FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Grand Jury issued a report Thursday blasting the county’s Department of Health and Social Services and it’s management and oversight of its In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program.”
Labeling management of the program as “seriously deficient,” the Grand Jury goes on to say, “the (d)epartment has progressively failed to meet minimum state-required quality assurance standards and had made little effort to mitigate fraud or collect overpayments.”
The county’s IHSS program pays caregivers hired by functionally impaired elderly, blind and disabled residents with the goal of helping them remain living in their homes. In Solano County, more than half the caregivers are family members. The county pays them $11.50 per hour and their hours are reported by the service recipient.
IHSS is overseen by three social workers whose jobs are supposed to include annual reviews, unannounced home visits, regular directed mailings, reassessments of need and anti-fraud measures.
The Grand Jury’s criticisms included quoting from a 2017 internal control audit of the IHSS program that found among other things:
• Case workers did not complete the minimum required amount of file reviews and home visits during the two previous fiscal years.
• Required annual reassessments were not performed in a timely manner.
• No required unannounced home visits were done during the previous fiscal year.
• Reports of fraud were not investigated in a timely manner.
• Overpayments exceeding more than $500 were not forwarded to legal authorities for investigation.
• Quarterly reports to the state contained errors, omissions and apparent misrepresentations of program data.
The Grand Jury report compared IHSS quality with programs in four other counties for fiscal years 2013 through 2015. The other counties’ IHSS staff maintained 100 percent of required home visits while Solano County’s went from 100 percent down to zero. Required file reviews were kept at 100 percent in the other counties while Solano County’s fell from 80 percent to 25 percent.
The Grand Jury reported that since 2012 there have been no referrals to the local District Attorney’s office for IHSS fraud, that potential fraud cases referred to state authorities have been returned to local authorities for prosecution and no caregivers have been suspended or removed because of program fraud.
The Grand Jury said the IHSS program managers have a “prevailing practice of regulatory non-compliance as an operational team.” The Grand Jury recommended the Board of Supervisors and County Administrator Birgitta E. Corsello hold Health and Social Services management accountable.
May 26, 2018
Fairfield Daily Republic
By Jess Sullivan
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