BILL REQ. #:  H-4405.2 

Read first time 01/16/08.   Referred to Committee on Health Care & Wellness.

     AN ACT Relating to expansion of adult day care services; adding a new section to chapter 74.39A RCW; and creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that Washingtonians sixty-five years of age and older will nearly double in the next twenty-five years, from eleven percent of our population to almost twenty percent. Younger people living with disabilities will also require supportive long-term care services. Nationally, younger people living with a disability account for thirty-seven percent of the total number of people who need long-term care.
     The legislature further finds that adult day service programs provide an important and valuable service that allows people to live as independently as possible, while receiving services that are essential to their health and well-being, and still residing in their own homes or adult family homes.
     The legislature further finds that adult day service programs provide a valuable respite from caregiving responsibilities for family members, supporting family caregivers and allowing them to continue to care for their family member without needing more formal services or a higher level residential care.
     The legislature further finds that adult day service programs are not available, at all, in twenty-six of Washington's thirty-nine counties, and are only available to a limited degree in the thirteen counties in which some services exist. It is important that a special effort be established to assist unserved and underserved communities to develop adult day services programs.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 74.39A RCW to read as follows:
     Within funds appropriated for this purpose, the department shall develop a challenge grant program to assist communities and organizations in efforts to plan and establish additional adult day service programs throughout the state. The challenge grant program shall provide financial grants, not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars for each grant, for the purpose of helping to meet the costs of planning, development, and start-up of new adult day service programs in underserved communities. Recipients of these grants must provide matching resources, in funds or in-kind, of equal value to any grant received. Any adult day services program developed after receiving a challenge grant must agree to serve people whose care is paid for by the state medical assistance program on a first-come, first-served basis regardless of the source of payment.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   If specific funding for the purposes of this act, referencing this act by bill or chapter number, is not provided by June 30, 2008, in the omnibus appropriations act, this act is null and void.