Frequently Asked Questions
Financial Management
Q: Who enters costs for services provided by counties?
A: Counties are expected to input costs for services that they provide themselves (e.g. Motivational Interviewing). Probation will also enter cost information if Probation staff are responsible for providing the service.
Q: Is the cost tracking template client-specific?
A: Yes, cost tracking templates will be client specific. Multiple children can be included in the same template, if they are under the same plan/home.
Q: Is the Title IV-E section intended to be used by county workers for entry into the CEC to replace invoices? Or to recap more specifically the costs that were already captured in the CEC? Is it expected that Community Based Organizations (CBOs) will invoice separately for services provided?
A: This data being entered in CWS-CARES for FFPSA service cost tracking is not intended to capture costs for CEC reporting. This is specifically to meet federal guidelines for the FFPSA program. CWS-CARES will not replace invoicing processes in V1. CDSS will provide additional guidance on what that will look like.
Q: Will county fiscal departments be flagged that a Family Well Being Plan is ending?
A: Yes, there will be functionality for county fiscal to be notified when a plan is about to end.
Q: Is the expectation for approving each Cost Tracking Template submitted by the provider that the worker is checking that the cost details of each transaction are accurate? Or is a more rigorous review expected?
A: Yes, counties will approve cost tracking information that a provider submits. One of the big reasons the Product Team introduced the approval process is to allow counties the opportunity to reject or correct an inaccurate cost that may have been entered by a provider.
Q: For the cost-tracking template, is that a set unit rate and how many units are being provided?
A: Unit rates will be county-specific based on the county-specific contracts. CDSS plans to issue additional guidance via an ACL regarding this.
Q: Is assistance payment data read only in CWS-CARES? How about issuances outside of CalSAWS?
A: Yes, when CWS-CARES receives data from CalSAWS for issued assistance-related payments, we will only be able to read that information but not edit it. Issuances outside of CalSAWS will be read-only as well after they are uploaded into CWS-CARES via the supplemental form.
Q: Will you be able to see if a child has Medi-Cal, Medi-Cal Fee for Service or Managed Care Medi-Cal, and what health provider they have?
A: Medi-Cal is not being tracked in CARES V1, and CARES V2 scope is not yet available.
Q: Will County Expense Claim Reporting Information System (CECRIS) be integrated with CWS-CARES?
A: Yes, in CARES V1, the CECRIS Integration will pull DFA600 data one-way from CECRIS to CWS-CARES. All CECRIS data in CWS-CARES will be read-only; users will not be able to edit/change this data in CWS-CARES.
Q: Will the transfer of data from County Expense Claim Reporting Information System (CECRIS) into CWS-CARES be after the files are audited/approved by CDSS? Will CWS-CARES also receive revised CECRIS Claims?
A: CWS-CARES will receive both the unaudited and audited Original claims approved by the state as federal reporting requires both. CWS-CARES will also receive the approved Adjustment claims. The interface data exchange with CECRIS occurs on a monthly basis. This data will be sent once CECRIS has received all prior to audit claims for each county OR when all audited claims have been approved by CDSS (i.e., when all Original claims have been approved by CDSS, all approved Original claims for each county will be sent to CWS-CARES at once).
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