Over the past six years, more than 1,000 federal programs (or 98 percent of the federal budget) accounting for $2.6 trillion in federal spending have been assessed using the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). The goal of PART is to make programs work better by holding agencies accountable for achieving results and making government more effective.
Recently the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced the 2005 results of PART assessments. Programs administered by the Administration on Aging (AoA) received the highest rating of "Effective." To be rated Effective, a program must have a clear purpose and be well-managed. It must efficiently provide high quality services and promote the well-being and independence of the participants. An Effective rating, as the highest possible rating, was achieved by only 16 out of 114 programs rated in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The OMB press release states that "the Administration on Aging improved its outreach and services to elderly Americans who suffer from disease and disability. Over 300,000 elderly and disabled individuals, who due to their physical conditions would be living in nursing homes, can continue to live in their own homes and stay connected to their communities. In 2003, this number totaled around 280,000." In addition, between 2002 and 2005, the number of seniors served, per million dollars, through the AoA's home and community based and nutrition services increased by 23 percent. The increase occurred while the quality rating of services remained high.
To substantiate aging network program performance and its cost-effectiveness, AoA uses the outcome results collected through national outcome surveys and the Performance Outcomes Measures Project (POMP) as evidence for PART assessment to demonstrate the outstanding programs performance of the aging network of state and area agencies on aging and associated service providers across the nation.
PART assessment has increasingly become an important factor in budgeting decision-making at the Federal level. It influences which programs may be cut during a fiscal crisis and which programs receive increases among limited discretionary dollars. The evidence on program performance outcomes resulting from national outcome surveys and the POMP initiative will likely play an even greater role in the PART assessment and Older Americans Act programs funding in the future.
