The Benefit

In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) provide people with low-income who have disabilities or are 65 years old or older with in-home and personal care services to help them live safely in their own homes.

If you get IHSS, you will be a recipient and get services from providers. You can hire your own providers and have them sign up to get paid by IHSS. You can also find providers through your county’s IHSS registry, which lists providers who may want more work.

Services you can get through IHSS include:

• Domestic services, such as sweeping, vacuuming, taking out the garbage, wheelchair cleaning and battery recharging, and changing bed linens
• Related services, such as meal preparation and cleanup, laundry, and shopping
• Personal care services, such as feeding, bathing, grooming, dressing, bowel and bladder care, and help with medications
• Transportation to medical appointments or alternative sources of services like day programs
• Removal and cleanup of yard hazards
• Heavy cleaning
• Protective supervision for cognitively or mentally impaired persons to safeguard from self-injury or hazard
• Paramedical services, as ordered by a physician, such as injections, range of motion exercises, and catheter insertion, and
• Help with personal care services at a disabled person’s workplace, but not with job-related services.

IHSS is often seen as an alternative to out-of-home placement, such as assisted living or nursing facilities. If you live at home, these services are important to stay in the community. If you are currently in out-of-home placement, you may be able to apply for IHSS and move to your own home.

Your Responsibilities with Your Care Provider

In many ways, being a recipient is like running a small business. You are responsible for hiring, firing, and supervising your care provider.

You can hire a friend, relative, neighbor, or other care provider. IHSS offices also have “registries” of providers who may want more work. If your county has contracted IHSS providers, you can hire them to provide you with the necessary services. You can work with one provider or have a team for different days and times. New providers must enroll with IHSS to get paid by the state; they must also go through a training and background check.

You can find the Individual Provider Wage Rate for IHSS care providers in your county online. You and your care providers must submit timesheets for all authorized services provided. The state will manage the payment and taxes for your care providers. Providers that work enough hours can also get benefits such as health insurance and overtime pay.

The In-Home Supportive Services Consumer Training Handbook offers detailed information about how to supervise a care provider, including issues like hiring, firing, communication, safety, and handling payment. There is more information about this on the California Department of Social Services’ website.

Timesheets and Electronic Visit Verification (EVV)

Providers must submit timesheets twice per month to IHSS. IHSS uses a system called Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) where your provider tells IHSS what time they started and stopped working and the total hours worked each day. The California Department of Social Services has EVV training materials, webcasts and webinars.

You should also track the time that each provider starts working and when they stop. Then, each provider will fill out a timesheet and you will approve it. You and your providers can fill out paper timesheets and mail them to the IHSS office, or you can use IHSS’s online timesheet service.

Make sure that every timesheet is filled out correctly. If timesheets show that two providers worked at the same time, you could get a warning from IHSS. If your provider’s timesheets show that they worked for you and somebody else at the same time, your provider could get a warning from IHSS. If you or your provider get too many warnings, you or your provider may be put on probation. You may want to use a paper calendar, spreadsheet, or other system to track the hours so they are accurate.

How Your Providers Get Paid

Your IHSS providers may get paid through arrears or with advance pay:

• Arrears means the state sends paychecks to your provider after the provider submits a completed timesheet. IHSS pays providers with a paper check or through a direct deposit to a bank account. If providers use an online timesheet and get direct deposit, it’s fast. Paper timesheets and checks take extra time to go through the mail and be processed by the state.
• Advance pay means the state sends you funds at the beginning of the month, so you can pay your care provider directly from your bank account. You and your providers must still submit timesheets and the hours you submit must match the amount of money IHSS gives you. To get advance pay, you must be considered “severely disabled,” meaning you need at least 20 hours per week in personal care services, meal preparation and cleanup, and/or paramedical services.

Note: With advance pay, the money the state sends each month will be at least $1,000 and could be much higher, depending on the number of IHSS hours you get each month.

What You Pay

Many people get In-Home Supportive Services free of charge. This includes anybody who gets one of the following types of Medi-Cal:

• Income-based Medi-Cal (also called "Medi-Cal expansion")
• Aged & Disabled Federal Poverty Level Medi-Cal (A&D FPL)
• SSI-linked Medi-Cal
• Medi-Cal through SSI 1619(b) for people who used to get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cash benefits and now make up to $58,638 per year ($60,663 for people who are blind).
• Medi-Cal's Working Disabled Program (WDP), which lets people with disabilities make up to $76,320 per year and get coverage. Note: Medi-Cal's Working Disabled Program used to have a monthly premium. Starting on July 1, 2022, there is no more premium. Learn more about this change.

Read more about these types of Medi-Cal in DB101’s article on Medi-Cal.

Do You Have to Pay a Share of Cost?

Here are the most common groups of people who pay a share of cost for IHSS, if their income is high enough that they no longer qualify for one of the Medi-Cal categories listed above:

• People who get Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and do not work at all.
• People who get veterans benefits or other unearned income and do not work at all. Note: Many veterans do not have a share of cost.
• People who get Social Security or other retirement benefits and do not work at all.

In this case, you could qualify to pay a share of cost through Aged, Blind, & Disabled Medically Needy Medi-Cal (ABD–MN). Depending on your income level and the number of hours of IHSS you need, your share of cost could be very expensive. Learn more about ABD–MN and calculating your share of cost in DB101's Medi-Cal article.