Q&A
Safeguards to ensure providers work with all referred clients
0:19:57
·
89 sec
Council Member Ayala inquires about safeguards in place to prevent providers from selectively working with only certain clients. Scott French explains the measures HRA has in place to ensure fair service provision.
- Providers are required to engage with any cash assistance clients referred to them
- HRA has not heard of instances where providers refused to serve referred clients
- The pause on performance-based reimbursements removed potential incentives for providers to be selective
- If a client is found to have significant barriers to employment, they may be re-referred to a more appropriate program like We Care
Diana I. Ayala
0:19:57
Okay.
0:20:00
And were there any safeguards in place that keep providers from working with only certain clients?
Scott French
0:20:05
No.
0:20:06
No.
0:20:06
We, you know, made sure that all of our clients were aware of the offerings, and, you know, our providers are required to engage and work with any cash assistance clients that present themselves wanting to receive services.
Diana I. Ayala
0:20:19
Okay.
0:20:19
So can you explain what those safeguards are?
Scott French
0:20:23
So, I mean, if we hear of providers rejecting clients who we refer, we refer the clients to the providers, so the providers need to receive, right, the the the clients that we refer to them.
0:20:39
They can't, right, reject clients unless they come back, say, and we referred someone to a career services provider and say, during their assessment, they said, it appears this individual has some more barriers to employment and they might be better served by We Care.
0:20:53
We would then re refer that client to a We Care provider, but the providers need to serve those clients.
0:21:00
We have not heard of any instances where clients would refuse to serve them.
0:21:04
And given that the performance based reimbursements were paused during this period of time, there wouldn't have been an incentive for anyone to not serve clients that we had referred to them.
0:21:15
Obviously, if someone has heard otherwise, we would we would want to hear that.
0:21:19
But I have not had anything reported to me where where providers refuse to serve cash assistance clients.
0:21:26
We refer to them.