GCOA's Senior Issues Newsletter: Week of March 27, 2023
Senior Issues Weekly Newsletter March 31, 2023
2023 Legislative Session:
Legislative Days 39-40 and Sine Die
Senior Hunger Month Proclamation
Senior Hunger Month Proclamation
Sine Die approx. 12:17am
Senior Hunger Month Proclamation
In this Issue:
The 2023 Legislative Session has come to an end. To kick off Legislative Day 40, on Wednesday March 29th, GCOA staff and CO-AGE Chair, Eve Anthony, gathered under the Gold Dome for the proclamation of Senior Hunger Month alongside DHS Deputy Commissioner, MaryLea Boatwright Quinn, CO-AGE members, community partners, and colleagues, spearheaded by Dr. Temitope Walker, DHS Senior Hunger Coordinator.
On the legislative side, it was an action packed day from start to finish as legislators heard and voted on bills late into the evening. At approximately 12:15am on Thursday March 30th, the Speaker of the House, Jon Burns, soon followed by the President of the Senate, Burt Jones, both declared Sine Die! As is the tradition, within seconds of the declaration of Sine Die, bills were sent flying into the air and both Chambers were covered in mountains of paper. Read a summary of the day's events HERE. It's been a productive Session. Thank you for participating in our collective advocacy efforts!
Running congruently to the final days of the Session, the nation's largest multidisciplinary conference on aging, the American Society on Aging's On Aging Conference was held in Downtown Atlanta not too far from the Capitol, bringing together field experts from across the country.
Keep reading below for the final updates on the 2023 CO-AGE priorities.
This is the final edition of the weekly CO-AGE Senior Issues Newsletter.
The FY 2024 Budget Is Ready for the Governor to Sign
At the very end of Legislative Day 40, the House passed HB 19, the FY 2024 budget, after it went through a Joint Conference Committee. Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) will officially receive $5,464,800 million! This is over a $1 million increase from what was allotted last year! An additional $1 million will be designated to respite funds for those with Alzheimer's and related dementias and the Long-term Care Ombudsman program will receive $295,000 to support their overall operations.
Conversation Concerning Medicaid in Assisted Living Continues
The CO-AGE advocacy team will continue to work with the Georgia Department of Community Health and other partners in the interim to identify the most efficient way to bring the Improvements to Assisted Living Communities priority to fruition. Continued research may reveal that additional legislation is not necessarily needed but that the priority could possibly be achieved within the context of existing laws and regulations.
CO-AGE Supports Teledentistry
While CO-AGE supports the use of telehealth for dentistry to reach underserved seniors, the manner in which it will happen legislatively is still in discussion between the dental community, bill sponsors, and the advocacy team. The two pieces of legislation that were drafted for Teledentistry did not move. The issue gained enough traction this year that there is a good chance that it will be reconsidered next year.
Work and Save Research for GA is in the Works
As the dust settles from the Session, the advocacy team is preparing to work with the Georgia Employee’s Retirement System in a collaborative research effort to gain more insight into how a state retirement plan would work for the Peach State. As a result, bill language will then be drafted to hopefully move the issue forward next year.
CO-AGE Membership
Other Legislative Highlightd
Other Legislative Highlights
The 2022 CO-AGE priority, Innovations in Long Term Care, gained quite the momentum this session with HR 141, sponsored by Representative Lee Hawkins. While the resolution was not heard on Sine Die, GCOA is confident that a study committee to look at innovations in long term care is on the horizon.
The Secretary of State's bill, SB 84, which GCOA supported from the get-go, was passed! This bill which aims to protect against elder financial exploitation, will call for financial institutions to delay the processing of an unusual transaction on a vulnerable senior's account if fraud is suspected.
In addition to the aforementioned HR 141, GCOA was the proud recipient of two other House resolutions, one to recognize Senior Week 2023 and another to honor Carolyn Lipscomb as the 2023 Distinguished Older Georgian as well as a proclamation from the Governor for Senior Week 2023.
Senator Emanuel Jones secured $100,000 in the amended FY 2023 budget for Georgia State University's Project Healthy Grandparents in honor of his constituent and close friend, GCOA's beloved Council member, Lorene Lindsey. The mission of Project Healthy Grandparents is to support families in which grandparents are raising children in parent-absent homes. Mrs. Lindsey was a staunch advocate for seniors across the state for many years.
Call for Issues 2024
CO-AGE Membership
The Georgia Council on Aging's Coalition of Advocates for Georgia's Elderly (CO-AGE) is meant to be:
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a forum to identify and address concerns of older Georgians
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a vehicle for bringing broad-based input on aging issues from across the state
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a diverse group of organizations, individuals, consumers and providers interested in "aging specific" and inter-generational issues
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a unifying force communicating the importance of providing supportive communities and adequate services & programs for older Georgians
Anyone interested in advocating with or on behalf of older adults can join
CO-AGE. Individual Membership is only $10! Paid members have the distinctive
ability to submit and vote on the issues that GCOA and CO-AGE take to the Capitol!
Sign up HERE or Scan this QR Code:
If you are already a member, please make sure that your account is up to date. In order to accurately and effectively link our CO-AGE members to their legislators, it's important that we have the most updated home addresses in our database. If you had a change of address recently, please contact Patrice Parker at patrice.parker1@dhs.ga.gov and she will update your address in our system. All home addresses will remain confidential!
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47 Trinity Ave. SW, 1st Floor, Atlanta, GA 30334