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Pushes Proposal for IHSS Provider Fee That Can Draw Down Federal Funds IHSS Worker Fee Would Be Similar To Quality Assurance Provider Fees for Nursing Homes and ICF/DD Providers
CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
#092-2010 – MAY 26, 2010 - WEDNESDAY
SACRAMENTO, CALIF (CDCAN) [Updated 05/26/2010 10:40 AM (Pacific Time)] - The Assembly Budget Subcommittee #1 on Health and Human Services, chaired by Assemblymember Dave Jones (Democrat – Sacramento), rejected this morning several proposed reductions by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger including those impacting In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS). None of the actions are final – and in several cases, still need action from the Senate.
The subcommittee is pushing forward a proposal unveiled yesterday by Assembly Speaker John Perez (Democrat – Los Angeles) that would look at the possibility of imposing what Assemblymember Jones said would be a “modest fee” on IHSS workers that would be matched with federal Medicaid funds and possibly save the State $150 million.
Though no details were released, Jones said the approach would be similar to provider fees (sometimes referred to as a provider tax) on certain nursing facilities and also Intermediate Care Facilities for the Developmentally Disabled (ICF/DD) that is then matched with federal Medicaid funds and returned to the State. The increased federal funding is then partially returned back to those providers in the form of a higher reimbursement rate from the State – with the remaining money going to the State general fund.
It is not clear how this approach would work with individual IHSS providers – or if it would mean an increased amount of pay they would receive as a result.
Assemblymember Wes Chesbro (Democrat – Eureka) said he was in favor of the proposal as long as federal funds could be matched and other details worked out.
Jones, in answering questions from the two Republican members of the Assembly subcommittee, said that the proposal was a work in progress and that details still needed to be worked out – but that the approach has worked in other health budget areas.
The proposal received 3 votes with the two Republican members abstaining and is certain to receive later this morning the 4th vote to pass it out of this subcommittee (the missing member for this particular vote was Hector De La Torre who had to leave briefly to chair another hearing).
The Assembly subcommittee is still in session – and is meeting at this point at the same time the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee is holding its hearing on Medi-Cal, mental health and other health budget issues.
More details will be reported later today in a CDCAN Report on this hearing and the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee hearing.
As previously reported, both houses of the Legislature have held and scheduled their final budget subcommittee hearings todayand Thursday this week, taking final action on several of the Governor’s major proposals impacting people with disabilities, mental health needs, the blind, seniors and their families, before the budget process heads to the next phase of “budget conference committee” hearings in early June.
Controversy Surrounds Quality Assurance Fee for Nursing Facilities
The Quality Assurance fees on nursing facilities – authorized in 2004 by AB 1629, which the Schwarzenegger Administration is seeking to renew and expand this year – is controversial among some advocates for people with disabilities and seniors because the higher reimbursements that nursing facilities received in return for paying a fee was tied to improved quality of care – and also higher wages for direct care workers. There is some controversy regarding whether improvements are being made and on oversight by the State. That issue is being heard in the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee today – and is likely to be heard in the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services on Thursday.
SUMMARY OF SOME OF THE ACTIONS TAKEN THIS MORNING BY ASSEMBLY BUDGET SUBCOMMITTEE #1 ON HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Some of the actions taken by the Assembly Budget Subcommittee this morning:
- REJECTED 4-0 the Governor’s Proposed Elimination of $18 million of Offender Treatment Program (Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs)
- REJECTED 4-0 the Governor’s January proposal for CalWORKs Grant Reduction
- REJECTED 4-0 the Governor’s Proposed Elimination of the CalWORKs Recent Non-Citizen Entrants Program
- REJECTED 4-0 the Governor’s January Proposals to Reduce IHSS [In-Home Supportive Services (using functional index scores, and also to roll back State participation for IHSS worker wages. This action is a formality – the Governor withdrew these two proposals when he released his May 14th budget revisions]
- APPROVED 6-0 establishment of an IHSS “budget advisory group” that would be “open and transparent” to look at budget savings for the IHSS program.
