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Sacramento Business Journal

August 21, 2009

Disabled seniors file class action to block state budget cuts

By Kathy Robertson

Seniors with disabilities have filed a class action to stop cuts in adult day health care services for more than 36,000 frail California residents.

The state budget signed into law last month reduces Medi-Cal spending for the community-based program for low-income seniors and disabled adults by $28.1 million.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court of Northern California by seniors’ and disability rights organizations on behalf of three plaintiffs and others like them. It seeks immediate court action to prevent the cuts from taking effect and demands participants be individually assessed to determine what, if any, replacement services they are entitled to.

Adult day health care includes nursing, personal care and social services; case and medication management; physical, occupational and speech therapy; and transportation to and from the centers.

The cuts, if implemented, would place as many as 8,000 recipients at immediate risk of institutionalization, injury or death, according to disability advocates. The lawsuit is backed by Disability Rights California, AARP and the National Senior Citizens Law Center.

Effective Thursday, services are slated to be limited to a maximum of three days a week, regardless of the seriousness of the participant’s health problems. The current maximum is five days a week.

The five-day maximum is slated to return when the state Department of Health Services approves a plan with other cuts expected to make thousands ineligible for the program.

“Without adequate adult day health care services, many older people with disabilities who could otherwise remain at home or in the community will be forced into nursing homes,” Barbara Jones, an attorney with AARP’s litigation foundation, said in a press release.