Title
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS), or his designee, to sign an agreement with Solutions West, Inc. for $469,200 to provide Temporary Eligibility staff for the period March 1, 2014 through June 30, 2014 and consulting services that will produce training materials and manuals for eligibility staff; and
b. Authorize the Director of DSS, or his designee, to sign up to three (3) amendments to this agreement where the total amendments do not exceed 10% of the original contract amount, and do not significantly change the scope of work. (ADDED VIA ADDENDUM)
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the Board of Supervisors:
a. Approve and authorize the Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS), or his designee, to sign an agreement with Solutions West, Inc. for $469,200 to provide Temporary Eligibility staff for the period March 1, 2014 through June 30, 2014 and consulting services that will produce training materials and manuals for eligibility staff; and
b. Authorize the Director of DSS, or his designee, to sign up to three (3) amendments to this agreement where the total amendments do not exceed 10% of the original contract amount, and do not significantly change the scope of work.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
DSS is recommending entering into an agreement with Solutions West that will provide specialized staff to assist in eligibility case processing for Social Services. Due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the technology challenges related to the interface between the Covered California eligibility system and the county consortia system, the Department is not meeting mandated timeframes for case processing. Currently, over 5,000 Medi-Cal cases are pending action with current staffing unable to meet the workload demand.
While DSS is committed to hiring and training eligibility workers to manage the workload, the lengthy process to recruit and train staff has con...
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