LYNNE JETER

Congress showed its support for addressing the growing, large-scale problem of falls among older adults when it passed the Safety for Seniors Act of 2008. Signed into law by President George W. Bush in late April, the legislation aptly addresses developing education strategies to raise awareness about elder falls, encouraging research to identify at-risk populations and evaluating fall interventions, and supporting fall prevention demonstration projects.

But the new legislation lacks one key ingredient: funding.

The Falls Free Coalition Advocacy Work Group – a broad-based coalition of nonprofit organizations led by the National Safety Council, National Council on Aging, Home Safety Council, AARP, American Occupational Therapy Association, and American Physical Therapy Association — on behalf of dozens of policy groups representing older Americans, safety advocates and health professionals, called for Congress to provide $20.7 million in fiscal year 2009 for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC’s) Injury Center to fully implement the critical fall prevention initiative, now titled Public Law 110-202.


Booming Numbers
Every year, one in three Americans age 65 and older falls; 30 percent require medical treatment. Between 1999 and 2005, 1.8 million older adults were treated in emergency departments for injuries related to falls. Some 433,000 were hospitalized and nearly 16,000 died. CDC reports the mortality rate resulting from falls among older adults increased 39 percent during the six-year period.

“For adults over age 65, falls and injuries from falls are a major threat to health, independence, and their quality of life,” said James Firman, CEO of the National Council on Aging.

CDC reports that healthcare costs related to falls continue to escalate, and are projected to top $43 billion annually by 2020, at which time the cost to Medicare would be $32.4 billion.

“Millions of the nation’s elderly, and their families, suffer the terrible consequences of falls each year,” said Mark Rodgers, CEO of Samarion, Inc., a health technology company based in Jackson, Miss., “and while more than $19 billion is spent annually after-the-fact, the impact on these frail seniors cannot be measured in dollars alone. As a nation, we must do more to prevent these falls from occurring and reverse this serious healthcare crisis.”

Patricia Adkins, COO of the Home Safety Council, concurred. “Trying to solve a $19 billion problem with a $1 million budget just won’t work,” she said of President Bush’s proposed FY09 budget for fall prevention issues.


Demonstration Projects Await Green Light
Innovative pilot programs offering promising solutions — comprehensive clinic assessments, exercise programs to improve balance and strength, management of medications, correction of visions, and most importantly, comprehensive fall prevention systems — are awaiting the go-ahead for participation. Only the lack of funding remains an obstacle.

“Right now, new technologies are demonstrating their effectiveness at actually preventing falls from occurring in the first place,” continued Rodgers, whose company developed an all-encompassing system, SamarionSolution. One component of the comprehensive quality improvement system is an unprecedented fall prevention feature. “Funding the CDC’s Injury Center will provide the means to roll out important pilot programs to validate these promising fall prevention technologies.”


Appropriations Action
Even though the House Appropriations Subcommittee discussed funding the bill at its June 19 meeting, and the full committee addressed the issue at its June 26 meeting, only $3 million was directed at fall prevention. The Senate bill only mentions fall prevention in report language, which allows CDC discretion in how much money is directed toward the effort. In all likelihood, if the House and Senate conference the bill this year, it will probably happen this fall and no appropriations are likely until early 2009.

“Samarion supports the House version of the appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (Labor/HHS), which includes $3 million for fall prevention activities,” said Rodgers. “As this bill works its way through the legislative process, we urge the Senate to accept the House language appropriating fund  to the CDC’s Injury Center for fall prevention.”



August 2008