There have been plans to reduce adult day healthcare center funding in California, by eliminating MediCal’s input. But just before this happened, a bunch of lawyers got to work. Representing around 3,500 seniors who fall in the low-income bracket or have certain disabilities, a legal settlement was announced to maintain these services to ensure that these individuals will not be forced into nursing homes. A class action suit was filed on the premise that these individuals would literally have nowhere to go and would thus be pushed into inappropriate care such as hospitals, etc.
Community-Based Adult Services
In its stead, the Community-Based Adult Services program was created for these individuals to receive similar services. In terms of the adult day healthcare program closure, a clause postpones this until the end of February 2012. According to an attorney for Disability Rights California, Elissa Gershon, “we are pleased that we were able to work with the state to maintain critical benefits for some of California’s most vulnerable citizens.”