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Sacramento Bee

February 26, 2010

Federal judge blocks cuts to California's adult day care program

Disability rights advocates have scored another victory – and thwarted another budget cut – with a federal court injunction this week that blocks tightening eligibility guidelines for getting into California's adult day care program.

An Oakland-based judge's preliminary injunction Wednesday is "a major victory" because it recognizes that seniors and the disabled could be "irreparably harmed by losing these crucial services," attorney Elizabeth Zirker of Disability Rights California said Thursday.

The eligibility rules for day care were slated to kick in Monday, saving the state about $12.2 million next fiscal year.

A trial on the advocates' lawsuit is not set until September 2011, Zirker said.

Since the Legislature approved deep budget cuts and reforms to social programs last year, the state has been hit by lawsuits from disability and senior groups foiling cuts.

"This is yet another example where the courts have blocked the state from achieving any savings in the (adult day care) program and another example of why we've been forced to propose eliminating the program altogether," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state's Finance Department.

The state has to bridge an estimated $19.9 billion deficit between now and the end of June 2011.

California has 327 day care centers that help care for an estimated 37,000 adults with Alzheimer's disease and other mental or physical ailments while family members are working or need a break to meet other obligations.

With budget cuts and eligibility reforms, administrators of many centers said their programs were in danger of shutting down completely because they would lose so much Medi-Cal reimbursement money.

Advocates argued in court that by tightening eligibility starting March 1, between 8,000 and 15,000 people – some with dementia – would be cut from services, facing an increased chance of being institutionalized.

Under federal protections for the disabled, Zirker said, states are obligated to try to reduce the possibility of institutionalizing people.

Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an injunction stopping the eligibility changes until after a trial.

This week's injunction is the second to block cuts to Medi-Cal subsidized adult day care. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger currently is proposing to abolish the program to save an estimated $134 million.

Last September, Armstrong issued an injunction blocking changes meant to save about $17 million in the current fiscal year by limiting subsidized participation in adult day care to three days a week, not five.