Oregon Disability Services Face Cuts – Your Voice is Needed this Saturday in Portland

by | Feb 8, 2017 | 2017 changes, advocacy, budget cuts

Oregon is currently facing at a significant budget deficit and in order to deal with the issue, our state legislature is looking at places to reduce, discontinue, or rearrange funding. There are several areas the legislature is considering cuts in the coming months, many of which were outlined in the Governor’s Proposed Budget:

  • A reduction in brokerage and county/CDDP case management funding
  • Elimination of the Family Network program
  • Elimination of Regional crisis services
  • Elimination of the Fairview Housing Trust Fund
  • Partial rate increase to Direct Support Provider wages

You can learn all about the proposed budget cuts and adjustments in this great article by brokerage association director Katie Rose. Remember, these are cuts mentioned only in the Governor’s budget – legislators may be looking at other ways to adjust funding to balance the budget.

How You Can Help

This Saturday, attend the Town Hall at PCC Sylvania in Portland! The Joint Committee on Ways and Means has scheduled a series of Town Hall meetings across the state. Having advocates from the I/DD community show up and give testimony at these public budget hearings is very important.  This is a unique opportunity to tell legislators what your services mean to you and why keeping service networks strong is important for you and your family. We have heard that legislators aren’t getting a lot of feedback from the community on services – please take this chance to make your voice heard.

What to expect if you go? Be prepared for large crowds, and plan to arrive early, especially if you want to sign up to give testimony (at least 1 to 1 ½ hours early). The sign-up sheet for testimony fills up quickly. Even if you don’t plan to give testimony, your presence at these events, wearing or waving something yellow in support of the DD Community, will send the message to legislators that the DD Community is unified in its support of DD programs and services.

RSVP and connect on the event Facebook page here.

When: Saturday February 11th 12 – 2pm (Be there as early as 10:30 or 11:00 if you want to speak!)
Where: Main Mall, Amo DeBernardis CC Building PCC, Sylvania campus 12000 SW 49th Ave, Portland

To support your participation in these statewide budget town halls, the I/DD Coalition will ensure a host will be on site at the event to provide you with fact sheets, advocacy stickers and more. Please register for this event via Facebook to stay informed and receive the latest information.

Thanks to our friends at the I/DD Coalition and GO! Project for their great work organizing the community and providing the content for this post.

 

Oregon I/DD Director Releases Statement on PPL Transition Challenges, Contingency Plan Extended

by | Feb 2, 2017 | 2016 changes, 2017 changes, domestic employees, personal support workers

Lilia Teninty, Director of Oregon Office of Developmental Disabilities Services released the following statement late Wednesday regarding the PPL transition issues that customers, families, providers, and case management entities have been dealing with the past several months and lays out a plan for the coming weeks:

“I am writing today with an update on the Personal Support Worker (PSW) payroll transition to PCG Public Partnerships LLC (PPL). Personal Support Worker (PSW) and employer enrollment with PPL has not gone as seamlessly as we would have liked. I’d like to acknowledge and thank everyone involved in this very difficult process.

CDDPs and Brokerages stepped up to get packets to employers and PSWs and have followed-up with them to get paperwork submitted. As we have worked with PPL to identify gaps in information, CDDPs and Brokerages again worked to fill in those gaps. Individuals and families have worked hard to complete necessary employer paperwork. And most importantly, PSWs have completed packets and tracked down information in the midst of the vital work they do with clients. All of this help has been instrumental, thank you.

Payroll transition to PPL: The payroll transition work began in August 2016. It included several changes to data systems, training and information sessions to CDDPs and Brokerages, and in-person information and enrollment sessions to help PSWs and employers complete necessary paperwork. Even with the extensive preparation, the transition to PPL has not been as smooth as we had expected. We are working with PPL to resolve the problems and have directed them to improve their customer service.

If you got a robocall from PPL: PPL recently did a robocall to notify employers and PSWs about missing paperwork. Some people who got the calls did not understand what they were supposed to do. If you are an employer of record, the call most likely was because of a problem with your Employer Identification Number. If you got the robocall you need to contact PPL right away to find out what is missing and get paperwork issues resolved.

Contingency plan extended: We have extended the contingency plan for payroll through the February 28 pay period. If the PSW and employer submitted accurate Social Security and Employer Identification Numbers, PSWs will get paid during the contingency period, even if other paperwork hasn’t been completed. That contingency plan made it possible to pay 99.2 percent of PSWs on January 18, 2017.Until April, PPL is providing a list to CDDPs and Brokerages of PSWs not paid. If an administrative error caused the error it will be fixed and the PSW paid the next week. If additional information needs to be submitted, the PSW will need to contact PPL to find out what is missing. Please know that after the contingency plan ends, all required information from employers and PSWs will need to be complete and logged at PPL in order to issue paychecks on time.

Direct deposit and W-2s: We know there were issues with direct deposit for PSWs who had not submitted the needed documentation before December 22, 2016 for the first pay period. PSWs that submitted direct deposit documentation before December 22, 2016 should have received direct deposit for the first pay period. Due to legal restrictions, TNT was unable to provide direct deposit information to PPL during the transition. W-2s for work done between January 1 and December 31, 2016 will come from TNT since they were the payroll entity for all of 2016.

For more information: What should you do if you have questions about the information that needs to be submitted? Your first step is to contact PPL’s customer service:

You can also “Follow” ODDS’ Facebook page, the eXPRS page or the Home Care Commission page on Facebook to get updates and helpful information.

Sincerely,
Lilia”

Additional resource: PPL’s Facebook page