NEW BLOOMFIELD, PA — Pennsylvania is expanding a performance-based review system for local aging agencies, backed by additional state funding, as officials seek faster responses to suspected elder abuse and greater public scrutiny of services for older adults.
Department of Aging Secretary Jason Kavulich outlined the Comprehensive Aging Performance Evaluation, or CAPE, during a Wednesday visit with Perry County aging-services and county officials. The system replaced a pass-or-fail model that the department determined provided inadequate oversight of Pennsylvania’s Area Agencies on Aging.
The 2026-27 state budget includes a $1 million increase that the department said will support the evaluation system and continued improvements to agency oversight and accountability.
“Older adults in Pennsylvania deserve a modernized system that helps them stay safe and supported, healthy and thriving, but our infrastructure had not kept pace with the growing and changing needs of older adults,” Kavulich stated.
“We have raised the bar of accountability,” he added. “CAPE allows the Department to do away with a simple pass/fail scoring system, and instead comprehensively ask, ‘what does this local agency specifically need to improve?’”
Launched in 2025, CAPE allows the department to evaluate several programs during a single review of each of the state’s 52 Area Agencies on Aging. Officials contend the broader assessment makes it easier to identify performance trends and direct training toward recurring deficiencies.
The department has also begun publishing monitoring results online. Residents can review local agency performance in protective services, OPTIONS in-home assistance and the Caregiver Support Program, information that was not routinely made public under the previous system.
As of March, 48 of the 52 agencies responded to reports of suspected elder abuse in a timely manner at least 85% of the time, according to the department. Responses often occurred within 24 hours.
Twenty-eight agencies scored at least 85% on a separate measure tracking whether protective-services case determinations were completed within 20 days.
Kavulich last week conducted a virtual training session for 500 aging-network professionals to address problems identified through CAPE that the department maintained had previously gone unresolved.
Justin Lee, executive director of the Perry County Area Agency on Aging, described CAPE as a mechanism for improving cooperation between state and local officials.
“The Department of Aging has shown a strong desire to work constructively with the Area Agencies on Aging, and the CAPE is a tool that is being used to build a stronger aging network,” Lee stated.
Pike and Somerset counties were added to the published evaluations last week, bringing the online total to 28 agencies serving 39 counties. The department plans to continue reviewing the remaining agencies and publishing their results.
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