HARRISBURG — The Shapiro administration fielded questions from skeptical lawmakers in the Capitol this week about its oversight of the state’s network of agencies that investigate allegations of abuse and neglect involving older adults.
During a budget hearing on Tuesday, Department of Aging Secretary Jason Kavulich was pressed on how well his agency holds local agencies accountable when they fail to keep older adults safe.
He was also asked to explain his decision to stop tracking why older adults die during open abuse and neglect investigations, and whether poorly executed probes by county aging agencies played a role; and what, if any, punitive actions his agency is taking against counties where older adults have faced poor outcomes.
All are issues revealed by Spotlight PA in a 18 month-long investigation into failures by some counties to conduct thorough and timely abuse and neglect investigations and the resulting devastating consequences for older adults. Many of those older adults lack financial resources for alternative care or a network of family and friends to watch out for them — so they rely on the system to remain safe.
Despite the failures, those agencies have not faced any penalties by state aging officials, even as the number of older adults who die during open investigations has skyrocketed over the past decade.
On Tuesday, state Rep. Eric Nelson (R., Westmoreland) pushed Kavulich to explain why a majority of counties assessed by the department under its new monitoring system had received poor scores for providing protective services to older adults at risk of harm.
According to data on the department’s website, 14 out of the 20 counties that have been monitored since the start of last year have fallen below the acceptable threshold in the “risk mitigation and safety” category. That category assesses how counties are responding to reports of abuse and neglect and providing needed services to keep older adults safe.
Kavulich revealed that four county agencies — although he did not name them, and the department did not provide additional information on Wednesday — had been flagged for poor performance, and that the department had moved to the “next level of intervention” to bring in their leadership to discuss the problem and set timelines for them to take corrective action.
“My concern is discipline,” Nelson responded. “Is discipline occurring or is it just talk?”
Kavulich said that new contracts his department has entered into with the 52 county agencies include the ability to block them from drawing down additional grants and other specialized funding.
State Rep. Ann Flood (R., Northampton) asked about a 68-year-old Western Pennsylvania man highlighted in Spotlight PA’s ongoing investigation. The man had twice been reported to Erie County’s aging agency for suspected abuse by the person he lived with.
The news organization revealed that the man died by suicide while his case was being investigated, and that a specialist at the Department of Aging who reviewed the county‘s handling of the case raised alarms. The man’s file noted that when the abuse allegations were first reported to the county, he was at “imminent risk” of harm.
Spotlight PA is not naming the 68-year-old due to the circumstances surrounding his death and because it was unable to reach his family.
Abuse and neglect files involving older adults are confidential, and the public — including lawmakers — do not have access to them.
“This population continues to die at alarming numbers while under the care of the system,” Flood said of older adults. “In the case of that 68-year-old man who had killed himself, did the [county aging agency] in that case receive any punitive action for the handling of that case?”
“We cannot speak to the specifics of any case,” Kavulich responded.
Still, the secretary said he supports the formal creation of a fatality review process “at the county level” to help review complex cases and improve their policies.
Spotlight PA has reported that a bill introduced late last year by state Sen. Maria Collett (D., Montgomery) would require county aging agencies to create specialized teams to examine why older adults die during active investigations, and probe whether delays and other procedural failures played a role in the fatalities.