State Capitol Update:
CALIFORNIA STATE AUDITOR RELEASES IN-HOME SUPPORTIVE SERVICES (IHSS) TIMESHEET AND PAYROLL SYSTEM REPORT
Next Up: Audit Report on Disabled Person Parking Placard Program Scheduled for April 2017 Release
SACRAMENTO, CA [BY MARTY OMOTO, CDCAN LAST UPDATED 03/17/2017 05:15 AM] – The California State Auditor released Thursday, March 16th, a highly anticipated audit report on In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) timesheet and payroll system, slamming the California Department of Social Services, asserting that the state agency “…has not provided adequate direction or appropriate tools for counties to effectively monitor and resolve provider timesheet errors (exceptions) that has resulted in inconsistent methods of addressing issues and delays in paying [IHSS] providers, which contribute to financial hardship.”
The audit report is officially titled
“Report Number: 2016-128 - In-Home Supportive Services: The State Could Do More to Help Providers Avoid Future Payment Delays” (see CDCAN compiled links below for summary and full copy of the report).
The issue of timesheet errors and long delays in paychecks for IHSS workers has been a major issue raised by advocates for IHSS workers – known as providers – and advocates for people with disabilities and seniors who receive IHSS – referred to by the State as recipients.
The California State Auditor Report says that the California Department of Social Services “has not given adequate guidance to counties on how to handle timesheets with exceptions, resulting in inconsistent methods of addressing these issues. Without proper guidance, at least one county handles certain exceptions by printing and sending blank replacement timesheets to providers, while other counties initially review and attempt to correct exceptions before resorting to issuing replacement timesheets.”
The report says that the IHSS payroll system – known officially as the “Case Management Information and Payrolling System II” or “CMIPS II’s” – inability and failure to “…provide detailed reports makes it difficult for counties to identify providers that consistently make errors on their timesheets or experience payment delays. If counties were able to identify providers with recurring timesheet problems or delays, they would be able to more effectively target their support efforts to ensure that subsequent timesheets are submitted accurately and payment is issued promptly.”
The report contends that the California Department of Social Services could more effectively handle communications to IHSS workers (providers) by developing a system that sends them automated notifications about the status of timesheets and paychecks, instead of the current situation where IHSS providers seeking this information must contact their county or the State. The report says this results “…in large call volumes at the counties and limiting the ability of county staff to focus on those providers who continue to have difficulties preparing and submitting valid timesheets.”
The California Department of Social Services, according to the California State Auditor in its report, indicated that it is taking steps to implement most of the recommendations in the audit report, however believes that there would be a “…significant cost and technical effort needed to create functionality” within the IHSS state payroll system known as “CMIPS II” (Case Management Information and Payrolling System II) to allow replacement timesheets to be printed with data from the original timesheet that were submitted correctly. The audit report noted that the Office of Systems Integration (OSI) also indicated that it is addressing the auditr report recommendations.
LINKS TO AUDIT REPORT ON IHSS TIMESHEETS & PAYROLL SYSTEM
The following are links (from the California State Auditor webpage) for the full audit report, and also fact sheet and summary:
FULL AUDIT REPORT ON IHSS TIMESHEETS AND PAYROLL SYSTEMS – PDF DOCUMENT COPY (65 PAGES):
FULL AUDITR REPORT ON IHSS TIMESHEETS AND PAYROLL SYSTEMS – HTML VERSION:
FACT SHEET – PDF DOCUMENT COPY ( 1 PAGE)
SUMMARY OF AUDIT REPORT – STATE AUDITOR WEBPAGE:
THE PEOPLE AND AGENCIES THAT MAKE UP THE IHSS PROGRAM
PEOPLE WHO ARE IHSS RECIPIENTS: The In-Home Supportive Services program, funded by Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California), is the largest federally funded home care system in the nation, serving over 548,000 children and adults with disabilities, including developmental, mental health needs, the blind and seniors with low incomes. Thousands of children and adults with developmental disabilities eligible for regional center funded services under the State’s Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, also receive home care services under IHSS.
PEOPLE WHO ARE IHSS PROVIDERS (WORKERS): Over 460,000 people work as IHSS providers – many of them family members – who are hired by the person they provide home care services to, with the county serving as employer of record.
COUNTIES AND CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES: The State and counties share administrative responsibilities for the IHSS program, with the California Department of Social Services coordinating the program at the state level and each county administering the program for IHSS recipients and providers within the county.
OFFICE OF SYSTEMS INTEGRATION: The California Department of Social Services contracts with another state agency, the Office of Systems Integration (OSI), to act as the project manager for the Case Management, Information and Payrolling System (CMIPS II), which is a web
‑based system that is used to manage the IHSS program and calculate payments for providers, among other tasks. CMIPS II receives and processes IHSS provider timesheets at a single statewide location in Chico, California, and forwards timesheets with exceptions, such as those missing signatures or containing unreadable entries, to the applicable county office.
CALIFORNIA STATE AUDITOR: The California State Auditor annually conducts approximately 35 performance, financial, and compliance audits as well as numerous investigations of alleged legal or regulatory violations by state employees. The State Auditor, previously the Auditor General, works for the California Legislature in helping to provide oversight and accountability.
The California State Auditor is the only state entity that is given full access to all records of state and local agencies, special districts, and school districts. General powers of the California State Auditor include the ability to subpoena records, take depositions, and administer oaths. In all cases, information obtained by the California State Auditor that is legally confidential must be protected from release from the public
The audits and investigations by California State Auditor's Office are taken up in the following ways: (1) Audits required by existing state law (2) audit requests made by legislators and approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (that has equal number of members of both the Assembly and State Senate) (3) Designation by the California State Auditor of a program or agency as “high-risk” for waste, fraud, mismanagement or that have major challenges that relate to efficiency or effectiveness. (4) Audits taken up as a result of allegations of improper conduct by state employees
KEY FINDINGS IN AUDIT REPORT
The State Auditor report reported these key findings regarding IHSS timesheets and payroll system (CDCAN added explanation of words or abbreviations used in brackets):
“Key Findings
·
[The Department of] Social Services has not provided adequate direction or appropriate tools for counties to effectively monitor and resolve provider timesheet errors (exceptions) that has resulted in inconsistent methods of addressing issues and delays in paying providers, which contribute to financial hardship.
-
Because Social Services does not require counties to initially review and attempt to fix exceptions, some counties exclusively use a less efficient method of directing providers to submit replacement timesheets, thus prolonging the payment process.
-
The payroll system does not report on timesheet exceptions in a manner that allows counties to identify trends such as providers who repeatedly make errors orexperience payment delays so as to address and reduce these occurrences.
-
The system does not proactively notify providers about the status of timesheets and paychecks— providers must contact their county or the State to learn about the status—one county we reviewed processed over 15,000 calls in one month mostly related to these types of inquiries.
·
[The Department of] Social Services and OSI [Office of Systems Integration] have not analyzed key information that could aid in monitoring timesheet exceptions and payments— the timesheet processor has not provided them with data on the time it takes to process timesheets, the number with exceptions by county, or the time it takes to resolve exceptions as called for in its contract.
·
[The Department of]Social Services does not have a process for monitoring whether other state departments print and mail timesheets or paychecks within their contracted time frames.
·
Although providers and recipients provide feedback to [the Department of] Social Services on issues with IHSS, including timesheets and payments, Social Services does not aggregate and analyze the concerns so that it can address systemic issues.
·
State law requires that providers follow two conflicting time-reporting protocols which could result in providers exceeding their number of authorized hours, thus jeopardizing their participation in the IHSS program.”
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS BY STATE AUDITOR
The following are the key recommendations in the audit report made by the California State Auditor (CDCAN added explanation of words or abbreviations used in brackets):
·
“To facilitate time reporting and reduce the risk of providers inadvertently exceeding their authorized hours, the Legislature should amend state law to align the IHSS workweek with the pay period.
·
To improve its oversight of the IHSS payment process, [the Department of Social Services should:
-
Develop and issue procedures by July 2017 to ensure that counties are handling timesheet exceptions consistently and minimizing delays by requiring counties to first attempt to correct exceptions.
-
Develop a timesheet exception report from the payroll system to enable county staff to resolve exceptions efficiently by identifying common exceptions and providers with recurring exceptions.
-
Ensure OSI [Office of Systems Integration]adequately monitors the payroll system contractor and obtains key data to proactively manage the IHSS program and regularly review data to detect any processing discrepancies among counties.”
NEXT STEPS AFTER RELEASE OF AUDIT REPORT
By itself, an audit report cannot make changes – and sometimes audit report findings and recommendations are ignored either by the Legislature, the state agencies involved with an audit or both. More often some of the audit recommendations made in an audit report will be implemented by the state agency involved – though the extent of implementation is often disputed between the agency and the California State Auditor. In addition, in the past, legislation is sometimes introduced to address one or more of the recommendations of an audit report – though whether it is signed into law depends on whether the governor at the time is willing to sign it. The governor of course, is the ultimate head of state agencies under audit by the California State Auditor.
Once an audit report is released by the State Auditor to the Legislature (and Governor), the following next steps can happen.
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES: The California State Auditor requests state agencies – in this case, the California Department of Social Services, to respond to the final audit report released, after 60 days. Prior to the official release of the final audit report, a state agency is given a confidential draft report with an opportunity to provide an initial response (in this specific case, the Department of Social Services provided an initial response on February 27, 2017 – see below for full text of those responses to the audit recommendations).
Some of the changes recommended in the audit report, according to the Department of Social Services, have been implemented already – or will be. State agencies can implement many changes if those changes do not require a change or authorization in State law by the Legislature and Governor.
LEGISLATIVE HEARINGS – Either or both the Senate and Assembly Human Services Committee (the legislative committees that deal with human services issues such as IHSS, SSI/SSP, developmental services, etc) could hold informational hearings on the audit report findings and recommendations in the coming months. The Senate Human Services Committee, then chaired by Senator Mike McGuire (Democrat – Healdsburg), held an informational hearing on this issue last November in Los Angeles. That same Senate committee, now chaired by Senator Scott Weiner (Democrat – San Francisco), may follow up with another informational hearing sometime this spring.
Both the Assembly and Senate budget subcommittees on Health and Human Services have held hearings on IHSS already – but will likely take up as an agenda item, the State Auditor’s report, findings and recommendations at the next round of budget subcommittee hearings in May, if not earlier.
LEGISLATION: There are some legislative bills currently moving through the legislative bill process where audit recommendations can be amended into a bill. Hearings on policy bills are being held now in policy committees now through April.
BUDGET: Some of the recommendations and findings can be addressed in the State budget process, including any new proposals from the Governor when he issues his budget revisions – called the “May Revise” – in mid-May.
LETTER FROM ALIFORNIA STATE AUDITOR TO THE LEGISLATURE AND GOVERNOR
The following is the letter from the California State Auditor to the Governor and Legislative leaders regarding the release of the audit report on IHSS timesheets and payroll system:
March 16, 2017 2016-128
The Governor of California
President pro Tempore of the Senate
Speaker of the Assembly
State Capitol
Sacramento, California 95814
Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders:
As requested by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the California State Auditor presents this audit report concerning the timesheet and payment systems for In‑Home Supportive Services (IHSS) providers. The IHSS employs more than 460,000 individuals, known as providers, to perform ongoing services for eligible IHSS recipients so they may remain in their homes as an alternative to receiving out‑of‑home care.
These caregivers deliver in‑home services to nearly 580,000 eligible individuals—low‑income people who are also aged, blind or disabled. The California Department of Social Services (Social Services) coordinates the program at the state level, and each county administers the program for recipients and providers within its jurisdiction. Social Services contracts with the Office of Systems Integration (OSI) to serve as the project manager for the Case Management, Information and Payrolling System (CMIPS II), which is a web-based system that processes timesheets and calculates payments for IHSS providers, among other tasks.
This report concludes that Social Services has not provided adequate direction or the appropriate tools for counties to effectively monitor and resolve provider timesheet exceptions, such as timesheets missing signatures or containing unreadable entries. Although CMIPS II forwards timesheets with exceptions to the counties, Social Services does not require counties to initially review and attempt to fix exceptions and instead allows them the option to use a less‑efficient method of directing providers to resolve their own exceptions by submitting replacement timesheets. Delays in receiving payments can result in providers being forced to seek other employment to meet their financial needs and not being able to continue serving IHSS recipients, thereby precluding eligible individuals from remaining in their homes and avoiding placement in out‑of‑home care. This report also concludes that CMIPS II does not report on timesheet exceptions at a level of detail that would allow counties to identify providers with regular timesheet problems or delays, which limits each county’s ability to target support efforts to ensure that subsequent timesheets are submitted accurately and paychecks are issued promptly. Further, Social Services and OSI have not monitored the timeliness of timesheet processing by the State’s CMIPS II contractor because neither entity has been enforcing key contract provisions for providing data on processing times.
Finally, the recent implementation of federal overtime requirements resulted in the IHSS program adopting conflicting time-reporting protocols. Although recent changes in state law limit the number of hours a provider can work in a workweek, the program’s use of semimonthly pay periods presents challenges to providers in calculating limits during weeks that cross over between pay periods. This lack of symmetry has resulted in some providers inadvertently exceeding their limits for hours and being suspended from the IHSS program. Accordingly, we recommend that the Legislature amend state law to redefine the pay period to align with the workweek requirements.
Respectfully submitted,
ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA
State Auditor
RESPONSE BY CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES TO AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS
The following is the complete text of response to the California State Auditor by the Department of Social Services on February 28, 2017, of the audit report that was given in advance to the department for review and response: (CDCAN added explanations of abbreviations or certain words used in brackets [ ] ) and also, to help make the reading of this more accessible, changed formatting (such as using italics for the State Auditor’s recommendations and comments) and added the State Auditor’s responses to the California Department of Social Service’s initial response, and adding to the hyperlinks that actual link to the references the State Auditor made in the responses – Marty Omoto, CDCAN)
RECOMMENDATION 1 [FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To ensure that counties are handling timesheet exceptions consistently and minimizing delays, [the Department of] Social Services should develop and issue procedures by July 2017 to require the counties to first attempt to correct timesheet errors for specific types of exceptions before mailing blank replacement timesheets to providers. For example, counties should attempt to correct timesheets with unreadable entries or entries that exceed 24 hours in a day by reviewing the timesheet, contacting the provider if necessary to clarify the intended entry, and making a timesheet correction in Case Management Information and Payrolling System II (CMIPS II). Additionally, Social Services should review a random sample of exceptions at least quarterly to ensure that the counties are following its new procedures.
CDSS [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Partially Implemented/Anticipated Implementation Date: April 2017. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has released a draft Timesheet Exceptions Report All County Letter (ACL) for stakeholder review in December 2016. It is being finalized and will be released in April 2017. This ACL [All County Letter] will also communicate that CDSS [California Department of Social Services] will be monitoring the counties’ activities on a quarterly basis to ensure timely resolution is occurring.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 1]:
RECOMMENDATION 2: [FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To reduce the likelihood of inadvertent errors on replacement timesheets, Social Services should create functionality within CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II] to allow replacement timesheets to be printed with data from the original timesheet that has been submitted correctly. [The Department of] Social services should develop a plan by August 2017 that outlines actions, such as seeking funding from the Legislature if necessary, that will be taken to create the functionality.
CDSS [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Timesheets are accepted and processed as they are received at the Timesheet Processing Facility. To make the suggested change would be a significant cost and technical effort, at a time when the CDSS [California Department of Social Services] and stakeholders are moving to automated solutions that would prevent such errors in the first place.
Additionally, pre-printing legible entries on a replacement timesheet would not necessarily lessen [IHSS] provider and recipient confusion about the actual error(s) that was made, and could in fact create future exceptions if a timesheet for a recipient’s different [IHSS] provider is processed before the replacement timesheet is processed.
There also would be interplay with other automated system business rules that are performed on each individual timesheet, to ensure the information on the timesheet is accurate and that the appropriate payment calculations can be completed. Some examples are:
Validation that the [IHSS] provider and/or recipient were eligible during the specified pay period;
Validation of remaining [IHSS] recipient authorized hours for the month; and,
Validation of straight time wage calculations vs. overtime wage calculations, etc.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 2]:
[The California Department of] Social Services’ response is misleading in asserting that moving to an automated solution would prevent timesheet errors from occurring in the first place. We acknowledge [ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg20 ] that electronic time reporting will allow providers to submit their timesheets using a website and receive immediate notifications regarding whether the California Department of] Social Services has accepted and processed their timesheets for payment. However, as we describe,[ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg21 ] this solution does not take into account the population of [IHSS] providers who may choose to continue to use paper timesheets after electronic time reporting is implemented and may benefit from the functionality that allows replacement timesheets to be printed with data that had been submitted correctly.
Although reprinting valid data on new replacement timesheets may not necessarily lessen [IHSS] provider and recipient confusion about the actual errors that were made, we note [ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg16 ] that requiring the provider to complete a blank replacement timesheet increases the potential for the [IHSS] provider to make an inadvertent error on an unrelated portion of the timesheet that was initially correct, which may require the need for completion of yet another replacement timesheet. In addition, it is unclear to us why [the California Department of] Social Services believes that preprinting legible entries on a replacement timesheet could create future exceptions if a timesheet for a [IHSS] recipient’s different [IHSS] provider is processed before the replacement timesheet is processed. We show in Figure 3 [ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#figure3 ] that 14 percent of the 1.4 million timesheet exceptions causing delays from November 2013 through July 2016 were the result of [IHSS] recipients not having any remaining authorized hours, which signifies that [IHSS] providers have historically submitted timesheets claiming hours that have already been used, even under the current process of completing blank replacement timesheets.
RECOMMENDATION 3: [FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To ensure that counties follow a consistent and expeditious policy for responding to [IHSS] providers who report lost or stolen paychecks, [the California Department of] Social Services should issue a policy by September 2017 that allows [IHSS] providers to request replacement paychecks after five business days from the issue date of the lost or stolen paychecks.
CDSS [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
CDSS [California Department of Social Services] will release an ACL [All County Letter] in July 2017 to clarify existing policy, to allow providers to request a replacement paycheck after ten business days from the issue date of a lost or stolen paycheck. CDSS [California Department of Social Services] believes the ten-day period more adequately allows time for the US Postal Service mail process and ensures the [IHSS] provider has adequate time to receive their paycheck before requesting a replacement, thereby preventing unnecessary check cancellations.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 3]:
As we [California State Auditor] state [ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg17a ], we believe a more reasonable amount of time for [IHSS] providers to wait before reporting a paycheck lost or stolen is five business days, which allows the average two to three business days for first‑class mail delivery, plus two extra days for any unforeseen circumstances. We acknowledge [the California Department of] Social Services’ concern that [IHSS] providers without adequate time to receive their paychecks before requesting replacement checks may result in unnecessary check cancellations. However, we stand by our statement [ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg17b ]
that [the California Department of] Social Services should allow [IHSS] providers to request replacement checks expeditiously and inform them of the risk they incur in relinquishing their rights to the original paychecks.
RECOMMENDATION 4: [FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To assist counties in resolving exceptions efficiently and in managing their workload, [the California Department of] Social Services should by December 2017 develop timesheet exception reports in CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II] that enable county staff to categorize common exceptions, identify providers with recurring exceptions, and track timesheet processing workload over a period of time. [The California Department of] Social Services should also train county staff on the most effective use of these reports.
CDSS [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Partially Implemented/Anticipated Implementation Date: December 2017. CDSS [California Department of Social Services] released a draft ACL [All County Letter] in January 2017 to the counties providing guidance on the utilization of the existing Timesheet Exceptions Report. This ACL [All County Letter] also will communicate that CDSS [California Department of Social Services] will be monitoring the counties activities on a quarterly basis to ensure timely resolution is occurring. The final ACL [All County Letter] will be released by April 2017.
Additionally, CDSS [California Department of Social Services] submitted change requests to the CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II] vendor to modify existing data download files to include detailed timesheet and timesheet exception data. These data download files are provided to counties to assist them in the tracking and resolution of timesheet exceptions.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 4]:
As we [California State Auditor] state https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg20 ] the chief deputy director at [the California Department of] Social Services indicated that implementing automatic status notifications within CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II] would soon be irrelevant because of [the California Department of] Social Services’ plan to implement electronic time reporting in June 2017.
Nevertheless, as we describe [ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg21b ], some [IHSS] providers may choose to continue to submit paper timesheets after electronic time reporting is implemented. Therefore, we look forward to its 60‑day response so we can review Social Services’ evaluation of options for sending email notifications to providers when the paper timesheet has been received and processed in CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II].
RECOMMENDATION 5: [FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To effectively communicate information to providers and reduce call volumes at counties, Social Services should implement functionality within CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II] by December 2017 to provide automated notifications to [IHSS] providers about the status of their timesheets and paychecks, including when the timesheet is received and processed, when paychecks are processed, and whether there are exceptions on timesheets that would delay processing paychecks and whom to contact at the county to address those exceptions.
CDSS [CALFIORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Partially Implemented/Anticipated Implementation Date: May 2017. With the implementation of the electronic timesheets which is scheduled to pilot in May 2017 and targeted to go live statewide in July 2017, this solution will include a feature that automatically sends email notifications to the [IHSS] providers and recipients who opt into this service throughout the timesheet process.
Additionally, any [IHSS] provider, including those who do not use the electronic timesheets feature, can set up an account in the application and have the ability to check the status of their timesheets and paychecks. CDSS [California Department of Social Services] also is evaluating options that could potentially send an email notification to the [IHSS] providers and/or recipients when the paper timesheet has been received and processes through CMIPS II. [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II]
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 5]:
As we [California State Auditor] state https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg20 ] the chief deputy director at [the California Department of] Social Services indicated that implementing automatic status notifications within CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II] would soon be irrelevant because of [the California Department of] Social Services’ plan to implement electronic time reporting in June 2017.
Nevertheless, as we describe [ https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2016-128/sections.html#ref_pg21b ], some [IHSS] providers may choose to continue to submit paper timesheets after electronic time reporting is implemented. Therefore, we look forward to its 60‑day response so we can review Social Services’ evaluation of options for sending email notifications to providers when the paper timesheet has been received and processed in CMIPS II [Case Management Information and Payrolling System II].
RECOMMENDATION 6: [FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To ensure that Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) is meeting its contractual requirements, Social Services should review timesheet processing data and reports and follow up with OSI [Office of Systems Integration] to make sure it is taking corrective action if HPE [Hewlett-Packard Enterprise] exceeds the agreed-upon processing time frames.
CDSS [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENTOF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Partially Implemented/Anticipated Implementation Date: May 2017.
The Department will continue to work with OSI [Office of Systems Integration] on monitoring of vendor contract requirements. Additionally, CDSS [California Department of Social Services] already has requested that all timesheet processing data and reports are provided to the Department.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 6]:
RECOMMENDATION 7: [FROM THE STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To ensure that Office of Systems Integration (OSI) is adequately monitoring HPE, and to allow for more proactive management of the IHSS program, Social Services should work with OSI to enforce the contract provision requiring HPE [Hewlett-Packard Enterprise] to submit monthly data on the number of timesheets with exceptions by county and the time taken to resolve those exceptions. Moreover, [the California Department of] Social Services should develop a process for regularly reviewing these data to detect any discrepancies among the counties’ processes for handling timesheets with exceptions.
CDSS [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Partially Implemented/Anticipated Implementation Date: May 2017.
The Department is working with OSI [Office of Systems Integration] to ensure CDSS [California Department of Social Services] also receives the vendor’s monthly data service level agreement statistics. As mentioned in the response to Recommendation 4, CDSS [California Department of Social Services] also has submitted change requests to modify data download files, to ensure that the Department and counties can better track the processing of timesheet exceptions.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 7]:
RECOMMENDATION 8: [FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To enable it to track whether Employment Development Department (EDD) is meeting its contractual time frame for printing and mailing of timesheets, [the California Department of] Social Services should either modify its current agreement or require in the renewal of its agreement a method for tracking the time required to print and mail timesheets.
[The California Department of] Social Services should also perform monthly reviews of the activities performed by EDD [Employment Development Department] and State Controller’s Office (SCO) to ensure compliance with the time frames for each agreement. Additionally, [the California Department of] Social Service should implement a process to regularly test EDD [Employment Development Department] and SCO [State Controller’s Office] processes to ensure they are within the required time frames.
CDSS [DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Partially Implemented/Anticipated Implementation Date: December 2017.
CDSS [California Department of Social Services] agrees with this recommendation. The Department is amending the current Employment Development Department (EDD) and State Controller’s Office (SCO) contracts, to ensure that both EDD [Employment Development Department] and SCO [State Controller’s Office] are meeting their obligations for printing and mailing of timesheets and paychecks. CDSS [California Department of Social Services] will monitor compliance with the amended agreements. Additionally, CDSS [California Department of Social Services] will oversee compliance of EDD [Employment Development Department] and SCO [State Controller’s Office] print processes to ensure they are meeting the agreements.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 8]:
RECOMMENDATION 9:[FROM STATE AUDITOR REPORT]
To more effectively address common problems reported by providers and recipients, [the California Department of] Social Services should develop a formal process to document and address patterns of concerns conveyed through complaints. Specifically, the process should include a method for [the California Department of] Social Services to identify and aggregate the complaints it receives, to analyze that information to determine whether there are common themes or broader issues to address within IHSS, and to obtain sufficient information to substantiate the response to the complaints. The process should also include steps to clarify ambiguous issues raised in the complaints and define clear deadlines and the steps to take when responding to complaints if those deadlines cannot be met.
CDSS [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES] INITIAL RESPONSE:
Partially Implemented/Anticipated Implementation Date: May 2017.
The Department has developed a central location to maintain and track the concerns reported by recipients and providers. CDSS [California Department of Social Services] is improving its procedures to identify and analyze issues in the aggregate and respond accordingly.
CALIFORIA STATE AUDITOR’S COMMENTS ON THE INITIAL RESPONSE FROM [CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF] SOCIAL SERVICES [TO RECOMMEDATION 9]:
UPCOMING AUDIT: DISABLED PLACARD AUDIT REPORT DUE IN APRIL 2017
SACRAMENTO, CA [BY MARTY OMOTO, CDCAN LAST UPDATED 03/17/2017 05:15 AM] – With the release yesterday of the audit report on IHSS timesheets and payroll system and the release on Tuesday (March 14th) on the Department of Social Services’ background checks system under Community Care Licensing, the California State Auditor is currently working on another audit report that has impact on people with disabilities, mental health needs and seniors focusing on the parking placards for persons with disabilities.
The Disabled Person Parking Placard Program under the California Department of Motor Vehicles is the subject of an upcoming audit report, tentatively scheduled for release in April this year, by the California State Auditor. CDCAN will issue report when this audit report is released.
The Audit Report scope and objectives, as authorized by the Legislature, will include, but not be limited to, the following:
1. Review and evaluate the laws, rules, and regulations significant to the audit objectives.
2. For a selection of issued or renewed placards over the past three fiscal years, determine the following:
(a) Whether the applicant has been issued more than one placard during the same two-year period the initial placard is, or was, in force.
(b) Whether the name and signature of the medical provider who certified the qualifying disease or disability matches information on file with the applicable licensing board.
(c) Whether substantiating information retained by the medical provider who signed the placard application certification matches the statutory definition of a disabled person.
(d) The number and percentage of placard holders who are deceased by comparing the database of active placard holders with the California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records’ deceased persons data.
(e) How many placards have remained in circulation after a report by local authorities that a placard was confiscated, a report that a placard was stolen, a conviction for misuse of a placard, or other evidence that a placard was used or obtained fraudulently.
3. Provide a breakdown of certifications by medical provider type over the past three fiscal years. Over that same time period, determine the number of fraudulently obtained placards by type of certification.
4. Determine the extent to which the DMV compares its placard holder data against deceased persons data and thereby withholds renewals for deceased placard holders.
5. Examine the extent to which the DMV makes placard holder information available to eligible law enforcement and parking control agencies. Determine how promptly this information is made available.
6. Over the past three fiscal years, determine the number of replacement placards DMV issued to replace reportedly lost or stolen placards and whether it appropriately canceled placards being replaced before issuing a replacement.
7. For the past three fiscal years, determine how often and how quickly the DMV canceled placards confiscated by local authorities.
8. Examine how readily accessible, up-to-date, and accurate DMV’s placard information is to local authorities, particularly for placards reported as lost, stolen, surrendered, canceled, revoked, expired, or issued to someone appearing in the deceased persons database.
9. Evaluate the extent to which the DMV investigates placard-related complaints and makes corresponding updates to its database, particularly for placards that may have been fraudulently obtained or erroneously issued, that were inappropriately lent or sold to another individual, or that were fraudulently duplicated or displayed.
10. Review and assess any other issues that are significant to the audit.
