A new Master Plan for Older Adults is being developed in Pennsylvania.

Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an executive order Thursday, directing the Pennsylvania Department of Aging to develop the plan.

The Keystone State is home to almost 3.5 million people over age 60. The current State Plan on Aging ends next year.

Jason Kavulich, Secretary of Aging, said the new plan will be an updated roadmap, so older Pennsylvanians can live safely and with dignity, helping them "age in place" in their homes.

Kavulich emphasized the importance of having the community's voices reflected in the plan.

"We can't do this without them, and this is really for them," Kavulich explained. "They're empowering us to help shape this plan and make sure that it becomes a reality. This is a living document that will live with us for the next 10 years, and it requires all of us to give input to, so that we can feel ownership."

He noted in the development stage, they will be convening stakeholders and getting ideas from the public. The Department of Aging, Area Agencies on Aging, AARP Pennsylvania, and Centers for Independent Living will host listening sessions over the summer.

Kavulich added the master plan will include five core tenets to help the state transform its infrastructure and better coordinate services for older adults as well as people with disabilities. He explained the tenets include diversity, to reflect the state's population.

"Transparency and inclusion, that is something that is in everything that we do," Kavulich stressed. "We want to make sure that people feel that they know what's going on, that they see what's going on, and that they're included in what's going on. And we want to make sure that diverse communities feel that they have their voice in this plan as well."

Kavulich said the goal is to hold at least one session to get feedback on the plan in each of Pennsylvania's 67 counties. The department's goal is to finalize the plan by February of next year.

On Wednesday, Xcel Energy customers will have a chance to tell the Colorado Public Utilities Commission what they think about the company's request - to raise base electricity rates 8.2%, and bring in $312 million more in revenue.

Bill Levis is a former director of the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel and AARP Colorado volunteer.

He said this is the fifth request to raise rates in as many years - and low and fixed-income Coloradans who are already spending up to 30% of their budget on utility bills, can't afford another hike.

The PUC is also considering alternative rate proposals.

"The Utility Consumer Advocate has determined that Xcel should actually reduce its proposed net increase by $26.6 million," said Levis. "So instead of an increase, there would be a decrease."

To join the virtual hearing at 4 p.m. Wednesday, visit 'PUC.colorado.gov,' or call 303-869-3490 to leave a comment in English or Spanish.

Xcel is also asking the commission to bump up their authorized profits to just over 10%. The company has argued that increased revenue is needed to transition to clean energy, and that base electricity rates in Colorado are lower than the national average.

Levis said 10% is a big payout, considering anyone who has money in a savings account earns 0.5% to maybe 1%.

He added that the company's rate claims are largely based on the fact that Colorado uses less energy on average than states like Arizona, where air conditioners run many more months of the year.

"Well if you look at what's happened in the last five years, those rates have creeped up," said Levis. "AARP is very concerned that the rate creep is something that consumers on fixed incomes just can't absorb."

Levis said he believes public engagement can make a difference, pointing to the uproar over last winter's high utility bills.

Colorado lawmakers recently passed Senate Bill 291, which prohibits Xcel from passing certain costs on to its customers, including advertising and lobbying.

Levis said that's significant because Xcel currently boasts the largest lobbying force in the state.

"I think that's a big win," said Levis, "because in the last couple of legislative sessions, the General Assembly passed bills that actually benefited the company to the detriment of consumers."

Phone scammers are now using artificial intelligence to steal money from victims with realistic-sounding facsimiles of loved ones.

Scammers take existing recordings uploaded to social media and use AI to create a dynamic version of the voice that can read a script, and is then used to trick others out of cash. Seniors are often targeted, and when AI voice cloning is coupled with phone "spoofing," which falsifies the caller ID to appear as a familiar and trusted phone number, these calls become very convincing frauds.

Katie Shilton, associate professor of information science at the University of Maryland, said raising awareness is currently the best defense.

"People should know that this is a growing kind of crime and should be a little bit suspicious of frantic, threatening phone calls," Shilton advised. "One of the best countermeasures right now is to try to call the person back on their number."

Phone spoofing can also be used to mimic the phone number of a government agency or reputable organization. The Federal Trade Commission reports scammers may use an intermediary posing as an authority figure such as a fake lawyer or police officer.

Scammers will often ask victims to pay or send money in ways making it difficult to recover, including wire transfers, buying gift cards and sending them the number and PIN, or cryptocurrency. If you encounter a scam, you can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Shilton said the AI enabling scammers was originally developed for beneficial purposes.

"AI-powered phone scams are powered by a form of AI development that was meant for prosocial purposes," Shilton explained. "Originally, the voice mimicking was for art or for film; a lot of this work has been about accessibility to create voice assistants. Some of this work was to create voice assistants for business purposes."

The National Science Foundation has established an institute for Trustworthy A.I. in Law and Society. The institute is a partnership between the University of Maryland, George Washington University and Morgan State University, and seeks to develop mechanisms to ensure AI trustworthiness via both technological and public policy responses.

Shilton pointed out one area of innovation for researchers is the concept of watermarking AI output.

"Watermarking is a really promising area of research for generative AI in general, including voice mimicking technologies," Shilton emphasized. "The idea that we should have some sort of way for people to tell when something has been generated by AI as opposed to naturalistic recordings of people or something like that. "

Shilton noted one approach the institute is using to improve public trust in AI is including stakeholder communities in the design process.

"We have participatory design projects with the teachers union in Baltimore, to talk about tools for the classroom," Shilton said. "These are frequently designed outside of classrooms. Could we design them with teachers and parents and teenagers? Or we have accessibility design projects with blind communities to do object recognition."


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May is Older Americans Month, and a new report shows the Volunteer State is among the bottom of states when it comes to caring for its most vulnerable adults.

America's Health Rankings 2023 Senior Report from United Healthcare ranks Tennessee 42nd in health outcomes for those age 65 and older. Notable challenges include a high prevalence of frequent mental distress, drug deaths, smoking, lack of physical activity, and increased poverty.

Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, said elected leaders are not focused on creating policies to serve all Tennesseans.

"We need to have elected officials to roll up their sleeves and address the health care infrastructure," Johnson asserted. "Expanding Medicaid is vitally important not just for people who are in the coverage gap, which it is important for them, but it's important for older Tennessee because we have health care deserts."

Tennessee is among 11 states to not expand Medicaid. Johnson noted some states are six times more likely to lose a hospital when they have not expanded Medicaid, and she believes expanding Medicaid would strengthen the state's health care infrastructure and economy.

Johnson is also concerned about the unwinding of the public health emergency, which is in the process of redetermining health care for older Tennesseans. She contended state leaders should make it simple and ensure it protects seniors.

"This should be a fair process that is simple and lacking in bureaucracy as possible," Johnson argued. "And unfortunately that right now we're really concerned like hundreds of thousands of people, including seniors, will go without health care, not because they're not eligible but because the process is just so daunting."

The report found about 10% of Tennessee adults age 65 and older are living in poverty.

Dr. Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer of Employer and Individual for United Healthcare, said the comprehensive report found poverty increased overall by 10% between 2019 and 2021.

"We know that's really important because it has impacts on how much of their dollars are they spending on housing, food, medical care and more," Randall explained. "We want to make sure that not only are we seeing that number decrease, where seniors are living in poverty that the communities are aware of it."

Randall noted because of the pandemic, they saw more seniors receive access to home-delivered meals and seniors who were eligible for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program signed up. She added as we age, nutrition is very important and a decrease in food insecurity by 6% was an improvement, as fewer worried about accessing nutritious food.