Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — The House Committee on Aging and Long-term Care today voted to shelve an initiative aimed at putting the Kansas Attorney General’s Office in charge of investigating reports of abuse and neglect that involve frail elders and people with disabilities.

“I just don’t believe that this is the best way for us to move forward,” said Rep. Don Hill, an Emporia Republican, referring to House Bill 2656.

The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services will continue overseeing the investigations.

Hill and other committee members said they were not convinced that switching agencies would resolve long-standing concerns that past reports of abuse and neglect often have been ignored.

All but one of the committee’s 13 members voted to direct the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bob Bethell, an Alden Republican, to compose and send a letter to SRS, demanding significant improvement.

Last week, SRS officials promised to convene internal work groups, develop a mission statement, create a separate Office of Adult Protective Services within the agency, draft an interagency memo of understanding with the Attorney General’s Office, Department on Aging, and Department of Health and Environment, and launch a public awareness campaign.

The overhaul, they said, would be complete by July 1.

Rep. Trent LeDoux, a Holton Republican, cast the lone dissenting vote.

“The time for talking is over,” he said. “I’m ready to act. I think writing a letter is a waste of time.”

Bethell said he would report back to the committee in about 30 days.

“What happened today, I think, is that the committee decided to wait and see if SRS is really going to do what it said it’s going to do,” Bethell told KHI News Service. “The issue now is ‘Will they do it?’ I guess it’s my job to find out.”

Bethell said he planned to hold "SRS’ feet to the fire.”

In earlier testimony, lobbyists for the state’s nursing home industry criticized the agency's handling of reports of elder abuse and neglect, noting that little had been done to stop family members from raiding an elder’s estate.

When the estates are depleted, they said, nursing home bills often go unpaid.