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Committee presses agencies and contractors on personal-care attendant pay problems after repeated payroll errors
Summary
Lawmakers flagged years of payroll errors and long call waits by third-party fiscal intermediaries that manage personal-care attendant pay; committee advanced SB 498 while members demanded audits, contract reviews and possible vendor changes.
Lawmakers used the Human Services Committee to press for fixes after repeated reports that personal-care attendants have faced missed or delayed pay and inaccessible customer service from third‑party fiscal intermediaries.
Representative Case described long-standing problems and a complex chain of responsibility: state policies set hours and pay, but third-party contractors administer payroll and sometimes cannot disclose patient-level details because of privacy rules. “Two years ago there was an audit. Two years, that company’s owed $15,000,000, and we have not paid them yet,” Representative Case said, describing reconciliation and contract friction between providers and state agencies.
Several members said the issue requires a holistic review. Representative Dayton, a legislator with financial-management experience, described the fiscal-intermediary function as a large fiduciary payroll operation and said the program processes “like a $125,000,000” volume: “They provide payroll services... There are many payroll providers out there that do this stuff right,” he said, urging accuracy and operational controls.
Other members called for more oversight or a change in vendors. Representative Vale noted recurrent problems, including shift-overlap and time-entry issues that can leave attendants unpaid for full shifts. A number of lawmakers said multiple bills are already moving through the process to address the problem, and the committee acknowledged separate oversight reviews are under way.
The committee voted to move SB 498 forward; members asked for further informational sessions with DSS and DDS and for the committees overseeing procurement and contract compliance to examine vendor performance and liability structures.
What happens next: The committee directed follow-up with agencies and said it will monitor contract performance and any reconciliation of outstanding vendor claims. The bill advanced to the floor with requests for additional briefings and possible legislative fixes.
