DHS ACL 04-03 – Medicare-Approved Prescription Drug Discount Card Program (March 1, 2004)

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Informs counties that the new Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 signed into law on December 8, 2003 will provide Medicare beneficiaries discounts on prescription drugs through a discount card program with a $600 annual subsidy for certain low-income individuals and prescription drug coverage. For more information about the discount drug card program and the subsidy, go to CalMedicare.org.

The new drug coverage begins in January 2006 and is referred to as Medicare Part D. In 2006, dual eligibles (persons with Medi-Cal and Medicare) will receive their prescription drug coverage through Medicare Part D. This letter just hints at how the new Medicare drug coverage will impact Medi-Cal beneficiaries. It’s safe to say that major changes are in store for Medi-Cal beneficiaries and how they get their prescription drugs. Watch for more information and guidance on Medicare Part D for dual eligibles. [Download]

ACL 04-47 – CalWORKs Welfare-to-Work Two-Parent Sanction Procedures (October 27, 2004)

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Clarification on the good cause determination, compliance, sanctioning, and curing processes in for two-parent AU-families. No difference in the time frames and other general policies set out in the Sanctions ACL 03-59. The main zing comes from the statement that each parent must cure his or her own sanction, i.e. if the sanctioned parent was supposed to be participating for 35 hours per week, then that parent’s cure would be for 35 hours/week. (So you could wind up with a family doing 70 hours of participation!) Includes revised notices. [Download]

ACL 04-43 – IHSS in the Workplace (October 13, 2004)

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Heads up for those working with individuals with disabilities in (or heading to) the workplace. This ACL implements AB 925 (which was effective January 1st, 2003!) which allows IHSS, PCSP, and the new IHSS Independence Plus Waiver (IPW) recipients to transfer service hours already authorized for use in the recipient’s home to a workplace in order to support employment. No additional hours, no new assessment. Ya gotta get county approval before doing the transfer. AB 925 coverage does not supplant employer ADA obligations. The services must be “necessary and relevant” to work. You can also transfer services needed to “obtain” work, such as job interviews or complying with pre-employment activities (including employer-offered or required training). [Download]

ACIN I-73-04 – Food Stamps Q&As (October 13, 2004)

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Put your sanction foot in, take your grant amount out … Answers to those pesky questions about the relation between CalWORKs and Food Stamps sanctions, budgeting, and other Q & A’s, for those who get into this kind of thing. Helpful info on homeless shelter deductions and loan/vendor pay issues. (Did you know that verification of homeless housing costs is not required, just proof of a “reasonable expectation” of a housing expense? That partial rent paid to the landlord is a non-income vendor pay, but the shelter deduction is based on the rent actually paid by the FS recipient?) [Download]

ACIN I-72-04 – Transitional Food Stamp Q&As (October 12, 2004)

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What ACIN I-73-04 does for regular FS, this one does for the transitional Food Stamps (TFS) program … Interesting answers, like granting TFS for someone erroneously denied CalWORKs, then found eligible for one pro-rated month (get a full TFS grant); how to handle new household members coming in during the TFS period (no change unless household reapplies); county TFS responsibility for inter-county move cases (the county that last had the CW case), what to do with unreported income during TFS (trick question: there is no income reporting during TFS!), etc. [Download]