California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - August 19, 1998

Item 98-08-01E
Identification of Personal Care Services Program (PCSP) Cases

Issue

How does a judge determine whether a case is a PCSP case or an IHSS case? Why does it matter?

Authority

Individuals eligible to receive services through the Personal Care Services Program (PCSP) must meet the following conditions:

(1) Recipient of categorical payment. (§51350(b))

(2) Disability expected to last 12 months or more or end in death. (§51350(b))

(3) Needs at least one personal care service or paramedical service. (§§51350 (a) and 51183)

(4) Does not have a parent (if a minor) or a spouse as the sole service provider. (§51181)

(5) Is not receiving advance payment for services. (Manual of Policies and Procedures Handbook §30-780.4)

(Department of Social Services All-County Letter No. 93-67, September 10, 1993)

A nonseverely impaired individual (as referenced in Manual of Policies and Procedures (MPP) §30-753(s)(1)), may receive a maximum of 195 hours per month.

PCSP includes personal care and ancillary services. It does not include protective supervision. (Title 22 CCR §51183, MPP §30-780.1)

When such an individual receives both protective supervision in the residual IHSS program, and PCSP, that individual may receive up to 195 hours per month of protective supervision, plus all of the PCSP needs, but not in excess of 283 hours per month. (All-County Letter No. 93-30, May 10, 1993, interpreting Welfare and Institutions Code (W&IC) §§12300(g)(2), 12303.4, and 14132.95)

Grooming excludes cutting with scissors or clipping toenails. (§51350(f); see also Manual of Policies and Procedures (MPP) Handbook §30-780.2(f))

Answer

For a case to be a PCSP case, the recipient must meets all the conditions set out in ACL 93-67 above. For example, if the recipient’s sole source of income were Social Security Disability instead of SSI/SSP, that person would not be eligible to PCSP because he/she would not be a recipient of a categorical payment. Such person could receive IHSS residual (herein IHSS) services.

To be eligible for PCSP, such person would have to need either paramedical services or at least one personal care service such as assistance with dressing, bowel and bladder care, or bathing and grooming (see Paraphrased regulation 563-1 for a complete list of personal care services). If the recipient’s spouse is a provider, the case is an IHSS case, not a PCSP case. If the recipient is a minor (i.e. under age 18 per MPP §30-753(m), and has a parent as a provider, the case is an IHSS case and not a PCSP case. If the recipient is receiving advance pay, the case is IHSS, not PCSP. (Note: A PCSP recipient may also receive IHSS services).

Counties should be able to tell judges at a hearing whether a case is an IHSS or a PCSP case. If the county appeals specialist or witness does not know if the case is IHSS or PCSP, the judge needs to determine this fact. The two main reasons it is important to establish whether the case is PCSP or IHSS are as follows:

Protective Supervision is an IHSS service, but not a PCSP service. A recipient, who is not eligible to PCSP, is not severely impaired but requires protective supervision, may only receive a maximum of 195 hours of IHSS services monthly. However, a non-severely impaired PCSP recipient who requires protective supervision, may receive up to 195 hours of protective supervision plus hours for PCSP needs for total hours up to, but not exceeding 283 monthly.

PCSP is federally funded and comes under the Medi-Cal program. IHSS is state funded. Cases involving PCSP should be written for both CDSS and CDHS, while cases that involve only IHSS services need only be written for CDSS.

There are other smaller differences between PCSP and IHSS such as there is no authority for toenail cutting or teaching and demonstration in PCSP. Also certain services in PCSP are categorized differently in the two programs (e.g. bed baths are a separate category in IHSS but are part of bathing and grooming in PCSP).