NCJ Number
155450
Date Published
Unknown
Length
73 pages
Annotation
This report of Pennsylvania's Task Force for the Protection of Older Pennsylvanians is designed as a resource guide for consumers, legislators, law enforcement, public or private professionals, and others interested in understanding some of the most common consumer problems that plague older citizens.
Abstract
The report presents a detailed examination of issues in the areas of home improvements, telemarketing fraud, pre-need funeral and burial services, long-term care insurance, durable medical goods, hearing aids, and abuse in long-term care facilities and boarding homes. In the area of home improvements, the task force recommends the enactment of legislation that requires the licensing of home-improvement contractors, building codes for home improvements, and criminal and civil sanctions for fraudulent business practices conducted by home-improvement contractors. Regarding telemarketing fraud, the recommended legislation would prohibit fraudulent and deceptive telemarketing practices by requiring all telemarketers to register with the State and by criminalizing certain types of telemarketing fraud. In the area of durable medical goods, the task force recommends that public and private organizations that serve older consumers begin to promote the formation of, donations to, and the use of durable-medical-goods loan programs and distribution information on such programs to hospitals, doctors, and organizations that serve older citizens. Recognizing the complexity of long-term care insurance policies and the emergence of such options as an increasingly necessary and expensive necessity for some older consumers, the task force recommends that the State Department of Insurance consider standardizing policies for long-term care insurance. Other recommendations pertain to practices in the sale of pre-need funerals and burials, the sale of hearing aids, and abuse of the elderly in long-term care facilities and boarding homes. Appended summary of task force recommendations and a resource guide