BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 199 Page 1 Date of Hearing: July 8, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair SB 199 (Hall) - As Amended June 2, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Human Services |Vote:|7 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: Yes SUMMARY: This bill would expand the scope of services available under the IHSS program for a recipient who is blind, to include assistance in reading and completing financial and other documents, limited to two hours per month. SB 199 Page 2 FISCAL EFFECT: 1)One-time costs to the Department of Social Services (DSS) in 2015-16 of up to $1.7 million (GF/Federal Fund), and up to $3.0 million on-going to fund additional authorized IHSS provider hours for services to 9,710 IHSS recipients who are blind, assuming all potential recipients are authorized for an additional two hours per month. These costs will be lower to the extent that not all potential recipients are authorized for this service or are authorized for less than two hours. 2)Unknown but potentially significant one-time automation costs (GF/Federal Fund) 3)Minor one-time costs to DHCS to submit the request for federal approval of this service. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, "Reading assistance is critical for consumers who need to know about notices that may affect their ability to live independently, including insurance coverage, prescription drug labels, housing notifications or other time sensitive information that may require action." Although counties are currently required to provide information and referrals to blind individuals, advocates agree that the demand for reading assistance for IHSS SB 199 Page 3 recipients far exceeds the availability of volunteers at local blind/visually impaired service centers. Further, in most cases, those organizations that can provide reading and document completion services do so only on-site and often don't travel to people's homes to provide such assistance. Consequently, blind IHSS recipients who live far away from services in the community or who are unable to travel are left with few, if any, options for reading services. 2)Background. Existing law provides for the IHSS program, administered by the Department of Social Services (DSS), through which qualified aged, blind, or disabled individuals receive supportive services enabling them to remain in their own homes. Existing law defines the scope of supportive services under the IHSS program to include heavy cleaning, personal care services, accompaniment by a provider when needed during necessary travel to health-related appointments or to alternative resource sites, yard hazard abatement, protective supervision, teaching and demonstration directed at reducing the need for other supportive services, and paramedical services which make it possible for the recipient to establish and maintain an independent living arrangement. Because reading services are not included among the covered services, social workers are not able to allot hours for reading, document completion or other related services even when it is clear that blind recipients cannot complete those activities without assistance and other sources of support are not readily available. Instead, county welfare departments are required to provide visually impaired applicants and recipients with information on, and referral services to, entities that provide reading services to visually impaired persons. SB 199 Page 4 According to DSS, as of May 2015, there were 9,824 blind IHSS recipients (approximately 2% of the total IHSS caseload). Of those blind recipients, 114 had already been assessed for the statutory maximum number of IHSS hours (283 hours per month), leaving approximately 9,710 blind IHSS recipients potentially eligible for the services in this bill. (These numbers do not include individuals who are visually impaired but who do not meet the statutory definition for blind.) 3)Prior Legislation. a) AB 1703 (Hall), 2014, was similar to this bill, but broader in scope. It applied to individuals who are blind, and to those who are visually impaired, or who have another disability that significantly impairs an individual's ability to read. It also did not contain any limit on the number of hours that could be provided. It was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file. b) AB 238 (Beall), 2007, was nearly identical to AB 1703 (Hall). It was vetoed by the Governor. Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 SB 199 Page 5