Growing Opposition to Consolidation of Departments of Aging into Other State Departments
As I reported here for the first time recently, Pennsylvania’s Governor Wolf has proposed consolidation — or as he prefers to call it — unification — of four separate administrative agencies, the Departments of Aging, Health, Human Services (formerly Public Welfare) and Drug & Alcohol Treatment Programs. Are similar budget-driven changes occurring in your state?
As I catch up with events in Pennsylvania, I’m learning from readers about growing concerns about the possible merger.
- As one recently retired PA legislator pointed out, there seems to be little in the way of a written plan for how services will be handled under this merger. Rather, the merger appears mostly as a description of budget items, with a lot of “minus” signs to indicate cuts. Perhaps by design, Pennsylvania government is often a bad example of transparency for governments. What is the real plan, if any?
- With the consolidation, at a minimum, older Pennsylvanians would be losing a cabinet level post, their singular, dedicated spokesperson. This would be likely to affect all future budget and programming battles.
- The timing is, to use a favorite Trump adjective, “sad.” While the leading edge of the big wave of aging baby boomers began to be felt a few years ago when those born in in 1945 started turning age 65 in 2010, the “real” need for an effective advocate is when boomers start turning age 75, age 80 and so on, the higher ages when they are more likely to need or question access to services.
Perhaps of greatest significance is the potential impact of consolidation on the process for assessment of need for services and assistance, especially Medical Assistance.
Under the current allocation of resources, “assessment” of need is handled by individuals employed under the authority of Pennsylvania’s Department of Aging.
However, the financial allocations are currently determined under the authority of the Department of Human Services. Consolidation might make sense on paper, but wait!
As one of my mentors in aging, Northern Ireland’s former Commissioner of Older People Claire Keatinge, says, to be helpful, fair and effective, any individual assessment of need for health care, social care and security, should be exactly that — individualized and focused on the client, and should not be simply a match to “what services (if any) are available.” That process-based distinction is critical to determining current and future funding priorities.
In Pennsylvania, the lion’s share of budget and personnel for aging services has long been housed in the Department of Human Services (formerly Public Welfare), but those workers — perhaps by necessity and perhaps by design, have often functioned as dedicated bean counters, as in “here’s what services we fund, so do you or don’t you meet the eligibility criteria?”
By losing the aging assessment focus of the current Department of Aging, it seems likely the state would compromise, and perhaps lose entirely, the independent thinking and opportunity for critical needs-based assessment.
Several elder-focused organizations have raised these and other key points in opposition to the existing budget-based consolidation proposal. Those active in the debate include:
- The Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (PAELA) has asked thoughtful legislators to “oppose such consolidation” as presented in the current budget proposal. As Pittsburgh Elder Law attorney Julian Gray testified on May 1 in state Senate hearings, a “bigger” agency is not necessarily a “better” agency.
- Representatives for the service organization for Pennsylvania senior service workers, P4A, testified strongly in favor of the role of the Department of Aging as the advocate for the “unique needs of seniors.” Speakers focused too on the Department’s historical role in protecting and managing a unique funding stream dedicated to seniors, “lottery” funds.
- Long-time practitioner and elder law guru, Jeff Marshall, has a comprehensive commentary, with links, detailing the history and importance of Pennsylvania’s Department of Aging. There’s a simple bottom line expressed here — “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
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