Public social services: in-home supportive services.

Existing law provides for the county-administered In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons are provided with services in order to permit them to remain in their own homes and avoid institutionalization. Existing law authorizes 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. This bill would establish the California In-Home Supportive Services Authority (Statewide Authority) and would deem the authority a joint powers authority and a public entity separate and apart from the parties that have appointing power to the authority, as specified, or the employers of those individuals so appointed. This bill would require the authority to be the entity authorized to meet and confer in good faith regarding wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment with representatives of recognized employee organizations for any individual provider who is employed by a recipient of supportive services. Under existing law, any public authority created under the IHSS program is deemed to be the employer of in-home support services personnel within the meaning of the Meyers-Milias Brown Act, which governs local employer-employee relations. Existing law also provides that any nonprofit consortium contracting with a county is deemed the employer of in-home supportive services personnel for the purposes of collective bargaining over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Existing law also establishes the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in state government as a means of resolving disputes and enforcing the statutory duties and rights of employers and employees under, among other provisions, the Educational Employment Relations Act, the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, the Ralph C. Dills Act, and the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act. This bill would establish the In-Home Supportive Services Employer-Employee Relations Act for the purpose of resolving disputes regarding wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment between the California In-Home Supportive Services Authority (Statewide Authority) , as specified, and recognized employee organizations. Under the act, the Statewide Authority would be deemed to be the employer of record, for purposes of collective bargaining, of individual providers of in-home supportive services in each county, upon implementation by a county, in accordance with certain procedures. Pursuant to the act, employees would have the right to form, join, and participate in the activities of employee organizations for the purpose of representation on all matters within the scope of representation. The bill would require separate bargaining units to be created, consistent with bargaining units that have been recognized by predecessor agencies, as defined. The bill would require the Statewide Authority to meet and confer in good faith with employee organizations on all matters within the scope of representation, as specified. The bill would further require the Statewide Authority to assume the predecessor agency's rights and obligations under any memorandum of understanding or agreement between the predecessor agency and the recognized employee organization that is in effect on the county implementation date until it expires. The bill would provide that individual providers employed by a predecessor agency would retain employee status and would not be required by the Statewide Authority to requalify to receive payment for providing services. The bill also would make the powers and duties of PERB applicable to its provisions, establish legal procedures for appeals regarding recognition or certification of an employee organization, authorize agency shop agreements and fee obligations, establish mediation and impasse procedures, and authorize the Statewide Authority to adopt reasonable rules and regulations relating to determining the status of organizations and associations. The bill also would authorize PERB and the Statewide Authority to adopt emergency regulations to implement the act, as specified. The bill would establish the In-Home Supportive Services Fund within the State Treasury. Moneys in the fund would be made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Statewide Authority for the purposes of funding its functions. This bill would require all counties, commencing July 1, 2012, to have a County IHSS Maintenance of Effort (MOE) , and would require counties to pay the County IHSS MOE instead of paying the nonfederal share of IHSS costs, as specified. The bill would require the Statewide Authority to assume prescribed responsibilities in a county or city and county upon notification by the Director of Health Care Services that the assignment of eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries described in a specified provision of law has been completed in that county or city and county. The bill would require the county or city and county to take certain actions upon this notification. By increasing the duties of local officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. This bill would authorize managed care health plans, as defined, to assume the authority, previously granted to counties, to contract for the provision of in-home supportive services with a qualified agency, as defined, subject to specified restrictions and requirements. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. One of the methods by which these services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care plans. This bill would provide that, not sooner than March 1, 2013, IHSS shall be a Medi-Cal benefit available through managed care health plans in specified counties. This bill would require that the managed care health plans, among other things, enter into a memoranda of understanding and contract with applicable entities, as specified, and would provide that IHSS recipients receiving services through managed care health plans shall retain specified rights and responsibilities. This bill would, until July 1, 2017, require the State Department of Health Care Services, the State Department of Social Services, and the California Department of Aging to establish a stakeholder workgroup, as prescribed, to develop a universal assessment process, including a universal assessment tool, to be used for home- and community-based services, as defined, including IHSS. This bill would become inoperative under certain circumstances. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions. This bill would appropriate $1,000 from the General Fund to the State Department of Health Care Services for administration. This bill would become operative only if AB 1468 or SB 1008 of the 2011–12 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.