In-Home Supportive Services program: needs assessment.

Existing law provides for the county-administered In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons receive services enabling them to remain in their own homes. Under existing law, personal care services provided to a qualified individual who is eligible for Medi-Cal benefits are a Medi-Cal covered benefit, under the Personal Care Services Program (PCSP) . Under existing law, the department is responsible for procuring and implementing a new Case Management Information and Payroll System (CMIPS) for the IHSS/PCSP program, including specified minimum requirements, to provide case management, payroll, and management information for the program. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to develop a uniform assessment tool to ensure that IHSS services are delivered in all counties in a uniform manner. Existing law requires counties to use the needs assessment tool to evaluate a recipient's functioning in various activities, as prescribed, and to quantify the recipient's functioning using a 5-point scale to rank each function. Under existing law, a recipient is assigned a functional index score, which is a weighted average based on the recipient's individual rankings, that is used in the assessment of IHSS services. This bill would require the department and the State Department of Health Care Services to jointly convene a stakeholder review process, as specified, to obtain information and comments regarding imposition of a tax on payments received by in-home care providers, or entities that arrange for the provision of that care, and the potential for increased federal financial participation as a result of these tax revenues, and alternatives to the state's methodology for deriving a functional index score for IHSS consumers. This bill would require the department and the State Department of Health Care Services to jointly report stakeholder recommendations to the Legislature no later than August 1, 2011, and to submit an implementation plan based on the stakeholder recommendations no later than November 1, 2011. This bill would require the department, in consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services, to obtain funding from private or public sources to finance the stakeholder review process and implementation plan. This bill would specify that no General Fund moneys shall be used for this purpose.