In-home supportive services: provider wages.

Existing law establishes 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 establishes 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. Existing law provides, as part of the Coordinated Care Initiative, that not sooner than March 1, 2013, all Medi-Cal long-term services and supports, including IHSS, are required to be services that are covered under managed care health plan contracts and to be available only through managed care health plans to beneficiaries residing in Coordinated Care Initiative counties, except for the provided exemptions. Existing law allows managed care health plans to authorize personal care services and related domestic services in addition to the hours authorized for IHSS by existing law. Existing law requires the managed care health plans to be responsible for paying for these services at no share of cost to the county. This bill would require the State Department of Social Services to program its Case Management Information and Payroll System to be able to receive payments from managed care health plans for these personal care service and related domestic service hours, to issue a payroll check to providers of personal care service hours and related domestic service hours, which shall not include payment of wages for service hours provided pursuant to other specified provisions, and to track and differentiate between the two types of authorized hours.