BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 485 (Gomez) - In-home supportive services: Statewide
Authority.
Amended: January 16, 2014 Policy Vote: HS 4-2; Health 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: January 21, 2014
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 485 would require the California In-Home
Supportive Services (IHSS) Authority (Statewide Authority) to
assume employer responsibility for collective bargaining in all
58 counties effective January 1, 2015. This bill would remove
the provisions in existing law conditioning the transfer of
collective bargaining responsibility to the Statewide Authority
that is currently limited to only eight counties and contingent
upon each county's implementation of specified provisions of the
Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI), and would delink various
provisions of law currently contingent upon the continued
operation of the CCI.
Fiscal Impact:
Potentially major ongoing costs (General Fund) in the tens
to low hundreds of millions of dollars to the extent the
provisions of this measure result in an increase in IHSS
provider wages and health benefits with the implementation
of the Statewide Authority in all 58 counties effective
January 1, 2015. As only those wage and benefit increases
that are locally negotiated or imposed before the Statewide
Authority assumes employer responsibility result in an
adjustment to the County IHSS Maintenance of Effort (MOE),
any increases negotiated by the Statewide Authority would
not require a county share of costs. The nonfederal share of
costs would be fully funded by the state, resulting in major
ongoing costs to the General Fund.
Annual costs in the range of $6.9 million (50 percent
General Fund, 50 percent federal funds) to the Department of
Human Resources (CalHR) to implement and operate a
collective bargaining platform on behalf of the Statewide
Authority expanded to cover all 58 counties effective
AB 485 (Gomez)
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January 1, 2015.
Additional one-time significant costs (General Fund) to
CalHR for limited-term staff and overtime required to
support the workload imposed under the accelerated
implementation date mandated in this measure.
To the extent the CCI would have otherwise become
inoperative at some future date due to an estimate by the
Director of Finance that the CCI would not generate net
General Fund savings, as specified, the annual costs noted
above would continue to be incurred. The counties' share of
cost limited by the County IHSS MOE would not revert to the
original cost-sharing formula, and CalHR/DSS costs would
continue to support the activities of the Statewide
Authority.
Background: The IHSS program provides in-home custodial care to
aged, blind, and disabled individuals who meet specified
eligibility criteria. Eligible IHSS recipients receive such
services as housecleaning, meal preparation, laundry, grocery
shopping, personal care services, accompaniment to medical
appointments, and protective supervision. IHSS providers are
organized into 56 bargaining units, totaling approximately
380.000 employees located within 58 counties. The administration
of IHSS is a complex partnership that includes the IHSS
recipients, the DSS, the Department of Health Care Services
(DHCS), counties, public authorities, program advocates,
providers, and employee unions. Currently, the employers'
interests for collective bargaining purposes under the IHSS
program are represented either by each county's public authority
or by the county itself.
The 2012-13 Budget included changes to authorize a demonstration
project in eight counties that integrates the delivery of
medical services, long-term services and supports (including
IHSS), and behavioral health services through Medi-Cal managed
care plans. As part of this demonstration project, SB 1036
(Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) Chapter 45/2012, also
established a Statewide Authority for specified purposes of
collective bargaining as IHSS became a benefit provided through
managed care in those counties in the CCI.
With delays in the implementation of the CCI, due in part to
delayed approval from the federal Centers for Medicaid and
Medicare Services (CMS), the state has delayed the
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implementation of the CCI by more than a year to no sooner than
April 1, 2014.
Proposed Law: This bill would delink the statewide bargaining
provision of IHSS providers and associated creation of the
Statewide Authority from other provisions and timelines of the
CCI. Specifically, this bill:
1) Eliminates the requirement to delete authority for the
Statewide Authority and related requirements if the CCI becomes
inoperative.
2) Removes the requirement to link the establishment of the
statewide employee organization to a county's implementation of
the CCI, and makes related language changes in numerous places
in the statute.
3) Eliminates the requirement to revert a county's IHSS County
MOE share of cost to the original cost-sharing formula if the
CCI is not implemented or becomes inoperative.
4) Deletes the requirement that the establishment of the
Statewide Authority be tied to the completed enrollment of
beneficiaries into the CCI and the notification of such by the
Director of the DHCS.
5) Sets January 1, 2015, as the date that the Statewide
Authority assumes responsibility for statewide collective
bargaining.
6) Eliminates language that renders inoperative the requirement
to count a county's
IHSS MOE in lieu of a county's share of cost of negotiated wage
and benefit increases, as specified.
7) Changes the required date for plans to establish an MOU with
county public authorities that transfers bargaining
responsibility to the Statewide Authority from the
implementation of the CCI in each county to January 1, 2015.
8) Deletes statute that would eliminate the Statewide Authority
and return the role of employer of record to the counties should
the CCI become inoperative.
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9) Eliminates from the list of code sections that shall be
deleted if the CCI becomes inoperative those sections that
establish the IHSS Employer-Employee Relations Act, establish
and define the duties of the Statewide Authority, establish the
IHSS Fund, require all counties to have a County IHSS MOE, and
require counties to pay the County IHSS MOE instead of paying
the nonfederal share of IHSS costs, as specified.
Prior Legislation: SB 1036 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review) Chapter 45/2012 established the Statewide Authority,
incorporated IHSS into the CCI, and established a statewide
bargaining process to be implemented as each county implemented
the CCI. The statute anticipated that as soon as March 1, 2013,
the pilot would begin in the demonstration counties and provided
that once IHSS was an established Medi-Cal benefit through
managed care plans, collective bargaining would be transferred
to the Statewide Authority. This bill also required all
counties, commencing July 1, 2012, to have a County IHSS MOE,
which required counties to pay the County IHSS MOE instead of
paying the nonfederal share of IHSS costs, as specified.
Staff Comments: Accelerating and expanding the implementation of
statewide bargaining to all 58 counties could result in
potentially major ongoing costs (General Fund) in the tens to
low hundreds of millions of dollars to the extent the provisions
of this measure result in an increase in IHSS provider wages and
health benefits with the implementation of the Statewide
Authority effective January 1, 2015. As only those wage and
benefit increases that are locally negotiated or imposed before
the Statewide Authority assumes employer responsibility result
in an adjustment to the County IHSS Maintenance of Effort (MOE),
any increases negotiated by the Statewide Authority would not
require a county share of costs. The nonfederal share of costs
would be fully funded by the state, resulting in major ongoing
costs to the General Fund.
Under current law, the Statewide Authority becomes the
bargaining entity for IHSS providers only in the eight counties
participating in the CCI demonstration, and only upon the
Director of the DHCS' determination that enrollment into managed
care plans has been completed for the Med-Cal beneficiaries in
that county. Because existing law restricts the transfer to
statewide bargaining to the eight CCI demonstration counties
upon complete Medi-Cal enrollment to managed care, this bill
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potentially accelerates the implementation date for those eight
counties, and expands statewide bargaining to the remaining 50
counties. The 2014-15 Governor's Budget projects enrollment to
commence in April 2014 in five of the eight counties (Orange,
Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Mateo). Enrollment
of the remaining three counties (Los Angeles, Alameda, and Santa
Clara) is projected to commence in July 2014.
CalHR has indicated the provisions of this measure will result
in annual costs in the range of $6.9 million to implement and
operate a collective bargaining platform on behalf of the
Statewide Authority expanded to cover all 58 counties effective
January 1, 2015. In addition, CalHR will incur one-time
significant costs for limited-term staff and overtime required
to support the workload imposed under the accelerated
implementation date mandated in this measure.
To the extent the CCI would have otherwise become inoperative at
some future date due to an estimate by the Director of Finance
that the CCI would not generate net General Fund savings, as
specified, the annual costs noted above would continue to be
incurred. The counties' share of cost limited by the County IHSS
MOE would not revert to the original cost-sharing formula, and
CalHR/DSS costs would continue to support the activities of the
Statewide Authority.