Bill Text: CA AB1703 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: In-home supportive services: reading services for blind and visually impaired recipients.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2014-08-14 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB1703 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB1703-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 1703 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 23, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hall
(Principal coauthor: Senator Beall)
( Coauthor: Assembly Member
Waldron )
FEBRUARY 13, 2014
An act to amend Section 12300 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to public social services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1703, as amended, Hall. In-home supportive services: reading
services for blind and visually impaired recipients.
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.
Existing law provides for the county-administered In-Home
Supportive Services (IHSS) program, under which, either through
employment by the recipient, or by or through contract by the county,
qualified aged, blind, and disabled persons receive services
enabling them to remain in their own homes. Under existing law,
county welfare departments are required to provide visually impaired
applicants and recipients with information on, and referral services
to, entities that provide reading services to visually impaired
persons. Existing law defines "supportive services" for purposes of
the IHSS program.
This bill would include within the definition of supportive
services designated reading assistance services to
assistance in reading and completing financial and other
documents essential for completing activities of daily living for
a recipient of services under the IHSS program who is blind or
visually impaired, or who has another disability that
affects significantly impairs his or her ability
to read. By expanding the scope of available services under the IHSS
program, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The bill would also require the Director of Health Care Services
to seek any federal approvals necessary to ensure that Medicaid funds
may be used in implementing this provision.
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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 12300 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:
12300. (a) The purpose of this article is to provide in every
county in a manner consistent with this chapter and the annual Budget
Act those supportive services identified in this section to aged,
blind, or disabled persons, as defined under this chapter, who are
unable to perform the services themselves and who cannot safely
remain in their homes or abodes of their own choosing unless these
services are provided.
(b) Supportive services shall include domestic services and
services related to domestic services, heavy cleaning, personal care
services, accompaniment by a provider when needed during necessary
travel to health-related appointments or to alternative resource
sites, yard hazard abatement, protective supervision, teaching and
demonstration directed at reducing the need for other supportive
services, paramedical services that make it possible for the
recipient to establish and maintain an independent living
arrangement, and assistance in reading and completing financial and
other documents essential for completing activities of daily
living for a recipient who is blind or visually impaired, or
who has another disability that affects
significantly impairs his or her ability to read.
(c) Personal care services shall mean all of the following:
(1) Assistance with ambulation.
(2) Bathing, oral hygiene, and grooming.
(3) Dressing.
(4) Care and assistance with prosthetic devices.
(5) Bowel, bladder, and menstrual care.
(6) Repositioning, skin care, range of motion exercises, and
transfers.
(7) Feeding and assurance of adequate fluid intake.
(8) Respiration.
(9) Assistance with self-administration of medications.
(d) Personal care services are available if these services are
provided in the beneficiary's home and other locations as may be
authorized by the director. Among the locations that may be
authorized by the director under this paragraph is the recipient's
place of employment if all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The personal care services are limited to those that are
currently authorized for a recipient in the recipient's home and
those services are to be utilized by the recipient at the recipient's
place of employment to enable the recipient to obtain, retain, or
return to work. Authorized services utilized by the recipient at the
recipient's place of employment shall be services that are relevant
and necessary in supporting and maintaining employment. However,
workplace services shall not be used to supplant any reasonable
accommodations required of an employer by the Americans with
Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12101 et seq.; ADA) or other legal
entitlements or third-party obligations.
(2) The provision of personal care services at the recipient's
place of employment shall be authorized only to the extent that the
total hours utilized at the workplace are within the total personal
care services hours authorized for the recipient in the home.
Additional personal care services hours may not be authorized in
connection with a recipient's employment.
(e) When If supportive services are
provided by a person having who has the
legal duty pursuant to the Family Code to provide for the care of
his or her child who is the recipient, the provider of supportive
services shall receive remuneration for the services only when the
provider leaves full-time employment or is prevented from obtaining
full-time employment because no other suitable provider is available
and when if the inability of the
provider to provide supportive services may result in inappropriate
placement or inadequate care.
These providers shall be paid only for the following:
(1) Services related to domestic services.
(2) Personal care services.
(3) Accompaniment by a provider when needed during necessary
travel to health-related appointments or to alternative resource
sites.
(4) Protective supervision only as needed because of the
functional limitations of the child.
(5) Paramedical services.
(f) To encourage maximum voluntary services, so as to reduce
governmental costs, respite care shall also be provided. Respite care
is temporary or periodic service for eligible recipients to relieve
persons who are providing care without compensation.
(g) A person who is eligible to receive a service or services
under an approved federal waiver authorized pursuant to Section
14132.951, or a person who is eligible to receive a service or
services authorized pursuant to Section 14132.95, shall not be
eligible to receive the same service or services pursuant to this
article. In the event that the waiver authorized pursuant to Section
14132.951, as approved by the federal government, does not extend
eligibility to all persons otherwise eligible for services under this
article, or does not cover a service or particular services, or does
not cover the scope of a service that a person would otherwise be
eligible to receive under this article, those persons who are not
eligible for services, or for a particular service under the waiver
or Section 14132.95 shall be eligible for services under this
article.
(h) (1) All services provided pursuant to this article shall be
equal in amount, scope, and duration to the same services provided
pursuant to Section 14132.95, including any adjustments that may be
made to those services pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section
14132.95.
(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, the rate
of reimbursement for in-home supportive services provided through any
mode of service shall not exceed the rate of reimbursement
established under subdivision (j) of Section 14132.95 for the same
mode of service unless otherwise provided in the annual Budget Act.
(3) The maximum number of hours available under Section 14132.95,
Section 14132.951, and this section, combined, shall be 283 hours per
month. Any recipient of services under this article shall receive no
more than the applicable maximum specified in Section 12303.4.
(i) The Director of Health Care Services shall seek any federal
approvals necessary to ensure that Medicaid funds may be used in
implementing the amendments to this section made by the act adding
this subdivision.
SEC. 2. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this
act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local
agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant
to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code.
