2014 -- H 7361 | |
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LC004127 | |
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | |
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY | |
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2014 | |
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A N A C T | |
RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT - THE AGING IN COMMUNITY | |
OF 2014 | |
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Introduced By: Representatives Blazejewski, Diaz, Slater, Hull, and Bennett | |
Date Introduced: February 06, 2014 | |
Referred To: House Finance | |
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows: | |
1 | SECTION 1. Title 42 of the General Laws entitled "STATE AFFAIRS AND |
2 | GOVERNMENT" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following chapter: |
3 | CHAPTER 66.11 |
4 | THE AGING IN COMMUNITY ACT OF 2014 |
5 | 42-66.11-1. Short title. -- This chapter shall be known and may be cited as "The Aging |
6 | in Community Act of 2014." |
7 | 42-66.11-2. Legislative findings. -- The legislature finds and declares: |
8 | (1) The number of Rhode Islanders sixty-five (65) years of age and older is projected by |
9 | the state planning office to grow from 152,000 in 2010 to 189,000 in 2020 and to 248,000 by the |
10 | year 2030. |
11 | (2) The 2010 U.S. Census established that Rhode Island had the highest percentage of |
12 | persons age eighty-five (85) years and older, an age group that has the highest dependency needs |
13 | and an increased need for long-term care services and supports. |
14 | (3) Surveys consistently show most older persons prefer to remain in their own homes |
15 | and community for as long as possible. |
16 | (4) Community-based support services and programs such as meals on wheels, caregiver |
17 | support and respite services and senior centers, play important roles in helping older persons to |
18 | "Age in Community" thereby preventing or postponing institutionalization, reducing Medicaid |
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1 | costs for long-term care facilities, and reducing caregiver burden. |
2 | (5) Adequate funding for demonstrated cost-effective home and community support |
3 | services such as meals on wheels, caregiver support and respite programs is essential to reducing |
4 | the use of long-term care facilities by low care residents, to saving Medicaid costs for the state, |
5 | and to helping unpaid caregivers keep frail elders and adults with disabilities living at home. |
6 | (6) State funds to support meals on wheels and respite services decreased by sixty-three |
7 | percent (63%) from fiscal year 2003 to fiscal year 2014 and there exists a waiting list for these |
8 | essential services. |
9 | 42-66.11-3. The aging in community fund - Purpose and establishment. -- There is |
10 | hereby created and established the "Aging in Community Fund" within the division of elderly |
11 | affairs in the department of human services. The purpose of the fund is to provide grants to meals |
12 | on wheels and caregiver support and respite programs that promote older persons' ability to |
13 | remain living in their own homes and communities. For fiscal year 2014-2015, the general |
14 | assembly hereby appropriates an additional five hundred seventy-five thousand dollars |
15 | ($575,000) for aging in community grants to be allocated as follows: three hundred thousand |
16 | dollars ($300,000) in added funding for meals on wheels to reduce waiting lists and to provide for |
17 | emergency food distributions and two hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($275,000) in added |
18 | funds for caregiver support and respite services. The secretary of health and human services shall |
19 | report to the governor, the legislature and the long-term care coordinating council chair on the |
20 | status of any waiting lists for meals on wheels, caregiver support and respite services and state |
21 | funded home and community-based long-term care as part of the annual budget request. |
22 | 42-66.11-4. The aging in community plan. -- The chair of the state long-term care |
23 | coordinating council shall create an aging in community subcommittee whose purpose shall be to |
24 | develop a plan to provide the needed infrastructure and program improvements in support |
25 | services, housing and transportation that will enable the state's growing elder population to safely |
26 | remain living at home and in community settings. The aging in community plan shall include an |
27 | inventory of available services, identification of service and program gaps and resource needs. In |
28 | addition to members of the long-term care coordinating council, the subcommittee shall include |
29 | those members of the state's academic community with expertise in aging services and |
30 | community-based long-term supports and services as the council deems appropriate. |
31 | SECTION 2. This act shall take effect on July 1, 2014. |
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EXPLANATION | |
BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL | |
OF | |
A N A C T | |
RELATING TO STATE AFFAIRS AND GOVERNMENT - THE AGING IN COMMUNITY | |
OF 2014 | |
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1 | This act would establish and create a fund within the department of elderly affairs to |
2 | assist the elderly population to remain living in their homes and communities. The initial |
3 | appropriation for the fund would be an additional five hundred seventy-five thousand dollars |
4 | ($575,000) to be distributed in grants of three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) in added |
5 | funding for the meals on wheels program and two hundred seventy-five thousand dollars |
6 | ($275,000) in added funding for caregiver support and respite services. |
7 | The act would also require that the Long-Term Care Coordinating Council create a |
8 | subcommittee to develop a plan to provide needed improvements in support services, housing and |
9 | transportation for the elderly and to inventory available services, identify service and program |
10 | gaps and resource needs. |
11 | This act would take effect on July 1, 2014. |
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