Resources for clients and IPs about IP Overtime and Work Week Limits
On April 1, 2016 DSHS began paying IPs for qualified travel time. Travel time is time spent by an IP traveling between qualified worksites in the same workday using a reasonable method of travel. Travel time is considered work time and will be paid.
In addition, DSHS began calculating overtime pay for Individual Providers (IPs), for hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a work week beginning the week of April 3, 2016.
On April 18, 2016, Governor Inslee signed Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1725 into law. The limits are defined in RCW 74.39A.270(5)(b)(i).
The law includes limits on the number of hours the department may pay any single individual provider in a work week. This limit is called a Work Week Limit (WWL). A work week begins on Sunday at 12:00 am and ends on Saturday at 11:59 pm.
IPs must not work more than their assigned work week limit and also must not work more client hours than are assigned to them in a month. Most IPs have a WWL of 40 hours. An IP’s WWL may be greater than 40 hours if the average number of weekly service hours worked in January of 2016 was greater than 40. IPs who worked in January of 2016 and IPs who were working in April, 2016 were notified in May, 2016 by a letter from DSHS about the new overtime limitations and their specific WWL.
An IP’s WWL may also be greater than 40 if a request to increase an IP’s WWL was approved by DSHS for a reason(s) related to the availability of qualified providers to meet a client’s specific needs or because a health and safety event caused an IP to work more than their WWL. For more detailed information about WWLs and overtime limits, see the IP Overtime Factsheet.
Some IPs have had difficulty working within their WWL because there are work weeks that cross over different months and because IPs claim hours based on the client’s authorization which is a monthly authorization. DSHS has created a scheduling tool to help clients and IPs with this scheduling challenge. Right now, the tool is only available in Microsoft Excel, which does not work on Apple iPads or mobile devices, but DSHS is working on other solutions so that it can be used on these devices.