Ohio Connection State Family Child Care Association

  Provider Payment System Workgroup-Update

1.  The State has found a approved a vendor for the point of sales machines.  The vendor selected is ACS.    ACS has contracted with ODJFS to develop the Time and Attendance Module.  The release is targeted for January 2011.  Anyone contracted with the state to provide care will be issued these machines. There will be a slow roll out of the system.    Parents will slide a card through a Point of Sale machine to sign their children in and out.

2.  The centralized payment system began on March 28th.  The first payments were made in May.  Your county will continue to process your paperwork as usual until you receive the Point of Sale machine in your home.  After processing, the county will input your payment information to the  state and the state will direct deposit your funds.  All payments will be done thru direct deposit.  Once the counties enters the data into the 3299 system or centralized payment system, ODJFS will process data each Friday and the funds will be deposited to the provider's account the following week on Thursday/Friday.  

3.  There is a Provider Web Portal for providers to submit their information.  Providers will have to fill out three (3) forms-Provider Contract, Rate Form, and Banking Form.  Providers are longer contracted with the county.  Theyare instead  contracted with the state.  The voucher system will no longer exist.  The locally funded vouchers used in some counties will still exist due to the fact that this is locally funded child care and has no funding from the state. 

4.  All contact will be done via the Provider Portal.  Providers can obtain their remittance reports on the portal after their ETF has been processed.  Remittance reports will be available for up to 18 months.

5.  An Enhancement and Authorization system will be implemented that will provide providers with the informations such as

• Blue Sheet Info/Notification of pay amount
• Co-payment changes
• Authorized hours
• Change of Provider
• Termination
• Authorization approvals
• Redetermination notification

6.  Providers will need to have internet access to obtain this information.  Providers who do not have internet access at home can use their local library to obtain access to the internet.

7.  ODJFS received numerous error reports from Key Bank when they were unable to make deposits due to incorrect banking information.  Those providers have been notified and the ETF's will be reissued in 7-10 days.

Question and Answer

  1.  How will transporting providers implement this system?

  The state is not sure.  This is a problem that the Vendor will have to work out.

2.  Multiple people dropping off and picking up.

More than one card and pin number will be issued to a family.

3.  Signing schoolagers in and out

Parents will be able to retroactively sign a schoolager in and out.

4.  What is needed for the machine and who will pay for the extra expense?

The machine will need a phone line and electricity.  Once the machine is set up, it cannot be relocated by the provider.  The cost of additional lines is the provider's responsibility.  While a parent is sliding their card, your phone line will ring busy.

Phone line can be a land line or internet phone.  State regulations require that all providers have a land line phone in their home.  Internet phones are not land line phones.

5.  Is providers required to have internet in their homes?

No, but you will need to have internet access somewhere.

6.  Power outages

Machine will store the data and transmit at a later time

7. Dual Placements

Parent will retroactively sign the child out at the first provider and retroactively sign the child in at the second provider.

8. Union Dues

Union dues will be deducted regardless of whether you sign the card or not.  Ohio is a forced unionization state.   You do not have the right to not join the union.   House Bill 1 requires the State to deduct the fee from your check prior to paying you.

9.  Fraud - Providers using the cards to sign children in and out.

Providers are not to have access to the card or pin number at any time.

Currently, one suggestion has been to sanction parents and providers the first time they are caught abusing the card.  The provider will be fined monetarily and the parent will be sanctioned with the temporary loss of daycare.

The second time, the provider will lose their license or certification forever and the parent will lose their daycare.

This may be subject to change as the program is rolled out.

For further information, send questions to www.ccids help desk@jfs.ohio.gov or call 1-877-302-2347.

Please feel free to suggest additions to the website.  This website is to benefit us all.

Dear Child Care Provider:

Due to concerns from some providers regarding the accuracy of the customary rate information they entered in the provider portal, ODJFS is providing an opportunity to review your rates and make any necessary corrections.

If you determine that the rates you previously submitted on your JFS 01150 "Provider Rate Information" in the provider portal do not accurately reflect your customary charges, you must go back into the portal and update the rates that were entered incorrectly.  If your rates are updated and successfully submitted by June 19, 2010, county departments of job and family services (CDJFS) will accept documentation to make adjustments to your payments for services provided on or after March 28, 2010.  This will be your only opportunity to correct these payments.

In order for the CDJFS to re-examine a previous payment you must provide the following documents to each CDJFS with which you are doing business by June 23, 2010:

1. A copy of your invoices that include services on or after March 28, 2010 for which you believe incorrect rates were used.

1. A copy of the Remittance History showing the payments that you have received.

NOTE:  The Remittance History can be viewed and printed from the provider portal.  Log in to the portal and follow the instructions in the Remittance History section.

1. A copy of the JFS 01150 showing the rates that you have corrected and successfully submitted.

The CDJFS will review these documents and determine any appropriate adjustments.

Adjustments will be made to a future issuance and will appear as an underpayment on the corresponding Remittance History.

Questions can be directed to:

E-mail:  CCIDS_Help_Desk@jfs.ohio.gov

Telephone:  CCIDS Help Desk  1-877-302-2347   

Family Child Care Home Business Focus Workgroup

In September 2003, the Day Care Advisory Council of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Association convened the first meeting of the Family Child Care Home Business Workgroup.  Over the course of the last four years a diverse group of family child care home business professionals, state and county agency staff, child care resource and referral organizations staff, early childhood professionals, food program staff,  and parents met together and by phone to hammer out a set of short term and long-term recommendations.  These recommendations focused on the health and safety of children in care and improving the quality of their early learning opportunities.

Who will be licensed?

Family Child Care Home Businesses receiving payment from any source-public or private-to care for between three and six children on a regular basis will be required to be licensed.  The provider's own children under the age of six and foster care children are included in this count.

Quality Rating System Proposal

This system will rate providers based on five categories.  These categories are Ratio and Accreditation, Education and Qualifications, Specialized Training, Administrative Practices and Early Learning Implementations.

As currently drafted, this will be a three step process.  A provider will have to meet all qualifications in the designated step in order to obtain the quality rating for that step. As with the daycare centers' rating system, this system will be voluntary for providers.

This system is being devised to help parents when selecting care for their child/children. 

The State is currently beginning the process of placing all early care and early education components under the control of the Ohio Department  of Education.  Governor Strickland is also calling for better qualifications for family child care providers that receive subsidized pay.

TEACH Scholarship News

Starting in the fall TEACH will have a 1 year scholarship available that will pay for 12 college credit hours for classes that count for a CDA.  It will be open to all Licensed Centers and County Certified Type-B providers.  

Please remember to add your name to the waiting list so that TEACH can show that their is a need and a desire for CDA and AA funding.