In-home supportive services: enrollment and fingerprinting requirements.

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. Existing law requires a county, public authority, or nonprofit consortium, as applicable, to conduct an investigation of the qualifications and background of an IHSS provider applicant, including specified criminal background checks. This bill would require the county, public authority, or nonprofit consortium to send the State Department of Social Services a copy of the state-level criminal offender record information search response that is provided to that entity by the Department of Justice for any individual who has requested an appeal of a denial of placement on the registry of IHSS personnel or denial of eligibility to provide supportive services to an IHSS recipient. 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. 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, in consultation with the county welfare departments, is required to develop protocols and procedures for obtaining fingerprint images of all individuals who are being assessed or reassessed to receive supportive services, as specified. Existing law also requires the standardized time provider timesheet used to track the work performed by providers of in-home supportive services to contain specified information, including, effective July 1, 2011, designated spaces for the index fingerprints of the provider and recipient. This bill would delete the requirements pertaining to obtaining fingerprint images of IHSS recipients, and the requirement that the provider timesheet include spaces for provider and recipient fingerprints. Existing law requires an IHSS provider enrollment form to be completed using the provider's physical residence address, and prohibits the use of a post office box address. Existing law also prohibits a county from mailing a provider's paycheck to a post office box address, unless the county approves a provider request to do so, as specified. This bill would delete these requirements, and the prohibitions relating to the use of a post office box address by an IHSS provider.