COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Health Department

DATE:

October 28, 2005

BOARD MEETING DATE:

November 15, 2005

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

None

VOTE REQUIRED:

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors acting as the Governing Board of the In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority of San Mateo County

FROM:

Charlene A. Silva, Director, Health Department
Lisa Mancini, Director, Aging and Adult Services

SUBJECT:

Agreement with the Health Plan of San Mateo

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a resolution authorizing the President of this Governing Board to execute an agreement with the Health Plan of San Mateo (HPSM) to provide health benefits to independent providers of the In-Home Supportive Services Program for $5,203,059, for the term of August 1, 2005 through July 31, 2008.

VISION ALIGNMENT:

Commitment: Ensure basic health and safety for all

Goal 8: Help vulnerable people—the aged, disabled, mentally ill, at-risk youth and others—achieve a better quality of life.

Aging and Adult Services strives to provide services to severely impaired individuals to help them remain in the most independent setting possible. The provision of these services to this targeted population is a division-wide performance measure.

Performance Measure(s):

Measure

FY 2004-05
Actual

FY 2005-06
Projected

Percent of severely impaired client population who are maintained in an independent setting through case management

95%

90%

Percent of caregiver survey respondents rating services good or better

96%

90%

BACKGROUND:

In September 1993 your Board approved an ordinance establishing a separate Public Authority to administer the provider components for the In-Home Supportive Services Program (IHSS) and designating the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors as the governing Board of the Public Authority.

The goal of IHSS is to assist eligible aged, blind, and disabled individuals to remain in their own homes as long as safely possible. Using independent providers, IHSS provides participants with a wide variety of personal care and domestic services such as meal preparation, feeding, bathing, dressing, transferring, protective supervision, laundry, shopping, transportation, and certain paramedical services authorized by a physician.

In November 2000 the IHSS Public Authority signed an agreement with SEIU, Local 715, which included the provision of health benefits for the independent providers. In accordance with the agreement between the Public Authority and SEIU, independent providers who are authorized to work a minimum of 35 hours a month are offered the opportunity to request health benefits. In August 2001 the Public Authority began providing health benefits to eligible providers.

A health benefits product called Healthworx was developed by the HPSM specifically for independent providers of IHSS. On July 31, 2001 your Board as the Public Authority approved the first agreement with the Health Plan of San Mateo (HPSM) to provide health benefits for the IHSS independent providers. Your Board has continued to provide health insurance through HPSM since that time.

DISCUSSION

The proposed renewal agreement between the Public Authority and HPSM is substantially the same as the previous agreement. HPSM continues to be the best provider of health insurance for IHSS independent providers.

Processing of this agreement was delayed due to concerns regarding insurance coverage requirements for the Public Authority, which have now been resolved for this agreement.

County Counsel has reviewed and approved the Resolution and Agreement as to form.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The term of the new agreement is August 1, 2005 through July 31, 2008. This Agreement may be renewed or extended by mutual agreement. The monthly premium per provider is $185.31 plus a $10.00 co-pay from the provider. The maximum number of providers who can be insured is 740 per month. Total cost for each year of the agreement is $1,734,353 for a total agreement amount of $5,203,059. The projected County share of this cost is $246,113. Cost for the health insurance coverage is included in the 2005-06 adopted budget for the Public Authority for IHSS.