Transferring an IHSS Case When the Home Changes Counties

Same program, new front door

A composite family: a parent on IHSS leaves one California county to live with an adult child in another. The program is still IHSS. The file is not automatically the same drawer. Moving counties with IHSS is the checklist version. This page is the existing-case, family-situation frame: you already have a notice, a provider, and a folder, and the home address is about to change.

CDSS administers IHSS statewide. County offices take applications, assess need, and authorize tasks. After the move, the new county is the office that runs the file. Use the CDSS county IHSS office list for both numbers. Talking to the county office is the tone: addresses, case numbers, move date.

Ask both offices the same short list

1. Give the old address, the new address, and the date the home actually changes.
2. Ask the old county what they send and what you should carry.
3. Ask the new county how they receive a case from another county.
4. Ask whether Medi-Cal must be updated on its own track, including BenefitsCal.
5. Ask whether a new SOC 295, a new SOC 873, or a new home visit is required.
6. Ask how the provider file, timesheets, and EVV follow the move.
7. Ask how an adult child is listed in the new county.

Write the answers down. Do not invent a number of days. Each office can tell you what is typical locally. Tracking paperwork matters more during a move than during a quiet month.

Carry copies. Do not assume the chart follows you.

Bring dated copies of the application, SOC 873, the latest notice, provider enrollment pages, and the old listing that let the first county speak with you. The new county may already have some of this. Having your own copies prevents empty callbacks. Update the listed contact if the person the old county called no longer lives nearby.

Provider pay and local rules can change

Hourly rates vary because unions negotiate with the county employer of record. Overtime guidance should be asked again in the new county. If the move also changes who gives the care, add a family provider request so enrollment lands in the office that will pay the next timesheet. If family cannot cover the new house at all, ask the new Public Authority about their registry after the case sits there. Do not pause Medi-Cal updates while you shop for a helper.

The home still has to be own home

IHSS remains for people living at home or in an abode of their own choosing. A move into a nursing facility or licensed community care is a different setting. If the move is a discharge into a new house, read hospital discharge, Medi-Cal, and IHSS so you do not treat the hospital as the assessment address.

Two counties, one folder

Share of cost can look different after a Medi-Cal county change. Ask the new Medi-Cal unit before you treat the old warrant as a model. Ask whether the provider must repeat orientation or only update an address. If EVV logins are county-tied, ask how to open the method the new office uses before the first timesheet in the new home.

Official sources: CDSS IHSS and DHCS Medi-Cal. Carry both county phone numbers in the folder until the first new notice arrives. If you want help lining up the two county calls, ask for help. The new county still decides the local case.