Hawaii-2012-SB2779-Introduced

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the aging and disability resource centers initiative is a collaborative federal and state multi-agency effort led by the United States Administration on Aging and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to streamline access to long-term supports and services for older adults, all persons with disabilities, family caregivers, and providers.

Aging and disability resource centers are designed to address the frustrations many consumers and their families experience when they need to obtain information and access to long-term supports and services. In many communities, long-term supports and services are administered by multiple agencies and have complex, fragmented, and often duplicative intake, assessment, and eligibility functions. Figuring out how to obtain long-term supports and services can be difficult. A single, coordinated system of information and access for all persons seeking long-term supports and services minimizes confusion, enhances individual choice, and fosters informed decision-making. It also improves the ability of state and county governments to manage resources and monitor program quality through centralized data collection and evaluation.

Aging and disability resource centers use two broad strategies to divert persons from unnecessary long-term institutional care and ensure that short-term institutional stays do not become permanent: (1) intervening with options counseling, and (2) expediting eligibility determination processes for home and community-based services. Aging and disability resource centers serve a critical role in improving the ability of state and county governments to effectively manage the long-term supports and services system, monitor program quality, and measure responsiveness of state and county systems of care.

The purpose of this bill is to establish the aging and disability resource centers by adding new sections to chapter 349, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

SECTION 2. Chapter 349, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§349- Definitions. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Aging and disability resource centers" means centralized sources for older persons, persons with disabilities of all ages, their families, and others to information about their long-term supports and services options, and access to a single entry point to public long-term supports and services.

"Area agency on aging" means the county office on aging in each county.

"Dementia" means a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life.

"Developmental disability" means a lifelong disability attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18.

"Family caregivers" means a spouse, adult child, other relative, partner or friend who has a personal relationship with, and provides a broad range of unpaid assistance for an older adult with a chronic or disabling condition.

"Informal caregiver" means a person who provides care for an older or person with a disability who needs long-term supports and services, but does not receive compensation.

"Intellectual disability" means a general disorder characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors that appears before adulthood.

"Long-term supports and services" means the broad range of assistance and care needed by older persons or persons with physical or mental disabilities who have lost or never acquired the ability to function independently.

"Options counseling" means an interactive decision-making process whereby a consumer, and the consumer's family members or significant others, or both, receive information, guidance and support during their deliberations to determine appropriate long-term care choices for the consumer in the context of the consumer's needs, preferences, values, and circumstances.

"Physical disability" means the broad range of disabilities including orthopedic, neuromuscular, cardiovascular and pulmonary disorders, which may be congenital or a result of aging or injury.

"Severe mental illness" means one of several diseases that affect the brain, and significantly functionally impair an individual for an indefinite period of time."

SECTION 3. Chapter 349, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§349- Aging and disability resource centers; established. (a) There is established an aging and disability resource center in each county to streamline access to long-term supports and services by integrating the full range of long-term supports and services into a single, coordinated system.

(b) The aging and disability resource center shall be the single point of entry, available in every county, where persons of all ages, incomes, and disabilities may access information in a person-centered manner on the full range of long-term support and service options, including but not limited to:

(1) Federal, state, and county revenue-funded programs and services including, but not limited to, those funded by Medicaid, Medicare, Older Americans Act, and the Veterans Administration, and a centralized application process for publicly funded long-term supports and services;

(2) Privately administered programs and services;

(3) Supports and services for persons with Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias;

(4) Transportation services;

(5) Housing options;

(6) Elder rights protection;

(7) Hospital and nursing home discharge planning and care transition;

(8) Health, prevention, and wellness programs;

(9) Support for grandparents raising grandchildren and other relatives age fifty five years or older caring for children; and

(10) Informal and family caregiver support services.

(1) Persons sixty years of age and older;

(2) Persons of any age with physical disabilities, serious mental illness, dementia, and developmental or intellectual disabilities;

(3) Informal and family caregivers providing assistance to persons needing long-term supports and services;

(4) Professionals seeking long-term supports and services on behalf of their clients; and

(5) Persons planning for their future long-term supports and service needs.

(d) The area agencies on aging shall implement the aging and disability resource centers program within their respective geographic service areas."

SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $___, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2013-2014 to establish the aging and disability resource centers in each county.

SECTION 5. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the Executive Office on Aging for the purposes of this act.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________
	BY REQUEST

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2779
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012
STATE OF HAWAII