Recipients As Employers

The IHSS program requires that the recipient supervises the providers they hire, which includes:

• Making sure your provider(s) know what services you are authorized to receive from IHSS
• Scheduling your provider(s) based on the hours that IHSS has authorized.  If you have more than one provider, you will need to make sure you give them their schedule.
• Keeping a monthly calendar of the days and times that your provider(s) actually work per day to help review before approving timesheets
• Be knowledgeable about the overtime rules and how violations occur

Prevent Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

As the IHSS employer, it is your responsibility to keep the work place safe.  You may be sued by your provider/employee if you allow sexual harassment to occur in the workplace.

The content below is from on the IHSS Recipient's Responsibility to Stop Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (SOC 2326) published by the California Department of Social Services.

As an employer of an IHSS provider, you should also be aware of the following information:

• The hourly rate for providers is determined through negotiations between Fresno County IHSS Public Authority and SEIU 2015.  Contact the Provider and Recipient Call Center (PARCC) at (559) 600-6666 (Option 4), if you want to know what the current rate of pay.
• There are two pay periods each month - A) 1st - 15th, and B) 16th to last day of the month.
• A work week is starts on Sunday at 12:00 am and ends on Saturday at 11:59 pm.
• Overtime is paid to providers when they have worked more than 40 hours in a workweek.
• If you are authorized less than 160 hours per month, overtime has been assessed for your case.  The amount of overtime worked by your provider(s) for the month should not exceed the amount of overtime authorized. 
• Overtime is paid at time and a half the current wage.  
• Overtime will not be paid for the workweek until all the days of that work week have been worked (pay period generally do not end on the last day of the work week), but will be paid in the next pay period.
• When working for more than one recipient, a provider can be paid for travel between recipients that they work for on the same day, if they are going from one recipient's home to another recipient's home.  The time that the provider spends travel to get to the first recipient's home or back to their own home is not eligible for travel pay. 
• The maximum number of hours that can be paid for travel is 7 hours per week.
• At times, it may be necessary to request an approval for Flexible Hours because your provider worked more overtime than authorized for your case because you had an emergency.  To discuss Flexible Hours, call (559) 600-6666 and speak with the Violations Team.
• IHSS will issue violations to providers when their timesheets do not confirm to overtime rules (claimed too many hours in a work week, claimed unauthorized overtime, claimed more than 7 hours for travel in a work week).

The IHSS program has specific rules about the payment of overtime and will issue a violation to providers when:

• The provider claims overtime that is not authorized for their recipient
• The provider claims more overtime than authorized for their recipient
• The provider, when working for two or more recipients, claims more than 66 hours per work week.  Only providers that have been approved for an Exemption 1 or Exemption 2 can work up to 90 hours per work week.
• The provider submits a travel claim for more than 7 hours per work week.

Violation Levels

Each timesheet approved by the recipient and submitted for payment is evaluated for possible violations.  The number of violations issued to a provider is monitored and too many violations can impact the provider's ability to work for you (and other IHSS recipients).

County Dispute Timeframes

• Providers have the ability to dispute any violation received, but must send in the dispute form within 10 calendar days from the date of the violation notice
• Late, incomplete or unsigned dispute forms will not be accepted
• The County has 10 days to make a decision about the dispute
• The provider and recipient(s) will be notified of the outcome of the dispute
• Suspension (3rd violation) or terminations (4th violations) will not start until 20 days after the date of the dispute outcome notice (when the violation is disputed by the provider
  

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  State Dispute Timeframes (3rd & 4th Violations Only)

  • When a provider is unsatisfied w/ the outcome of a dispute for a 3rd or 4th violation, they can submit a State Administrative Review (SAR) for for further consideration
  • The County will send the SAR form w/ the dispute outcome notice for all 3rd and 4th violations
  • The provider must dispute at the County level first and then follow up at the State level, when needed.
  • Suspension (3rd violation) and termination (4th violation) will not start until 20 days after the date of the SAR outcome notice