All delivery of services to individuals must be done in accordance with existing service agreements, federal/state law, doctor’s orders, and company policy.

Employee Readiness

Due to the federal CARES act, all services delivered require employees to have location services enabled on their mobile devices and to sign in and out with each individual in real time with current geographic coordinates.

With location services enabled, the employee should log into the billing and progress notes program using the following steps.

1. Go to the URL (web address) of the program that was provided by the company.
2. Enter the company’s username and password.
3. Enter your employee username and password.
4. Enter your Personal Identification number (PIN). For security’s sake, the PIN entry window is not a text field. It cannot be attempted by a robot. Even if a keyboard is attached to the device, a pointing device must be used to enter the PIN.

If location services are not enabled or the employee fails to supply all of the credentials above, the employee must communication start/end times to the employee’s lead.

Individual Readiness

Generally speaking, the Company and its employees to not provide on-call services to individuals. We deliver services using person-centered planning done in advance and under the direction of the individual. Appointments should be made in advance between the employee and the individual.

An employee may respond to an on-call request by the individual if the employee has the time, but the employee is not required to drop personal or family plans to respond to an on-call request by the individual.

Prior to leaving a location to keep any appointment to deliver services to a individual, the employee should contact the individual to make sure that:

• The individual is going to keep the appointment as agreed.
• The individual is not suffering from an infectious disease or is willing to wear a face mask.
• When a individual is capable of taking care of their own personal hygiene, the individual has properly prepared to go out into public.
• When a individual needs help with personal hygiene, the individual is willing to accept hygiene-related services prior to going out into public.

No employee is required to work with a individual under the following conditions:

• The individual makes an on-call request for services.
• The individual has personal hygiene issues that adversely effect the employee or the employee’s vehicle.
• The individual is exhibiting behaviors that put the employee at risk.
• The individual is being verbally or emotionally abusive.
• The individual is under the influence of drugs.

Wage Loss Mitigation

When employees have made a good faith effort to ensure an individual’s readiness to participate in a shift (see Individual Readiness in this section), the employee may request mitigation compensation for lost time when an individual cancels at the last minute or refuses to participate in a pre-planned shift. Under these circumstances, the employee shall potentially be approved for two hours or more of compensation for the canceled shift when the employee performs the following:

• The employee shall notifiy their in-line lead about the cancellation.
• The employee shall log into the billing system as the “In-House” psuedo-customer for their division and create a two-hour, nonbillable shift.
• In the progress notes for that shift, the employee must describe all efforts to have ensured the individual’s readiness prior to showing up for the shift with the individual’s stated reason for canceling.
• The employee must be willing to accept, if available, any reasonable offer of substituting for a different individual or performing in-house tasks as needed by the Company.

The Company will assess all claims for mitigation compensation. A minimum of two-hours will be paid if the requirements under “Wage Loss Mitigation” are followed. More may be paid depending on the average hours normally worked for similar shifts with the same individual.

Employees experiencing a sudden cancellation have three choices:

1. Decide to take the time off unpaid.
2. Accept the two-hour in-house payment and accept other assignments offered during the same time frame.
3. Arrange with the individual to make up the time on a different day.

Individual Shift Mitigation

The Company will make a good faith effort to provide an alternate Direct Support Professional to cover a shift when an employee needs to cancel an appointment under the following conditions.

• The individual is willing to accept a substitute.
• The company either has an employee available to substitute on short notice or the individual can easily rearrange plans for a later time on the same day.

In the event that the need is urgent or important appointments can’t be changed, any of the Company’s leadership team will offer, when possible, to support the individual in such appointments.

Scheduling

Wherever possible and with the individual’s consent, the ideal form of scheduling will be a weekly, same-time, same-weekday schedule for regular shifts.

The Company understands that the individuals’ circumstances don’t always allow for a regular shift, such as when an individual has an irregular work or school schedule. In such cases, the company will assign an employee who is looking for a flexible work schedule. Under these conditions, there is no guarantee between an individual and a Company employee for guaranteed shift times and they should work out shifts together that work for both.

Before accepting contracts with individuals with high needs for activities of daily living, the Company will determine it’s reasonable ability to provide the supports requested.

All individuals that have contracted with the Company may request that support for scheduling be included in their individual service plans and those who choose to have those supports will find the Company agreeable to provide them.

Inclement Weather

In the event of inclement weather, employees may choose to not deliver services to the individual if, the employee does not feel safe driving in the weather conditions.

The employee may deliver services only in the individual home, if:

• The school district where the individual lives is closed.
• The individual has not been identified as a”fall risk”.
• The individual does not feel competent in walking in adverse weather conditions.

The employee may deliver services in the community if:

• The school district where the individual lives is open.
• The employee is competent to drive in adverse weather conditions.
• The individual and employee can reach in-operation public transportation and can safely reach bus stops or transit centers.
• For employment services that occur in the individual’s workplace, the employer has not canceled work.

The employee must not deliver services if:

• Public officials are recommending that people stay in their homes.
• The employee does not feel competent in walking or driving in adverse weather conditions.
• For employment services that occur in the individual’s workplace, the employer’s inclement weather policies do not allow the individual to work.