In-home supportive services providers: electronic timekeeping.

Existing law provides for the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons receive services enabling them to remain in their own homes. Existing law permits services to be provided under the IHSS program either through the employment of individual providers, a contract between the county and an entity for the provision of services, the creation by the county of a public authority, or a contract between the county and a nonprofit consortium. Counties are responsible for administering the program. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons, including specified in-home services. Under existing law, IHSS recipients who are eligible for the Medi-Cal program, are provided with personal care option services, as defined, in lieu of receiving these services under the IHSS program. Under existing law, the State Department of Social Services is required, in consultation and coordination with county welfare departments, to establish and implement statewide hourly task guidelines and instructions to provide counties with a standard tool for consistently and accurately assessing service needs and authorizing service hours to meet those needs. This bill would authorize a county human services department responsible for administering specified in-home services, at its option, to use electronic timekeeping, as defined, for purposes of verifying hours completed for in-home recipients, as defined. The bill would authorize a provider of the specified services to retain the option of using paper timesheets, as specified. This bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services to implement and administer the bill through all-county letters or similar instructions from the director, as specified. This bill would require electronic timekeeping procedures under the bill to comply with information and data requirements of the existing Case Management Information and Payroll System (CMIPS) or its successor system, when it is implemented. The bill would provide that, if any part of the bill conflicts with federal requirements prescribing conditions for the allocation of federal funds to the state, the conflicting part shall not be implemented, solely to the extent of the conflict.