Frequently Asked Questions

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: Where there is a breakdown of the 'IV-E eligible percentage' and service units, the county does not currently know which unit would fill this out at a given point in time. How will counties enter this data?

A: Units of service for FFPSA EBPs will be statewide. The expectation is that the provider of the service enters the Number of Units provided along with the coordinating Unit of Service. The provider will also document the cost of the service. This does not include administrative-related costs associated with the service. CDSS will be issuing guidance to assist counties in this process of units of service.

Q: What does the 'FOP' label on one of the records mean?

A: The 'FOP' followed by a series of numbers indicates the individual person record ID number for the child or person receiving services.

Q: How immediate is the data exchange between the CalSAWS/CARES interface?

A: Data will exchange as close to real-time as possible. A nightly batch occurs as a 'failsafe' if any data does not go through in near real-time.

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: How will CWS-CARES get the Aid Codes for the cases?

A: Aid Codes information comes directly from CalSAWS.

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 user role configuration be specific to a position or function?

A: Role configuration will be specific to a function. This work will be performed by organizations as part of an activity called role mapping in which security profiles for CWS-CARES will be provided to your organization (through your IC) and your implementation team will have the opportunity to assign profiles based on job responsibilities.