Area agencies on aging warn funding shortfall threatens services, ask legislature for $105 million

HARRISBURG — Leaders of the Pennsylvania Association of Area Agencies on Aging told the House Aging & Older Adult Services Committee on Wednesday that the statewide network of area agencies on aging (AAAs) is facing growing demand and a budget shortfall that risks cutting senior centers, meals and other preventive services.

The panel — J. R. Reid, board president of P4A and executive director of the Lehigh County Office of Aging and Adult Services; Beth Herold, director of the Butler County Area Agency on Aging and P4A board vice president; and Rebecca May Cole, executive director of P4A — said AAAs are the “first line” of service for older Pennsylvanians and that reductions will push more people into costlier state-funded care.

“Area agencies on aging…are the ones that deliver services for older adults,” Rebecca May Cole told the committee. “They are the ones that people call first.” She said AAAs were created under the Older Americans Act of 1973 and that Pennsylvania has 52 AAAs covering all 67 counties.

Why it matters: Committee members heard that AAAs provide information and referral, senior-center programming, nutrition (including home-delivered meals), transportation, care management, ombudsman visits to long-term care settings, and elder-protective services. Panelists said early, locally provided supports can prevent crises that otherwise require Medicaid-funded long-term care.

Panelists described the state funding picture and the request they…