Bill Would Battle Elder Abuse Tellers Would Be Able To Report Suspicious Withdrawals From Seniors’ Accounts

If a bank teller notices a senior citizen’s bank account drop to zero and thinks something suspicious is going on, the teller, bound by confidentiality laws, cannot do much about it.

“They won’t talk to us,” said Judy Gerard, director of home and community-based programs for the Office on Aging and Adult Protection at the College of Southern Idaho.

“Yet at times they’re privy to knowing something is inappropriately happening to a customer’s account.”

But a proposed state law designed to further crack down on elder abuse would protect the teller from civil and criminal prosecution if he or she reports suspected bank-account tampering to elder-abuse workers.

It will not necessarily stop a common, perfectly legal bank-tampering scheme, when a joint member on an elder’s account drains the account.

That happened to a senior citizen in the Magic Valley, Gerard said, who had no money left to buy medicine after leaving the hospital. But case workers could get involved in the situation and stop it from happening again.

The proposed law would make two other changes in adult abuse investigations. It would specifically give police officers the right to remove elders from abusive situations. Officers sometimes are reluctant to do so, and slow the process by waiting for permission from supervisors, Gerard said. It would also allow the Office on Aging to swap client records with the Department of Health and Welfare for clients they have in common.

The changes, which have not yet won a committee hearing, were assembled by a diverse group, including the Idaho Banker’s Association, law enforcement, senior groups, case workers and doctors, said Omar Valverde, staff attorney for the Office on Aging.

Now, just one in 14 adult abuse cases are reported nationally, he said. He hopes the changes will increase the reporting rate in Idaho.

“Adult abuse is significantly less reported than child abuse,” he said.

“But vulnerable adults and children are equally susceptible.”