Meyerhoff Center Chairman Mike Colodny: Preparing for Title III Reauthorization in 2011 Requires a Evaluation of Increasing Demand for Senior Services

A message from Meyerhoff Center Board Chairman Mike Colodny, Esq.

Senior citizen need for home-delivered meals and transportation services may be increasing, according to the preliminary results of a U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) study currently ongoing in preparation for the 2011 reauthorization of Title III of the Older Americans Act (“OAA”) OAA and a full report to be issued by GAO, also in 2011. 

Administered by the Administration on Aging (“AoA”) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the OAA is intended to assist individuals age 60 and older by providing supportive services. Title III, Medicaid and Medicare, state and other sources of funding provide for several types of services, including congregate and home-delivered meals, transportation, and caregiver support.

Local officials cite seniors’ desire to remain in their homes as they age, along with the economic downturn as possible reasons for increased requests. Given this demand, providers must make decisions about which applicants will receive services.  Some agencies said they were unable to meet all requests for services in fiscal year 2009.  For example, 13 of 67 survey respondents said they were generally or very unable to serve all seniors who requested home-delivered meals and 15 of 63 said they were generally or very unable to serve all who requested transportation assistance.   Nowhere is this increased need more evident than at the Joseph Meyerhoff Senior Center in Hollywood, which has provided OAA services to South Florida seniors for over 30 years. 

According to the GAO preliminary survey, 28 of 61 local agencies said they transferred funds in fiscal year 2009, most often removing funds from congregate meals to home-delivered meals or other services.  Although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“Recovery Act”) provided an additional $97 million specifically for meal programs, like the Meyerhoff Center, OAA/Title III programs are heavily reliant on state funds and 44 of 64 local agencies responding to the survey said their state funding was reduced for fiscal year 2010.

To cope with funding reductions, some reported cutting services to seniors. Twenty-seven of 65 local agencies said they cut administrative expenses in fiscal year 2010; others relocated offices or left agency positions vacant.  Some state and local officials said they provided less service to individuals so that more could get some amount of assistance.  Some agencies said they used Recovery Act funds to replace lost state and local funding or created new programs, but the funding was restricted to meal services and was a relatively small percentage of total OAA allocations.

The proportion of Americans age 60 and over will continue to grow over the coming decades, and demand for OAA/Title III services also will likely grow.   

The Meyerhoff Center, like other OAA/Title III agencies in the GAO survey, is attempting to develop a number of coping mechanisms to address seniors’ requests and decreased funding.

To learn more about the progress of the study, click here to read GAO Director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security Issues Kay E. Brown’s testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Special Committee on Aging.

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