Tempus Updates for CHC Participants and Direct Care Workers
Earlier this month, OLTL held an FMS Stakeholder meeting to provide the following updates for people in Community HealthChoices (CHC) who self-direct their Personal Assistance Services. Tempus is the financial management services (FMS) provider who issues payment to the employees hired by CHC participants (or their designated representative) who self direct their care.
Paystub portal now available for both Common Law Employers and Direct Care Workers – Pay stubs are currently mailed to all direct care workers but now there is also a payroll portal where both workers and employers can get paystub information as well as W2s. People need to create an account to access the portal. Click here to see more information, including training materials and instructions for creating an account to access the portal.
Direct Care Workers with missing enrollment information need to act to avoid missing payments next month – Over 300 direct care workers are missing required enrollment information, such as tax forms, background checks, or orientation completion. Workers who do not complete the missing information will not be paid starting in late February – payments will be made later once the missing information is submitted. Service Coordinators are making calls to affected CHC participants. Tempus is also outreaching to affected direct care workers and their common law employers via text, email and robo-calls. Letters are also being mailed.
Outreach and support to employers who overutilize hours – when a CHC plan approves Personal Assistance Services, they enter an authorization for the number of hours approved. In the Tempus system, the authorization will show the start and end dates for the authorization as well as the overall number of hours available during the authorization period (called a budget period). It also shows the expected number of hours to be used weekly, how many hours have been used and the balance of remaining hours. If someone uses more hours than they are approved for each week, then the hours will run out before the end of the budget period. No payments are made for services provided after the authorized number of hours runs out.
Tempus conducts outreach to the common law employer when they use more than their expected weekly usage and run out of approved hours before the end of the budget period. The specific outreach and support for this “overutilization” of hours vary by CHC plan, but people who are having this problem should be contacted by Tempus as well as their Service Coordinator. In addition to possible access problems if direct care workers do not get paid for all the hours worked, Tempus has stated that continued overuse of hours could jeopardize a CHC Participant’s ability to remain in the self-directed model of care. Individuals should talk to their Service Coordinator if their situation has changed or if their current number of approved hours does not meet their needs.
Enhanced training and bonus payments for direct care workers coming soon – Frontline Pennsylvania is rolling out training for direct care workers in the participant directed model that focuses on safety orientation and foundational skills. The safety orientation training will be 8 hours and will include topics such as CPR certification and infection prevention. Foundational skills training will be 24 hours and include topics such as body system basics, medication safety and adherence, death and dying, and dementia capable care. Workers will be paid for the time they spend in training and people who complete all 32 hours will get a bonus payment of $500. People can find more information here and can contact Frontline at 1-833-241-5400 to sign up for any of their training offerings.
Job aids, training videos, and additional information can be found on Tempus’ website. People who have questions about their financial management services or who are having problems with direct care worker payments should contact Tempus at 1-844-983-6787 or talk to their CHC Service Coordinator. CHC participants who are having problems with financial management services that are not being resolved by Tempus or their CHC plan are encouraged to contact PHLP’s Helpline at 1-800-274-3258 or staff@phlp.org.
