In-home supportive services: providers.

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. Existing law prohibits a new applicant or an applicant whose application has been denied on the basis of a conviction and for whom an appeal of that denial is pending from providing supportive services if he or she has been convicted of specified crimes in the previous 10 years. Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services and the State Department of Health Care Services to develop a provider enrollment form that each person seeking to provide supportive services must complete, sign under penalty of perjury, and submit to the county, containing designated statements relating to the provider's criminal history. Existing law authorizes a recipient of services who wishes to employ a provider applicant who has been convicted of a specified offense to submit to the county a prescribed individual waiver, signed by the recipient, or by the recipient's authorized representative. This bill would add the felony offenses of forgery, embezzlement, extortion, and identity theft to the list of criminal convictions that would preclude an applicant from providing supportive services. The bill would require the State Department of Social Services to revise the provider enrollment form to account for these additional criminal exclusions. By changing the definition of the crime of perjury, and by increasing the duties of counties in administering the In-Home Supportive Services program, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.