More than 800 Humboldt County clients will be spared a reduction in their in-home supportive services, at least for the time being.

A federal judge imposed a preliminary injunction Monday against a state plan that would have carved $82 million from the program, reducing or eliminating services to some 130,000 disabled and dependent Californians, including 861 in Humboldt County. The state had planned on sending out notices of a reduction in services to the clients this week, but Judge Claudia Wilken's ruling puts those on hold pending future legal hearings.

A number of groups representing seniors and the disabled, as well as caregivers' unions, filed suit challenging the state's plan for reducing services, arguing the state's method for deciding whose services would be cut was arbitrary and in violation of federal protections.

Counties are required by the state to assign each of the program's clients a score -- called an overall functional index -- based on their ability to perform 11 physical tasks and three mental functions. Clients who rate as a “one” are considered the most independent, and clients who rate at “five” are considered to be almost totally dependent.

The problem, local officials have said, is there are many things the scores don't take into account, as they were designed as a way to compare counties' administration of the program, not to diagnose patients' needs or to assess risk.

Essentially, local

The state plan, which was slated to go into effect Nov. 1, would have cut in-home services entirely for any client with a functional index score below “two,” and cut domestic services -- including help with housekeeping, laundry and shopping -- for anyone with a score below “four.”

In Humboldt County, that left a total of 360 clients with scores below “two” slated to lose a combined 11,361 monthly hours of services, according to numbers provided by the county Department of Health and Human Services. It also would have meant a total of 501 clients losing a combined 6,000 hours of monthly assistance with domestic services.

Now, everything is essentially on hold until the court makes a final ruling.

In court Monday, the Department of Social Services argued that the cuts planned to go into effect Nov. 1 could not be stopped, as the new client information has already been input into the state's payroll system. The department will comply with the judge's order, a spokeswoman said, but it may take some time to sort things out.

The state has proposed asking counties to handle the onerous task of reprograming the system, but many say that places an unfair burden on their shoulders.

Donna Wheeler, deputy director of the Social Services Branch of the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, said changes have already been made to the IHSS data system in preparation for the Nov. 1 deadline and undoing those changes represents a major challenge.

”It appears that reversing those programming changes to keep clients eligible is very difficult, and the state wants counties to do it,” Wheeler said in a statement. “This would place an extraordinary burden on counties. In Humboldt County, it would require using multiple time-consuming workarounds for nearly 900 clients, tracking those cases manually and then reversing the workarounds when the regulation changes are implemented.

”Obviously, we're happy the widespread disenrollment has been averted,” Wheeler continued, “but we think the state should take responsibility for the programming changes it requested.”

Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com