BILL ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 2660 By: Hilderbran (Turner) Health and Human Services 05-25-95 Senate Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND Area Agencies on Aging provide nutrition, transportation, and related services to the elderly through contracts with local public and private providers. Since creation of the Health and Human Services Commission and the promulgation of 11 health and human services regions for the coordination of state agencies' planning and administrative functions, confusion has arisen regarding how best to coordinate the planning and administration of local service delivery activities overseen by Area Agencies on Aging with the strategic planning and administrative coordination being implemented among state health and human services departments across the 11 health and human services regions. PURPOSE As proposed, C.S.H.B. 2660 requires the Texas Department of Human Services to aggregate locally developed plans and data regarding services to the elderly according to the state's health and human services regions. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is granted to the Texas Department of Human Services under SECTION 2 (Section 101.032(a), Human Resources Code) of this bill. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE: Older Texans' Regional Coordination Act. SECTION 2. Amends Chapter 101B, Human Resources Code, by adding Section 101.032, as follows: Sec. 101.032. AREA AGENCIES ON AGING. (a) Requires locally developed plans and data regarding services to the elderly to be aggregated and submitted to the Texas Department of Human Services (department) by area agencies on aging according to the state's health and human service regions established under Article 4413(502), V.T.C.S., and to be incorporated into the department's strategic plan. Authorizes the department, by rule, to establish the form in which the data must be submitted as well as the process to select which area agency on aging in each region submits the aggregated plans and data. (b) Requires the department, unless otherwise authorized by the commissioner of health and human services and approved by the legislature or the Legislative Budget Board, to decentralize the department's services through area agencies on aging designated by the department as of January 1, 1995, pursuant to the federal Older Americans Act, and to maintain the boundaries of such agencies consistent with the planning areas, or subdivisions thereof, established pursuant to Chapter 391, Local Government Code. (c) Makes area agencies on aging within a health and human services region jointly responsible for the coordination of the department's decentralized services within that region. SECTION 3. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage.