Content about Adult Day Health Care

With the Legislature gone for the week for its annual Spring Recess, work on hundreds of policy bills will reach a high point during the last three weeks of the month with an important policy committee deadline of April 27th.  CDCAN will issue a report later today with a schedule of those hearings and the bills of interest or direct impact to children and adults with disabilities, people with traumatic brain and other injuries, mental health needs, the blind, the deaf, seniors, their families, low income families and community organizations, facilities and individual workers.  The US Congress is also in recess and will not reconvene until April 16th (Monday).

Health and human services budget, policy and legal issues will come to center stage this coming week, not only in Sacramento with budget and policy committee hearings and meetings – but in a critically important federal court hearing in San Francisco on Adult Day Health Care and in an historic hearing in Washington DC before the US Supreme Court on whether or not provisions in the federal health care reform act are constitutional.  The outcome of many of those issues in the coming months could have sweeping impact in California particularly for hundreds of thousands of children and adults with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind, seniors, their families, low income families and workers.

The Brown Administration issued a statement saying it was “disappointed” that the “well-intentioned and cooperative process we have used successfully to this point” has been “abandoned” by the plaintiffs with the filing of legal documents on March 22 by attorneys representing 37,000 seniors and people with disabilities who are recipients of the Adult Day Health Care Medi-Cal benefit.  They asked a federal district court in San Francisco to find the State in contempt of the court approved settlement agreement that includes provisions on transitioning those persons into a new replacement program called “Community-Based Adult Services”.

The California Department of Health Care Services, the state agency that oversees California’s Medi-Cal program, announced today that the elimination of the Adult Day Health Care Medi-Cal benefit will be delayed until March 31. With elimination originally scheduled for February 29th, the news impacts over 37,000 people with disabilities and seniors who use the Adult Day Health Care Medi-Cal benefit, and over 300 Adult Day Health Centers who employ several thousands of staff across the state to provide the service.

As reported last week, the Department of Health Care Services will conduct a public stakeholder meeting - via the internet - this morning regarding details of the settlement agreement of the Adult Day Health Care lawsuit and implementation of the new Community-Based Adult Services program that will replace it.

As reported, the scheduled elimination date of Adult Day Health Care as a Medi-Cal "optional" benefit will be delayed from December 1, 2011 to February 29, 2012 under the settlement announced November 17 of a federal lawsuit between recipients in the program and the California Department of Health Care Services under the Brown Administration. The settlement agreement was hailed as a major victory by advocates for people with disabilities and seniors across the State, with the legal team headed by Disability Rights California being widely praised for its work.

WASHINGTON, DC (CDCAN)  [Last updated 10/03/2011 01:00 PM] - The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments this morning on three cases dealing with 2008 and 2009 Medi-Cal provider rate reductions in California and whether or not Medi-Cal recipients, providers and advocates have a right to sue the State of California to stop those reductions as a violation of a federal Medicaid law. [CDCAN will issue a more complete report later tonight covering more details on today's hearing before the US Supreme Court.]

The Brown Administration's controversial implementation plan to eliminate Adult Day Health Care as a Medi-Cal benefit will be the focus of an oversight hearing on August 16th at 2:00 PM.

The Department of Health Care Services announced a public stakeholder meeting regarding the State's controversial plan to transition over 34,000 people in the Adult Day Health Care program into other Medi-Cal services when the service is eliminated as a Medi-Cal benefit, effective December 1, 2011.

Governor Brown vetoed AB 96, the budget trailer bill that calls for the creation of a new model of Adult Day Health Care saying such a new "...look-alike program at this juncture is unnecessary and untimely," in an action that is sure to disappoint and anger tens of thousands of people with disabilities and seniors, their families, hundreds of community-based providers and thousands of workers who provide those services. The Governor as expected, signed a less controversial budget trailer bill also dealing with adult day health centers - SB 91, that would allow those centers to continue to operate as licensed facilities without the requirement of being certified as a Medi-Cal provider.

The fate of two key budget trailer bills that will impact tens of thousands of people with disabilities and seniors in Adult Day Health Care, and the over 300 community organizations and over 7,000 people who, as employees, provide those services will soon be decided by Governor Brown in the coming days - possibly this week.

Here is the text of the letter that Toby Douglas (director of the Department of Health Care Services - the State agency that ovesees California's Medi-Cal program) sent to the Legislature today regarding extending the Adult Day Health Care Medi-Cal optional benefit beyond the September 1, 2011.  Likely to be atleast 30 days, meaning at least until October 1st. Further extensions of the benefit are possible, according to Douglas in his letter, depending on the progress of the transition and will be assessed on a "month-to-month" basis.