“To amend title XX of the Social Security Act to provide grants to States to support linkages to legal services and medical legal partnerships.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section (1) directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, within two years of enactment, to establish a grant program to states to support evidence-based medical-legal partnerships (MLPs)—i.e., arrangements integrating lawyers and social workers in health or social services settings to address elders' social determinants of health and structural health inequities—and legal hotlines facilitating linkages for vulnerable elders (i.e., those age 60 or older) or their representatives to such services in specified settings (e.g., area agencies on aging, health professional shortage areas, federally qualified health centers, critical access hospitals); requires state biannual reports on effectiveness metrics (e.g., referral numbers, resolution times, success rates), a Secretary evaluation comparing states, and congressional reports every four years; appropriates $125 million annually for FY2026 through FY2029; and specifies supplement-not-supplant; and (2) amends the elder justice definitions to clarify that adult protective services include those provided through an MLP and to define MLP.