RS 161 - Health screening and maintenance programs; creation; incorporation of services within existing programs
A. A health screening and maintenance program for elderly persons, sixty years of age or older, is hereby established and authorized as a pilot program to be administered by the Louisiana Department of Health, office of health services and environmental quality, hereinafter referred to as office. At the end of a three-year period, the office shall report to the health and welfare committees of the House of Representatives and Senate on the feasibility of the program and make recommendations as to whether the program should be continued, expanded, or discontinued.
B. The program shall be developed by the office as a basic health screening and maintenance program conducted for the elderly in accordance with the provisions of this Subpart. In addition, the office shall establish the criteria for the implementation of the programs and may make all necessary rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this Subpart, except that no rule will be made to limit the program to Medicaid eligibles and no program shall be established in a parish without a public health millage with the exception of the special program in Orleans Parish.
C. The services established by the office in accordance with the provisions of this Subpart shall be provided through screening and maintenance program centers which shall be established and located in each of the eight state planning districts to be determined by the Louisiana Department of Health and in two additional special districts, one to be in Orleans Parish and the other to cover the parishes of Grant, Red River, and Winn. The screening and health maintenance program centers shall be established in the existing parish health units. The office of health services and environmental quality shall be the central office for the program.
D. The office, where feasible, shall implement the health screening and maintenance program for each district by incorporating the services to be offered to the elderly within existing health unit programs. In no case shall the health screening and maintenance program duplicate services offered through existing health unit programs, parish councils on aging, and other cooperating agencies in the given district.
E. The office shall emphasize and encourage community involvement in health screening and maintenance programs.
F. The office shall direct, as a condition of designation and receiving funds, in each program district the development of a coordinated plan which shall include cooperative agreements with other local agencies who will provide services in the program.
G. In parishes where there are several neighborhood health centers under different jurisdictions than the office of health services and environmental quality, before state funds can be provided for a program or a program established, the office shall assure through cooperative agreements between these different jurisdictions that a coordinated and similar program will be offered to the elderly served by such neighborhood health centers, and that the coordinating agency be the parish office of the office of health services and environmental quality.
Added by Acts 1977, No. 654, §1. Amended by Acts 1978, No. 773, §1; Acts 1979, No. 769, §8.