One Call, Eight Counties: What the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging Actually Does — and What Changes in 2026
Most families never hear the words "Area Agency on Aging" until a hospital discharge planner says them out loud. COAAA has quietly run the region's PASSPORT waiver, in-home help and caregiver support for years — and in 2026 it's changing how it's governed, not what it does.
The Agency Behind the Programs
Ask ten central Ohio families where PASSPORT applications get processed, who funds Meals on Wheels routes in Delaware County, or who a hospital calls to arrange home care before a parent is discharged, and most won't know the answer is usually the same organization: the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging, or COAAA. It isn't a facility. It doesn't have a lobby a family walks into for a tour. It's the regional planning and funding agency that sits behind a lot of what actually gets a senior help at home in this part of Ohio — and in 2026, the way it's governed is changing.
That distinction matters for a practical reason. Families searching for "senior services near me" in central Ohio often land on COAAA's name without understanding what it is, what it costs, or whether it's the right first call. This is a plain explanation of the agency, region-wide, followed by what's actually different this year.
What an Area Agency on Aging Is, in Plain Terms
Area Agencies on Aging exist because of a federal law, the Older Americans Act of 1965, which set up a national network of regional agencies to plan, fund and coordinate services for older adults rather than leave every county to build its own system from scratch. Ohio has several of these regional agencies covering the state; COAAA is the one for the central Ohio region. In practice, that means COAAA doesn't deliver most services with its own staff — it contracts with local home care agencies, meal providers and transportation services, determines who's eligible for which publicly funded program, and acts as the single point of entry so a family doesn't have to separately track down a dozen different offices.
Eight Counties, One Phone Number
COAAA's service area covers Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union counties — eight counties in all, one more than the seven this site focuses on (Fayette County sits just outside our coverage area). The agency manages services directly for roughly 15,000 central Ohio residents each year and helps fund programs reaching another 25,000 or so, according to its own published figures. Whichever of the eight counties a family calls from, the same regional helpline applies: 1-800-589-7277.
That single-number-for-the-region design is deliberate. A daughter in Newark calling about her mother in Pickerington doesn't need to figure out which of two counties' offices is "correct" — COAAA's intake process is built to route the call regardless of which county actually delivers the service.
What COAAA Actually Runs
The list of programs administered or funded through COAAA is longer than most families expect:
- PASSPORT and the Assisted Living Waiver — Ohio's Medicaid home and community-based waivers, which pay for in-home care or assisted living instead of a nursing facility for people who qualify.
- Franklin County Senior Options — a Franklin County-specific, levy-funded program covered below.
- MyCare Next Generation — Ohio's newer managed-care model for people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.
- Care Transitions — support arranged around a hospital discharge, aimed at keeping a senior from bouncing back to the hospital within 30 days.
- Veteran-Directed Care — a program letting eligible veterans direct their own in-home care budget, distinct from VA benefits we cover in our guide to veterans' senior care in central Ohio.
- Caregiver support programs and Medicare counseling (OSHIIP) — free help for the family member doing the caregiving, not just the senior receiving it.
- The Volunteer Guardian Program — trained volunteers who serve as court-appointed guardians for isolated seniors with no family able to take on that role, relevant to families reading our piece on guardianship in Franklin County probate court.
What's Actually Changing in 2026
COAAA has operated for years as a department inside the City of Columbus's Recreation and Parks structure — an arrangement that made sense historically but sits oddly with an agency whose service area has grown to eight counties well beyond city limits. In 2026, COAAA is transitioning to become an independent regional council of governments, with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) overseeing the creation of that new governance structure. The stated goals are to align with Ohio's mandatory MyCare Next Generation requirements and to match the operational practices used by peer Area Agencies on Aging elsewhere in the state, following a 2024 strategic planning process. Completion was targeted for the first quarter of 2026.
In plain terms: this is a change to who COAAA answers to and how it's structured administratively, not a change to its mission or the counties it covers.
What Isn't Changing
This is the part families actually worry about, and it's worth stating directly. COAAA has said publicly that services, providers and existing contracts continue without interruption during the transition. A family with a home care aide already coming through a PASSPORT-funded contract, a Senior Options case manager, or a Meals on Wheels route already in place shouldn't expect any of that to pause or restart because of the governance change. The agency's roughly 400-plus staff and its programs stay in place; only the organizational chart above them is being redrawn.
Franklin County Senior Options: A Local Program in Practice
Franklin County Senior Options is a useful example of what county-level funding for aging services actually buys, and it's administered day-to-day through COAAA case management even though the Franklin County Office on Aging holds it. It's funded by the Franklin County Senior Services Levy and currently serves roughly 1,900 residents with homemaker services, home-delivered meals, personal care assistance, transportation, emergency response systems, adult day services, incontinence supplies, nutritional supplements and durable medical equipment — on a sliding fee scale based on income. Eligibility is straightforward: at least 60 years old, a Franklin County resident, and an unmet need for the services requested.
Five of the other six counties this site covers — Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Madison and Union — run their own versions of a senior services levy, each with its own funding level and program mix; our guide to county senior levies across central Ohio covers those differences county by county.
How to Actually Use COAAA This Week
For a family trying to figure out the first move, the process is simpler than the list of programs above might suggest:
- Call 1-800-589-7277 and describe the situation in plain language — a parent recently hospitalized, struggling to cook or manage medications, or a family weighing assisted living against staying home. Intake staff sort out which programs might apply, not the caller.
- Ask specifically about PASSPORT and the Assisted Living Waiver if cost is the main obstacle to home care or assisted living, since both can significantly change what a family pays.
- Ask about caregiver support even if the senior doesn't qualify for anything else — these programs exist for the person doing the caregiving and don't require the care recipient to be enrolled in Medicaid.
- Keep touring facilities in parallel, if that's part of the picture. COAAA can tell a family what's publicly funded, but it doesn't rate or recommend specific assisted living communities — that's what our own facility directory and Darlene's guidance are for.
Not sure whether a public program or private-pay care fits your situation?
Darlene can walk through both, free and with no obligation, for any of the seven counties we cover.
The Honest Caveat
Program eligibility rules, funding levels and enrollment numbers for public agencies change, sometimes year to year as budgets are set. What's described here reflects COAAA's own published figures and its own public statements about the 2026 transition as of this writing; a family should confirm current eligibility and wait times directly with COAAA rather than assume anything here stays fixed indefinitely. And nothing above is legal or financial advice — for the specific dollar figures behind PASSPORT and Medicaid eligibility, see our Medicaid and PASSPORT guide, and for what care costs in Ohio more broadly, see our cost of care page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is COAAA a nursing home or an assisted living facility?
No. The Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging doesn't operate any care facility, and it doesn't run in-home care visits itself either. It's the coordinating agency that connects a central Ohio family to the programs that pay for or arrange care — PASSPORT, the Assisted Living Waiver, Franklin County Senior Options, caregiver support, and more — and it funds a network of local providers who deliver the actual services. Think of it as the front door, not the house. Touring an actual assisted living community, memory care unit or nursing facility still means visiting that specific operator, which is where a resource like our own facility directory comes in.
Does it cost anything to call COAAA?
Calling the helpline for information and referral is free. What happens after that depends on the program. Some COAAA-administered services, like Franklin County Senior Options, use a sliding fee scale tied to income once someone is enrolled, and Medicaid-funded programs like PASSPORT and the Assisted Living Waiver follow Ohio's Medicaid financial eligibility rules rather than a flat fee. Nobody is charged just to ask a question or get pointed toward the right program, and a family that turns out not to qualify for one thing is usually still pointed toward something else they do qualify for.
Will the 2026 reorganization affect my parent's PASSPORT caseworker or in-home aide?
COAAA's own public statements about the transition are specific on this point: services, providers and existing contracts continue without interruption while the agency's governance structure changes. The 2026 move restructures who technically employs COAAA's staff and how the agency is overseen — shifting from a department inside Columbus city government to an independent regional council of governments under the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission — not which caseworker calls a family back or which home care agency shows up on a Tuesday. Families already enrolled in PASSPORT, the Assisted Living Waiver or Senior Options shouldn't need to do anything differently because of this change alone.
I live in Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Madison, Pickaway or Union County — does COAAA still cover me, or is it just Franklin County?
COAAA's service area is genuinely regional: Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union counties, eight in all (one, Fayette, sits outside the seven-county area this site focuses on). The one program that is Franklin County-specific by name is Senior Options, which is funded by a Franklin County levy and serves Franklin County residents only. PASSPORT, the Assisted Living Waiver, caregiver support, Care Transitions and Veteran-Directed Care all run region-wide, administered through the same central Ohio helpline regardless of which of the eight counties a family calls from.
How is COAAA different from this website?
COAAA is a government-funded regional agency that administers public benefit programs — it determines eligibility, manages contracts with home care providers, and distributes Older Americans Act and Medicaid waiver funding across the region. We're a free local guide that helps families understand their options, compare assisted living and memory care communities, and figure out which door to knock on first, including COAAA's. The two aren't competitors: a family often ends up using both, reading here to understand the landscape and calling COAAA to actually enroll in a program like PASSPORT or Senior Options.
We've never used Medicaid or PASSPORT — can COAAA still help a private-pay family?
Yes. Information and referral, care transitions support after a hospital stay, caregiver support programs and Medicare counseling through OSHIIP are available regardless of income or Medicaid status — they're funded largely through the federal Older Americans Act, not Medicaid. A private-pay family weighing assisted living against staying home with paid help can still call the same helpline for unbiased information about what's available in their county, even if they never touch a Medicaid-funded program.
