Report 2016-128 Recommendation 11 Responses
Report 2016-128: In‑Home Supportive Services: The State Could Do More to Help Providers Avoid Future Payment Delays (Release Date: March 2017)
Recommendation #11 To: Social Services, Department of
To more effectively address common problems reported by providers and recipients, Social Services should develop a formal process to document and address patterns of concerns conveyed through complaints. Specifically, the process should include a method for Social Services to identify and aggregate the complaints it receives, to analyze that information to determine whether there are common themes or broader issues to address within IHSS, and to obtain sufficient information to substantiate responses to the complaints. The process should also include steps to clarify ambiguous issues raised in the complaints and define clear deadlines and the steps to take when responding to complainants if those deadlines cannot be met.
1-Year Agency Response
CDSS has added an additional field in SharePoint to categorize the concerns to better understand common themes, which could help identify potential larger concerns including payroll, overtime violations, eligibility, county issues, and timesheet issues. CDSS has revised its procedures to reflect changes made to the SharePoint tracking process (Attachment E).
- Completion Date: June 2017
- Response Date: March 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented
In addition to providing us with its updated procedures, Social Services provided an example of a report from SharePoint showing how these procedures allow it to identify common themes.
6-Month Agency Response
In January 2016, CDSS established a process using SharePoint to log and track all correspondence responses that are received in the CMIPS unit. CDSS has added an additional field to the SharePoint to categorize the concerns to understand common themes that could help identify potential larger issues including payroll, overtime violations, eligibility, county issues, and timesheet issues. CDSS has revised procedures to reflect changes made to the SharePoint tracking process. Please see attached procedure (Attachment D).
- Completion Date: June 2017
- Response Date: September 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented
Social Services' updated procedures now reference the use of an additional field to categorize concerns. However, Social Services has yet to provide us with examples of reports or excerpts from SharePoint showing how these procedures allow it to identify common themes.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
60-Day Agency Response
In January 2016, CDSS established a process using SharePoint to log and track all correspondence responses that are received in the CMIPS unit. This application enables CDSS to categorize the concerns to understand common themes that could help identify potential larger issues. CDSS is revising procedures to reflect changes made to the SharePoint.
- Completion Date: May 2017
- Response Date: May 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented
Although Social Services is now using SharePoint as a resource for logging and tracking information pertaining to common problems reported by providers and recipients, it has yet to demonstrate its efforts to categorize concerns into common themes that could identify issues of interest. Social Services indicated that it is currently revising procedures, so we will review its progress as reported during its six-month response to the audit.
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
All Recommendations in 2016-128
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.