42 U.S.C. § 280b–1f — Prevention of falls among older adults

(a) Public education. The Secretary may: (1) Oversee and support a national education campaign, run by a nonprofit group experienced in injury-prevention programs. It must be aimed mainly at older adults, their families, and health care providers, and focus on cutting the number of falls and repeat falls among older adults. (2) Give grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to qualified organizations or groups of organizations with fall-prevention expertise. This money is for organizing state-level coalitions of state and local agencies, and safety, health, senior, and other groups, to run local education campaigns that focus on cutting falls and repeat falls. (b) Research. (1) In general. The Secretary may: (A) Do or support research to: (i) better identify older adults at high risk of falling; (ii) improve how fall-risk and protective data is collected and studied; (iii) design, carry out, and evaluate the most effective ways to prevent falls; (iv) adapt strategies proven to work so they fit specific groups of older adults; (v) study how to spread proven fall-prevention methods as widely as possible; (vi) strengthen proven fall-prevention efforts; (vii) improve how elderly fall victims and high-risk older adults are diagnosed, treated, and rehabilitated; and (viii) assess fall risk in different settings. (B) Study what stops proven fall-prevention methods from being adopted. (C) Study, build, and evaluate the best ways to cut falls among high-risk older adults living in the community and in long-term care or assisted living facilities. (D) Evaluate how well community fall-prevention programs work. (2) Educational support. The Secretary, either directly or through grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to qualified organizations with fall-prevention expertise, may provide professional education on preventing, evaluating, and managing falls to doctors, allied health professionals, and aging-service providers. (c) Demonstration projects. The Secretary may: (1) Oversee and support demonstration and research projects, run by qualified organizations with fall-prevention expertise, in these areas: (A) A multistate demonstration project testing how useful targeted fall-risk screening and referral programs are. (B) Programs for older adults living in the community that combine several fall-prevention approaches, such as physical activity, reviewing and reducing medications, improving vision, and modifying homes. (C) Programs aimed at people who just had a fall and are at high risk of falling again, designed to keep them as independent as possible, especially those with functional limits. (D) Public-private and private-sector partnerships to build technology that prevents falls and reduces injuries when falls happen. (2) (A) Give grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to design, run, and evaluate fall-prevention programs that use proven strategies in residential and institutional settings. (B) Give one or more grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements for a multistate demonstration project that carries out and evaluates fall-prevention programs using proven strategies, designed for single- and multifamily housing with many older adults. This includes: (i) identifying high-risk groups; (ii) evaluating residential buildings; (iii) screening to find high-risk individuals; (iv) giving fall assessments, risk-reduction help, and counseling; (v) coordinating with health care and social service providers; and (vi) coordinating treatment and rehab after a fall. (3) Give grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to organizations to evaluate how well the demonstration projects described in this subsection work. (d) Priority. When awarding grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements under this section, the Secretary may favor applicants that offer to share costs, to make sure they are committed to the project. This non-federal cost-sharing can come directly from the applicant or through donations from public or private sources, and can be cash or in-kind things like equipment, land, or services, fairly valued. (e) Study of falls' effect on health care costs. (1) In general. The Secretary may review how falls affect health care costs, how much falls could be reduced, and the best strategies for cutting the health care costs tied to falls. (2) Report. If the Secretary does this review, the Secretary must send Congress a report describing the findings, no later than 36 months after April 23, 2008.