support modernization of multipurpose senior centers; and
 
provide technical assistance to and share best practices with states, area agencies on again, and Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) on how to collaborate and coordinate services with health care entities in order to improve care coordination for individuals with multiple chronic illnesses.
 
 
 The Administration shall also:
 
 
develop, when feasible, a consumer-friendly tool to assist older individuals and their families in choosing home and community-based long-term care services, with a particular focus on ways for consumers to assess how providers protect the health, safety, welfare, and rights of older individuals; and
 
ensure that programs authorized under the OAA include training in the prevention of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and provision of services that address elder justice and exploitation of older individuals.
 
 
ADRCs shall provide information and referrals regarding available home and community-based services for individuals who are at risk for residing in, or who reside in, institutional settings, so that the individuals have the choice to remain in or to return to the community.
 
 The bill repeals the permanent authorization of appropriations to the Administration for the provision of consultative services, technical assistance to public or nonprofit private agencies and organizations, short-term training, technical instruction, and research and demonstrations.
 
 The bill also:
 
 
reauthorizes the Administration generally through FY2019, including the National Eldercare Locator Service and pension counseling and information programs; and
 
authorizes through FY2019 Elder Rights Support Activities and ADRCs.
 
 
(Sec. 4) The bill reauthorizes through FY2019: (1) specified supportive services, (2) congregate nutrition services, (3) home delivered nutrition services, (4) disease prevention and heath promotion services, (5) family caregiver support, and (6) the Nutrition Services Incentive Program.
 
 No state shall be allotted less than: (1) 99% of the allotment for the previous year for each of FY2017-FY2019; or (2) 100% of the FY2019 allotment for FY2020 and each subsequent fiscal year.
 
An area agency on aging plan shall: (1) support modernization of multipurpose senior centers (including a plan to use the skills and services of older individuals in paid and unpaid work, including multigenerational and older individual to older individual work); and (2) arrange to increase public awareness of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and remove barriers to education, prevention, investigation, and treatment of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
The Administration shall make grants to states for supportive services that include chronic condition self-care management and falls prevention services. Health screening services shall include: (1) behavioral health screening and falls prevention screening; as well as (2) screening for elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
State nutritional projects shall: (1) encourage the use of locally grown foods in meal preparations, and (2) identify potential partnerships and contracts with local producers and providers of locally grown foods.
 
All disease prevention and health promotion services grants must be evidence-based.
 
 The bill modifies National Family Caregiver Support Program elements, making permanent the funding for the caregiver allotment.
 
(Sec. 5) The Administration may make grants for continuing support for program integrity initiatives concerning the Medicare program that train senior volunteers to prevent and identify health care fraud and abuse.
 
 The bill reauthorizes for FY2017-FY2019 aging network support activities.
 
 The annual national meeting to train directors of Indian aging programs shall be replaced by national trainings for such directors.
 
 The restriction to national nonprofit organizations of certain grants is repealed, and eligibility for legal assistance for older Americans grants shall extend to any nonprofit organization experienced in providing nationwide support and technical assistance to entities interested in the legal rights of older individuals.
 
The bill repeals authorities for grants for:
 
 
multidisciplinary centers of gerontology and related multidisciplinary systems;
 
computer training and enhanced Internet access for older individuals; and
 
cooperative projects between a state long-term care ombudsman program, legal assistance agencies, and the state protection and advocacy systems for individuals with developmental disabilities and individuals with mental illness.
 
 
(Sec. 6) The Community Service Senior Opportunities Act (CSSOA) is revised, among other changes, to require grantees carrying out Older American community service employment program demonstration projects to consult with the local workforce development board.
 
A state may develop a combined state plan under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act in lieu of a plan under the CSSOA.
 
The bill revises:
 
 
requirements for any agreement between grantees and the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) on expected levels of performance for the third and fourth program years of CSSOA projects, as well as the factors taken into account in reaching agreement and adjustments to levels based on economic conditions and individuals served; and
 
the core indicators of performance, especially regarding project participants in unsubsidized employment. 
 
 
Annual publication of performance reviews shall be eliminated.
 
 The OAA is amended to reauthorize community service senior opportunities programs through FY2019.
 
 Appropriations for any fiscal year shall be available for federal obligation from April 1 (currently, July 1) of the calendar year immediately following the beginning of such fiscal year through June 30 of the following calendar year; but amounts obligated to grantees shall continue to be available only from July 1 through June 30.
 
(Sec. 7) The bill reauthorizes through FY2019 grants for the delivery of supportive services, including nutrition services, to older American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians.
 
(Sec. 8) The bill reauthorizes through FY2019 the ombudsman program, funding for state agencies on aging, healthcare service in rural areas, computer training, civic engagement, and Native American programs, and prevention of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
The authorization for the Legal Assistance Development Program is repealed.
 
The bill extends a State Long-Term Care Ombudsman's responsibility to any resident of a long-term care facility regardless of age.
 
An Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman shall be responsible for its management, including fiscal management.
 
A State Long-Term Care Ombudsman shall:
 
 
continue to carry out certain functions, when feasible, on behalf of residents transitioning from a long-term care facility to a home care setting; and
 
identify, investigate, and resolve complaints of any residents of a long-term care facility, including residents with limited or no decisionmaking capacity and who have no known legal representative, taking specified actions with respect to residents unable to communicate consent.
 
 
A state shall ensure that the access of Office representatives to long-term care facilities and residents be private and unimpeded, as well as appropriate to review all files, records, and other information concerning a resident, not just the medical and social records. 
 
 The Ombudsman and an Office representative shall be considered a "health oversight agency" under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), so that release to the Ombudsman or representative of residents' individually identifiable health information shall not be precluded in cases in which specified requirements are otherwise met.
 
The bill revises conflict of interest requirements for an Ombudsman and any situation in a state organization in which the Office is placed, including procedures for identifying, removing, and remedying any organizational conflict.
 
 A state agency on aging shall: (1) promote the submission of data on elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation for appropriate Administration or other designated databases; and (2) support and study innovative practices in communities to develop elder justice partnerships across disciplines for the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
(Sec. 9) Behavioral health shall be included in programs for mental health.
 
(Sec. 10) The Administration shall issue guidance to states on serving Holocaust survivors.

action_date: 2016-04-19
text: 

Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2016

 
(Sec. 3) This bill amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA), with respect to the Administration on Aging, to require the Office of Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs to collect and analyze best practices related to responding to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation in long-term care facilities, and publish a report on them.
 
 The Administration shall have a duty and function to:
 
 
provide information and technical assistance to states, area agencies on aging, and service providers, in collaboration with relevant federal agencies, on delivering efficient person-centered transportation services, including across geographic boundaries;
 
identify model programs and provide information and technical assistance to the same entities to support modernization of multipurpose senior centers; and
 
provide technical assistance to and share best practices with states, area agencies on again, and Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) on how to collaborate and coordinate services with health care entities in order to improve care coordination for individuals with multiple chronic illnesses.
 
 
 The Administration shall also:
 
 
develop, when feasible, a consumer-friendly tool to assist older individuals and their families in choosing home and community-based long-term care services, with a particular focus on ways for consumers to assess how providers protect the health, safety, welfare, and rights of older individuals; and
 
ensure that programs authorized under the OAA include training in the prevention of abuse, neglect, and exploitation and provision of services that address elder justice and exploitation of older individuals.
 
 
ADRCs shall provide information and referrals regarding available home and community-based services for individuals who are at risk for residing in, or who reside in, institutional settings, so that the individuals have the choice to remain in or to return to the community.
 
 The bill repeals the permanent authorization of appropriations to the Administration for the provision of consultative services, technical assistance to public or nonprofit private agencies and organizations, short-term training, technical instruction, and research and demonstrations.
 
 The bill also:
 
 
reauthorizes the Administration generally through FY2019, including the National Eldercare Locator Service and pension counseling and information programs; and
 
authorizes through FY2019 Elder Rights Support Activities and ADRCs.
 
 
(Sec. 4) The bill reauthorizes through FY2019: (1) specified supportive services, (2) congregate nutrition services, (3) home delivered nutrition services, (4) disease prevention and heath promotion services, (5) family caregiver support, and (6) the Nutrition Services Incentive Program.
 
 No state shall be allotted less than: (1) 99% of the allotment for the previous year for each of FY2017-FY2019; or (2) 100% of the FY2019 allotment for FY2020 and each subsequent fiscal year.
 
An area agency on aging plan shall: (1) support modernization of multipurpose senior centers (including a plan to use the skills and services of older individuals in paid and unpaid work, including multigenerational and older individual to older individual work); and (2) arrange to increase public awareness of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and remove barriers to education, prevention, investigation, and treatment of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
The Administration shall make grants to states for supportive services that include chronic condition self-care management and falls prevention services. Health screening services shall include: (1) behavioral health screening and falls prevention screening; as well as (2) screening for elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
State nutritional projects shall: (1) encourage the use of locally grown foods in meal preparations, and (2) identify potential partnerships and contracts with local producers and providers of locally grown foods.
 
All disease prevention and health promotion services grants must be evidence-based.
 
 The bill modifies National Family Caregiver Support Program elements, making permanent the funding for the caregiver allotment.
 
(Sec. 5) The Administration may make grants for continuing support for program integrity initiatives concerning the Medicare program that train senior volunteers to prevent and identify health care fraud and abuse.
 
 The bill reauthorizes for FY2017-FY2019 aging network support activities.
 
 The annual national meeting to train directors of Indian aging programs shall be replaced by national trainings for such directors.
 
 The restriction to national nonprofit organizations of certain grants is repealed, and eligibility for legal assistance for older Americans grants shall extend to any nonprofit organization experienced in providing nationwide support and technical assistance to entities interested in the legal rights of older individuals.
 
The bill repeals authorities for grants for:
 
 
multidisciplinary centers of gerontology and related multidisciplinary systems;
 
computer training and enhanced Internet access for older individuals; and
 
cooperative projects between a state long-term care ombudsman program, legal assistance agencies, and the state protection and advocacy systems for individuals with developmental disabilities and individuals with mental illness.
 
 
(Sec. 6) The Community Service Senior Opportunities Act (CSSOA) is revised, among other changes, to require grantees carrying out Older American community service employment program demonstration projects to consult with the local workforce development board.
 
A state may develop a combined state plan under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act in lieu of a plan under the CSSOA.
 
The bill revises:
 
 
requirements for any agreement between grantees and the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) on expected levels of performance for the third and fourth program years of CSSOA projects, as well as the factors taken into account in reaching agreement and adjustments to levels based on economic conditions and individuals served; and
 
the core indicators of performance, especially regarding project participants in unsubsidized employment. 
 
 
Annual publication of performance reviews shall be eliminated.
 
 The OAA is amended to reauthorize community service senior opportunities programs through FY2019.
 
 Appropriations for any fiscal year shall be available for federal obligation from April 1 (currently, July 1) of the calendar year immediately following the beginning of such fiscal year through June 30 of the following calendar year; but amounts obligated to grantees shall continue to be available only from July 1 through June 30.
 
(Sec. 7) The bill reauthorizes through FY2019 grants for the delivery of supportive services, including nutrition services, to older American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians.
 
(Sec. 8) The bill reauthorizes through FY2019 the ombudsman program, funding for state agencies on aging, healthcare service in rural areas, computer training, civic engagement, and Native American programs, and prevention of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
The authorization for the Legal Assistance Development Program is repealed.
 
The bill extends a State Long-Term Care Ombudsman's responsibility to any resident of a long-term care facility regardless of age.
 
An Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman shall be responsible for its management, including fiscal management.
 
A State Long-Term Care Ombudsman shall:
 
 
continue to carry out certain functions, when feasible, on behalf of residents transitioning from a long-term care facility to a home care setting; and
 
identify, investigate, and resolve complaints of any residents of a long-term care facility, including residents with limited or no decisionmaking capacity and who have no known legal representative, taking specified actions with respect to residents unable to communicate consent.
 
 
A state shall ensure that the access of Office representatives to long-term care facilities and residents be private and unimpeded, as well as appropriate to review all files, records, and other information concerning a resident, not just the medical and social records. 
 
 The Ombudsman and an Office representative shall be considered a "health oversight agency" under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), so that release to the Ombudsman or representative of residents' individually identifiable health information shall not be precluded in cases in which specified requirements are otherwise met.
 
The bill revises conflict of interest requirements for an Ombudsman and any situation in a state organization in which the Office is placed, including procedures for identifying, removing, and remedying any organizational conflict.
 
 A state agency on aging shall: (1) promote the submission of data on elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation for appropriate Administration or other designated databases; and (2) support and study innovative practices in communities to develop elder justice partnerships across disciplines for the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
 
(Sec. 9) Behavioral health shall be included in programs for mental health.
 
(Sec. 10) The Administration shall issue guidance to states on serving Holocaust survivors.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-04-19
text: Became Public Law No: 114-144.
action_date: 2016-04-19
text: Became Public Law No: 114-144.
action_date: 2016-04-19
text: Signed by President.
action_date: 2016-04-19
text: Signed by President.
action_date: 2016-04-13
text: Presented to President.
action_date: 2016-04-13
text: Presented to President.
action_date: 2016-04-07
text: Message on Senate action sent to the House.
action_date: 2016-04-07
text: Senate agreed to the House amendment to the Senate bill by Voice Vote. (text as Senate agree to the House amendment: CR S1794)
action_date: 2016-04-07
text: Resolving differences -- Senate actions: Senate agreed to the House amendment to the Senate bill by Voice Vote.(text as Senate agree to the House amendment: CR S1794)
action_date: 2016-04-07
text: Measure laid before Senate by unanimous consent. (consideration: CR S1794-1795)
action_date: 2016-03-22
text: Message on House action received in Senate and at desk: House amendment to Senate bill.
action_date: 2016-03-21
text: Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
action_date: 2016-03-21
text: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H1472-1477)
action_date: 2016-03-21
text: Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.(text: CR H1472-1477)
action_date: 2016-03-21
text: DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on S. 192.
action_date: 2016-03-21
text: Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H1472-1480)
action_date: 2016-03-21
text: Mr. Curbelo (FL) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
action_date: 2015-07-20
text: Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
action_date: 2015-07-20
text: Received in the House.
action_date: 2015-07-17
text: Message on Senate action sent to the House.
action_date: 2015-07-16
text: Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote. (consideration: CR S5158-5163; text as passed Senate: CR S5158-5162)
action_date: 2015-07-16
text: Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote.(consideration: CR S5158-5163; text as passed Senate: CR S5158-5162)
action_date: 2015-02-03
text: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 12.
action_date: 2015-02-03
text: Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Reported by Senator Alexander without amendment. Without written report.
action_date: 2015-02-03
text: Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Reported by Senator Alexander without amendment. Without written report.
action_date: 2015-01-28
text: Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.
action_date: 2015-01-20
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2015-01-20
text: Introduced in Senate

Enacted as: number: 114-144