(a) The department shall establish a community care unit within the aging section. The community care unit shall plan and oversee implementation of a system of coordinated community care and support services for the elderly. The community care unit shall develop uniform assessment criteria that shall be used to determine an individual's functional impairment and to evaluate on a periodic basis the individual's need for community support services or institutionalized long-term care. The community care unit shall also define each community care service and establish standards for the delivery of community care services. Where appropriate, the community care unit shall utilize existing standards and definitions.

(b) The department shall designate specified geographic service areas which shall be defined in such a way as to ensure the efficient delivery of community care services.

(c) The department shall contract with a lead agency to coordinate and provide community care services within each specified geographic service area.

(d) Each lead agency shall annually submit to the community care unit for approval a service plan evaluating the community care needs of the functionally impaired elderly, identifying priority services and target client groups, and detailing the means by which community care services will be delivered for the service area of that agency. The plan shall also include projected program costs and fees to be charged for services. The lead agency may exclude from the service plan those individuals eligible for benefits under the "Georgia Medical Assistance Act of 1977," as amended, for whom there is a reasonable expectation that community-based services would be more expensive than services the individual would otherwise receive which would have been reimbursable under the "Georgia Medical Assistance Act of 1977," as amended.

(e) The department shall develop a plan which shall provide for the implementation of a community care system in each of the specified geographic service areas by July 1, 1985. The three-year plan shall be developed concurrent with and integrated into the state plan on aging required under the Older Americans Act of 1965 and shall provide for coordination of all community-based services for the elderly. The three-year plan shall include an inventory of existing services and an analysis comparing the cost of institutional long-term care and the cost of community care and other community-based services for the elderly. The multiyear plan shall be presented to the Board of Human Resources no later than July 31, 1983.

(f) At the end of the three-year implementation period an annual community care service plan shall be incorporated into the state plan on aging.

(g) The department shall submit on January 1 of each year, beginning in 1984, a progress report on the implementation of the plan required by subsection (e) of this Code section to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, the chairman of the House Health and Ecology Committee, and the chairman of the Senate Youth, Aging, and Human Ecology Committee. (h) In accordance with rules promulgated by the department, lead agencies may collect fees for community care case management and other services. Such fees shall be established on a sliding scale based upon income and economic need. Fees will not be charged those individuals for the mandatory assessment described in subsection (e) of Code Section 49-6-63. Lead agencies may accept contributions of money or contributions in kind from functionally impaired elderly persons, members of their families, or other interested persons or organizations. Such contributions may not be a condition of services and shall only be used to further the provision of community care services.

(i) Funding for services under this article shall be in addition to and not in lieu of funding for existing community services for the elderly. The department and the lead agency shall ensure that all other funding sources available, including reimbursement under the "Georgia Medical Assistance Act of 1977" and the Older Americans Act of 1965, have been used prior to utilizing state funds for community care for the elderly.