HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania’s Department of Aging failed to adequately monitor local elder-abuse investigations and protective-services training during an 18-month audit period, according to Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor, who issued 39 recommendations to the agency and three proposed changes for state lawmakers.
The performance audit examined the department’s oversight of investigations conducted by Pennsylvania’s 52 Area Agencies on Aging from Jan. 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. Auditors assessed whether the department properly monitored investigations involving abuse and mistreatment and whether protective-services employees met minimum training requirements.
The audit produced 10 findings, including concerns that the department’s monitoring process did not effectively assess risk or detect cases in which older adults remained at risk of harm. Auditors also identified weaknesses involving follow-up procedures, record retention, death reviews, caseload monitoring and reassessments.
“Older Pennsylvanians are falling through the cracks of a system that is designed to protect them,” DeFoor stated.
A central focus was the Department of Aging’s Comprehensive Aging Performance Evaluation, or CAPE, which was piloted in 2024 and fully implemented in 2025 to replace an earlier monitoring system.
Auditors concluded the department had not established adequate quality-assurance controls for CAPE and identified deficiencies involving the reliability and accuracy of monitoring results.
The Department of Aging has separately described CAPE as a more detailed replacement for its previous pass/fail approach, with the system designed to identify specific deficiencies at Area Agencies on Aging and require corrective action. The department currently publishes performance information for local agencies and reports that CAPE monitoring has prompted operational changes at some of them.
The audit also faulted the department’s handling of a 20-day investigation timeframe contained in state regulations. According to auditors, the department treated the timeframe as a performance goal rather than a requirement.
The Department of Aging’s current public monitoring materials state that protective-services case determinations are measured against the 20-day timeframe and acknowledge that some delays may result from circumstances outside an Area Agency on Aging’s control.
Auditors separately identified the absence of a time limit for financial-exploitation investigations as a risk to older adults.
The report also concluded that the department failed to conduct required annual evaluations of Area Agencies on Aging and provide public access to written reports of the results as required by statute.
Training represented another area of concern. Auditors concluded the department did not ensure that Area Agencies on Aging provided comprehensive training to protective-services employees and lacked sufficient procedures for monitoring that training.
The 39 recommendations to the Department of Aging address issues including identifying older adults who remain at risk, investigation timelines, record retention, public reporting and employee training. Three additional recommendations call for the General Assembly to strengthen the Older Adults Protective Services Act.
The Department of Aging disagreed with the audit findings, according to DeFoor, though he noted that the agency implemented some recommendations while the audit was underway.
“PDA shouldn’t like this audit, but it should be willing to use it as a tool to strengthen oversight of AAAs,” DeFoor stated. “CAPE needs to be better.”
The Department of Aging has publicly maintained that CAPE has strengthened oversight. As of March 2026, the department reported that 48 of the 52 Area Agencies on Aging were responding to suspected elder-abuse reports within required timeframes at least 85% of the time, while 28 agencies met an 85% performance threshold for completing protective-services determinations within 20 days.
DeFoor also accused the department of delaying the audit’s release by about six months through delays in producing documents, identifying employees responsible for program oversight, and scheduling staff interviews.
The Department of Aging provides a statewide 24-hour hotline at 1-800-490-8505 for reports of suspected abuse or neglect of older adults.
The Auditor General’s office makes its audits available at www.PaAuditor.gov.
Support the local news that supports Chester County. MyChesCo delivers reliable, fact-based reporting and essential community resources—free for everyone. If you value that, click here to become a patron today.