IHSS 7% reduction restored

Effective July 1, 2015, the IHSS 7% reduction is restored. The 7% reduction was part of the settlement in the Oster v. Ligthbourne litigation and was codified in Welfare and Institutions Code Sections 12301.01 and 12031.02. In SB 97, (Budget Act, Section 57, Part 6) the legislature suspended the reduction for one year, from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. In a special legislative session later this year, the legislature will attempt to determine funding sources for making the restoration of the 7% reduction permanent.

Notices of the possibility that the 7% reduction would be restored were scheduled to go out in mid-June. The notices say that restoration was a possibility because the restoration legislation had not yet passed.

The IHSS computer system called CMIPS II is supposed to automatically create a new IHSS authorization with the restored hours added, and to automatically updated provider hours. The ACL warns that there may be an issue assigning the hours when a recipient has multiple providers and if the recipient wants hours divided differently between multiple providers, the recipient needs to file a SOC 838 form with their county.

ACL 15-57