The SOC 426 IHSS Provider Enrollment Form

SOC 426 is the provider’s identity page, not the care plan

CDSS lists SOC 426 among the enrollment pieces an individual provider completes. It is how the county records who wants to be paid to give authorized IHSS help. It is not the Notice of Action. It is not SOC 873. It does not list hour totals. Families who write a care schedule on the margins are mixing two files. Put the schedule in the assessment conversation. Put identity, relationship, and case-matching information on SOC 426 the way the county asks.

Ask the Public Authority for the current form. Counties update packets. A copy saved from a previous year can bounce. The enrollment steps page shows where SOC 426 sits in the usual order: after or alongside orientation, next to SOC 846, and before you treat the background check as optional.

Why names must match the case

The provider file has to attach to a recipient file. If the parent’s name on SOC 426 does not match Medi-Cal or the IHSS case, the packet sits. If your name does not match the identity documents used for work authorization and the background check, the packet sits. Use the legal names the county can verify. If a parent uses a different first name at home, still write the case name and tell the worker about the household name in a note if they ask, not as a substitute on the line.

The same matching problem shows up when an adult child has a married name, a hyphen, or a suffix. Copy from a government ID. Do not shorten. Do not leave the recipient line blank because “they already know us.”

What belongs on SOC 426, and what does not

• The provider’s identifying information as the form requests it
• The recipient information needed to attach the file to the case
• Relationship information if the form asks (adult child, friend, spouse, parent of a minor)
• Signatures the form requires from the person who will be paid

Leave diagnoses, hospital records, and hour requests off this page unless a current county instruction asks for a specific extra sheet. Extra medical paper belongs with SOC 873 or a later county request. Hour totals belong to the social worker. Wage numbers belong to the county’s published local rate, which unions and the employer of record set.

How SOC 426 sits next to SOC 846 and orientation

Orientation is the required session that explains provider rules. SOC 426 is the enrollment form. SOC 846 is the provider agreement: the person agrees to the program’s provider terms. Counties may hand you all three in one packet. Completing one does not finish the others. Completing all three does not finish a background check. Completing the provider file does not finish the recipient’s assessment.

If you live with the recipient, you may also see SOC 2298 for live-in self-certification. That page changes EVV steps. It is not a substitute for SOC 426.

Who should not skip the form

An adult child who already gives unpaid care still files SOC 426 if they want to be paid. A friend the family has trusted for years still files it. A second relative who will take weekend hours files their own. A spouse or parent of a minor files it only if the sub-program can pay them; the form does not override PCSP limits.

After you return it

Keep a copy. Ask whether the county needs a photo ID, work-authorization documents, or a fingerprint appointment attached to the same packet. Call once if a page comes back. Daily calls rarely re-file a form that is already in the queue. When pay starts still waits on the whole enrollment file plus authorized hours, not on SOC 426 alone.

Official sources

Use CDSS providers, orientation, IHSS, and the county office list. If you want help checking that names match before you submit, ask for help once you have the county’s current packet.