SECTIONS 9560-9568 - California Statutes

WELFARE AND INSTITUTIONS CODE

SECTION 9560-9568

9560. (a) The purpose of this chapter shall be to establish a
program to serve frail elderly individuals 65 years of age and older
who are certifiable for placement in a nursing facility. This program
shall be known as the Multipurpose Senior Services Program, and
shall be structured and carried out in a manner consistent with
Section 1396n(c) of Title 42 of the United States Code.
(b) This chapter clarifies the intent of the Legislature that the
Multipurpose Senior Services Program shall continue:
(1) To prevent premature disengagement of older individuals from
their indigenous communities and subsequent commitment to
institutions.
(2) To provide optimum accessibility of various important
community social and health resources available to assist active
older individuals to maintain independent living.
(3) To provide that the frail older individual who has the
capacity to remain in an independent living situation has access to
the appropriate social and health services without which independent
living would not be possible.
(4) To provide the most efficient and effective use of public
funds in the delivery of these social and health services.
(5) To coordinate, integrate, and link these social and health
services, including county social services, by removing obstacles
that impede or limit improvements in delivery of these services.
(6) To allow the state substantial flexibility in organizing or
administering the delivery of social and health services to its older
individuals.
(7) To provide access to social and health services by providing
information and outreach activities in the community.

9561. Program services provided pursuant to this chapter may be
purchased by program funds or received from other community sources
that consist of, but are not limited to, case management services,
recreation services, educational services, senior center programs,
information and referral services, transportation, income maintenance
counseling, housing services, outreach services, volunteer programs,
legal services, home repair services, escort services, telephone
reassurance services, friendly visiting services, health assessment
services, psychological assessment services, nutrition services, home
health services, preventive health services, mental health services,
homemaker chore services, meals services, adult day care services,
including adult day health care, and nonmedical respite care
services.

9562. (a) This chapter shall be administered by the department,
under the authority of an approved interagency agreement with the
State Department of Health Services, the single state medicaid
agency.
(b) To the extent permitted by federal law, each department within
the Health and Welfare Agency including departments designated as
single state agencies for the programs described in Section 9561,
shall waive regulations and general policies and make resources
available which are necessary for the administration of this chapter,
upon request of the agency.

9563. The department shall formulate criteria for approval and
designation of local Multipurpose Senior Services Program sites. The
criteria shall include, but need not be limited to, all of the
following:
(a) Specifications for a social and health review team to evaluate
older individuals and to ensure that continuity of social, economic,
and health services is provided to maintain older individuals at the
appropriate level of care.
(b) Development of social and health services necessary to
maintain the older individual at the appropriate level of care.
(c) Specifications for the quality of the social and health
services to be provided.
(d) Coordination and integration of the social and health services
described in Section 9561.
(e) The number of local sites, which shall be consistent with the
funds made available for purposes of this chapter.
(f) Coordination with local governmental and nonprofit agencies
concerned with multipurpose senior services.
(g) Maximize utilization of local resources, including service
provided by established community-based senior citizen organizations
and information and referral networks.
(h) Specifications for the evaluation of the proposals submitted
for the new local sites and for the evaluation of the local sites.
(i) Conditions for determining the need for procurement of
existing sites. Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, the
department is not required to procure existing sites by the
competitive bidding process, unless it deems it in the best interests
of the state to do so.

9564. Nothing in this chapter shall preclude expansion of
Multipurpose Senior Services Program services if cost effectiveness
is demonstrated. The expansion shall be accomplished by establishing
new sites, by increasing numbers of clients served in existing sites,
or by expanding the number of sites to include additional geographic
regions of the state.

9565. The department shall do all of the following:
(a) Enter into agreements and negotiated contracts with any
nonprofit organization or governmental entity to operate the local
sites, consistent with the criteria adopted pursuant to Section 9563.
In letting these contracts, the department shall not anticipate
future appropriations.
(b) Make grants to local sites from available funds.
(c) Monitor local sites.
(d) Cause the service sites to be evaluated in accordance with the
established criteria.
(e) Seek and utilize any available federal, state, or private
funds that may be available for carrying out the purposes of this
chapter.
(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, local sites
established pursuant to this chapter may contract with the Director
of Health Services as Medi-Cal programs pursuant to Chapter 8
(commencing with Section 14200) of Part 3 of Division 9. Contracts
with the local sites shall be deemed to be for the purposes specified
in Section 14494, and may utilize funds appropriated from the Health
Care Deposit Fund pursuant to Section 14157.
(g) Assist in coordinating local site programs with local
governmental programs and services for older individuals.

9566. The department may, where necessary to ensure the effective
operation of a multipurpose senior services program, advance to the
program's local government and private nonprofit administering
agency, an amount not to exceed 25 percent of the estimated annual
allocation to the program, under this chapter, as determined by the
department pursuant to the estimated annual budget submitted by the
program. Subsequent payments to the local government and private
nonprofit administering agency for the Multipurpose Senior Services
Program shall be prorated to reflect any advance payment made under
this section.

9567. This chapter shall remain in effect so long as a waiver
pursuant to Section 1396n(c) of Title 42 of the United States Code
has been granted by the federal Department of Health and Human
Services to the State Department of Health Services.

9568. The department shall explore options for, and obtain
necessary legislative and governmental agency approvals to expand,
the Multipurpose Senior Services Program. The department shall
attempt to obtain the necessary federal approval to expand access to
case management services into every planning and service area in the
state and to improve the delivery of case management services.