S 1562 · 113th Congress 2013–2015, ended

Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2014

Latest action · Jan 6, 2014 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 290.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedSep 30, 2013
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2014 - (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 providing 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 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 FY2014-FY2018 for: (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.

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 responsiblity 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 Comptroller General (GAO) to study transportation services for older individuals.

(Sec. 11) Directs the Assistant Secretary for Aging to issue guidance to states on serving Holocaust survivors.

Cosponsors 14

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Sep 30, 2013 to Sep 15, 2014; 2 are original cosponsors, there from the day it was introduced.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-TNLamar AlexanderOriginalSep 30, 2013
D-IATom HarkinOriginalSep 30, 2013
D-AKMark BegichNov 4, 2013
D-DEChristopher A. CoonsDec 13, 2013
D-MAEdward J. MarkeyFeb 24, 2014
D-MTJon TesterFeb 27, 2014
D-MTJohn E. WalshApr 28, 2014
D-OHSherrod BrownApr 28, 2014
D-ARMark L. PryorJun 12, 2014
D-LAMary L. LandrieuJul 28, 2014
D-NHJeanne ShaheenJul 30, 2014
D-CTRichard BlumenthalSep 8, 2014
D-NYKirsten E. GillibrandSep 15, 2014
D-NJRobert MenendezSep 15, 2014

Committees 1

Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.

ChamberCommitteeWhat it did
SenateHealth, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Referred Sep 30, 2013Markup Oct 30, 2013Reported Jan 6, 2014

Actions 5

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Jan 6, 2014Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Reported by Senator Harkin with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Without written report.
  2. Jan 6, 2014Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 290.
  3. Oct 30, 2013Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
  4. Sep 30, 2013Introduced in Senate
  5. Sep 30, 2013Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

In the Congressional Record 1

Days the Record’s own index lists this bill, newest first, with the pages and the members it names. Pages starting H are the House, S the Senate, E Extensions of Remarks.

WhereIn the RecordMembersDate
SenateDebate and remarks S7815Bernard Sanders I-VTNov 5, 2013

Research

What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.

Congressional Budget Office cost estimate

  1. Feb 11, 2014S. 1562, Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2013As reported by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on January 6, 2014

Printed hearings 1

Hearings whose printed record names this bill, newest first: hearings on it, and wider hearings where it came up.

NumberHearingCommitteeHeld
S. Hrg. 113-768DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015715 pagesAppropriations CommitteeApr 2, 2014–May 7, 2014

CRS reports 2

Congressional Research Service work that CRS links to this bill or the law it became, newest first.

Cite it 2

Products on other subjects that cite it, usually among other measures.

ProductTitleKindPublished
RS22549Older Americans Act: Funding Formulas ArchivedReportMar 18, 2019
R44485Older Americans Act: 2016 Reauthorization ArchivedReportMay 2, 2016

Related bills 2

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
S 1028Older Americans Act Amendments of 2013Related billJun 19, 2013
HR 4122Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2014Related billJun 13, 2014

Titles 3

Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.

Official Title as Introduced
A bill to reauthorize the Older Americans Act of 1965, and for other purposes.
Short Titles as Introduced
Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2013
Short Titles as Reported to Senate
Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2014

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.

Text 2

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Jan 6, 2014Reported to Senate
  2. Sep 30, 2013Introduced in Senate

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.