Two arms of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are trying to complete a regulatory project that HHS started in 1994 and never got around to finishing.
The Administration on Aging (AoA) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL) have published proposed regulations on implementation of the version of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman program (RIN 0985-AA08) that was included in the revision of the Older Americans Act passed in 1992.
The comments are set to appear in the Federal Register Tuesday.
Comments will be due 60 days after the official Federal Register publication date.
State ombudsman programs are supposed to help users of long-term care (LTC) services and their relatives improve the quality of the services and resolve disputes with providers.
State ombudsman programs have been operating use 1988 regulations written to implement an older version of the Older Americans Act, officials said.