For dozens of seniors, it's their reason for getting out of bed in the morning.
Laughter can usually be heard before opening the door at Centro de Amigos, a social adult day center for seniors in Rockland County.
"I feel like it's home here," said 92-year-old retired school teacher Ana Aponte.
Dozens of seniors are dressed in red and green, wearing colorful hats and dancing for a holiday pajama party.
"Here, me and the ladies like a fashion show," said Aponte.
Five days a week, workers at the center pick up seniors like Aponte at home and drive them to the adult day care.
For five hours a day, they eat, exercise, socialize and go on outings. Aponte said, it's her reason for getting out of bed every day.
"They're home, they're home here," said Director Doris Karpeh-Diaz, whose own mother spent her final days at the center.
She's now at risk of possibly closing the doors for good in the new year.
"This is a mission of love," said Karpeh-Diaz. "This is not a profitable business, this is a business of love, this is a business of passion," she said.
Due to a federal rule that passed two years ago, if one of the more than 400 adult day cares in the state benefits from Medicaid, the NY State Department of Health now requires them to fill out a medical form for reach person who attends, requesting personal medical information. That ranges from medications to diagnoses.
"It's a care plan and anyone would tell you care plans can only be written by nurses or social workers; nobody but them can do that," said Karpeh-Diaz. "The doctor has done an assessment, the insurance companies have done their assessment, they just want us to do it again," she said.
But they're not medical professionals.
"We're social, we're not medical, we're everything but medical but it's still being applied to us and that's where we're having a problem," said Karpeh-Diaz.
In an email, the NYSDOH said social adult daycares are a "benefit available" and "plays a critical role in addressing the social, functional and nutritional needs of older adults." They also said it needs to "...ensure their contractors meet compliance standards."
"Because we work with a Medicaid provider, they're pushing that down to us and saying well, we have to collect medicine and we have to diagnose," said Karpeh-Diaz. "They want me to Google the medications to get the diagnosis."
That's something she doesn't feel comfortable with her staff doing.
"For me, privacy is number one," said Aponte. For seniors like her, she calls it a violation of her privacy. She brought in her own file from her doctor in case of an emergency.
"It would be a disaster," Aponte said, if the center were to close.
The center had until the end of December to comply. But since Eyewitness News filmed the story, the Department of Health reached out to the center asking for a sit-down meeting next month to discuss how to move forward without terminating their contracts.
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