Can I Bill Subsidize After Termination??

[Little Star75]

Some might remember the thread about dcp with 2 dcg but for those that don't here you go. Last Wednesday May 15 I terminated dcp and told her Friday May 17 would be the girls last day. BTW this is during our 10-day probationary period. She decides to terminate me on Thursday which is fine but she texts me 20minutes before I go pick up the girls at school which I was already there. To make this story short, when she signed the time sheet she left a few day blanked. I know girls didn't attend but its on my contract that regardless of attendance I require payment. I am sure she's aware of that since she signed it.

SInce she's also subsidized, I don't get paid until next month around the 20th of the month. My question is... Can I bill her for it now and reimburse her when I get paid? I pretty much have everything on the contract except her paying me in advance. My contract states the following: "If your family participates with any subsidized such as CalWorks, etc..... for child care payments you will be responsible for any and all amounts they do not cover for services"

Do I have to wait until I receive payment from the program?

Thanks in advance

[rmc20021]

If you are expecting full payment from the subsidy, I wouldn't even bother with her any more. I'm not familiar with how your state handles subsidy payments, but in Michigan we submit the amount of hours via internet every two weeks. There is nothing else needed in order to get paid as long as the parent had been approved, and as long as you had been named as the provider.

[Little Star75]

this program pays by attendance and as you can understand my concern, dcp brought girls only 4 times during the 2 weeks, 8 days to be exact. So no the program is going to pay me only the 4 days they attended. Parent is and will be responsible for the balance. I already have an idea what they are paying me. Thats why I asked if its okay to bill now instead of waiting a month.

[Patches]

So if subsidy is NOT going to pay for those days, why would you pay her back when you get paid next month?

[Patches]

Or are you saying that you would bill her the entire amount, including what subsidy is going to pay you and then basically give her the check you get next month?

[Cradle2crayons]

The way I do it with my state pays....

They pay up front the amount less what the voucher pays.

For instance, my rate is say $100 a week. Say the paper I got from the state pays me $80 a week, then on Monday when they drop off, they pay me the $20 UP FRONT.

Then next month when the state pays me, I'll get the other $80.

I'm confused. Did you let the parent drop off without paying up front??

Or does she owe her portion for the second week??

[Little Star75]

Originally Posted by Cradle2crayons

The way I do it with my state pays....

They pay up front the amount less what the voucher pays.

For instance, my rate is say $100 a week. Say the paper I got from the state pays me $80 a week, then on Monday when they drop off, they pay me the $20 UP FRONT.

Then next month when the state pays me, I'll get the other $80.

I'm confused. Did you let the parent drop off without paying up front??

Or does she owe her portion for the second week??

No I didn't require payment from her, usually I wait until i get paid but because I terminated I was hoping to bill her. Reason... because i already have an idea what they are going to pay me (not close to what I charge) Why? This agency pays per attendance and only if they are here the entire time they are allowed to. Example, dcp had up to 3 hours per day but girls only came for 30 min, they will only pay for the 30 min. It has to be consistent in order for me to get paid the rate I was given. Hope it makes sense

[Little Star75]

Originally Posted by Patches

Or are you saying that you would bill her the entire amount, including what subsidy is going to pay you and then basically give her the check you get next month?

yes something like that

[Cradle2crayons]

Originally Posted by Little Star75

yes something like that

My papers say I can't double bill. But yours may be different. I'd think it would be easier to just bill her the remainder.

Also, I know that here, if I charge $100 a week and voucher pays $90, the mom will pay me $10 a week, plus Paying the voucher program a copayment.

The problem that comes in with vouchers, is that for instance a kid is m-fr, and the program past u $90 and then the parent pays u $10 up front every Monday ar drop off. Say, little Johnny is sick Wednesday. The program doesn't pay u for that day. So then remember the state pays $18 a day. So then for that week, the state only pays you $68. Then that leaves the parent to pay you $32 for that week instead of e $10 they already paid you up front.

So when that happens, they've already paid up front the $10 and I bill them the other $22 and they have to pay that $22 plus the $10 they pay every week normally. So the next Monday, they bring me $10 plus $22 making it $32 that next first drop off day.

I hope I'm making sense lol

[Little Star75]

Originally Posted by Cradle2crayons

My papers say I can't double bill. But yours may be different. I'd think it would be easier to just bill her the remainder.

Also, I know that here, if I charge $100 a week and voucher pays $90, the mom will pay me $10 a week, plus Paying the voucher program a copayment.

The problem that comes in with vouchers, is that for instance a kid is m-fr, and the program past u $90 and then the parent pays u $10 up front every Monday ar drop off. Say, little Johnny is sick Wednesday. The program doesn't pay u for that day. So then remember the state pays $18 a day. So then for that week, the state only pays you $68. Then that leaves the parent to pay you $32 for that week instead of e $10 they already paid you up front.

So when that happens, they've already paid up front the $10 and I bill them the other $22 and they have to pay that $22 plus the $10 they pay every week normally. So the next Monday, they bring me $10 plus $22 making it $32 that next first drop off day.

I hope I'm making sense lol

Yes I totally understand and it makes sense, maybe I'm not being specific but can I bill her now instead of waiting till next month when I get paid by the state or do I have to wait for the state them bill her the remaining? Time sheets are due every 5th of the month and get paid until the following month. For example; yesterday I received payment for another parent from the state for the month of April.

[Crystal]

Originally Posted by Little Star75

Yes I totally understand and it makes sense, maybe I'm not being specific but can I bill her now instead of waiting till next month when I get paid by the state or do I have to wait for the state them bill her the remaining? Time sheets are due every 5th of the month and get paid until the following month. For example; yesterday I received payment for another parent from the state for the month of April.

I would call the agency and ask them. IME you cannot bill the parent for fees that the agency is responsible for....you can only bill the parent for their share of cost.

[MarinaVanessa]

I think that completely depends on your agreement and what your contract says. If you have a section in your contract and/or policies about this that says that you can bill them then bill them. If all your contract says is that they will have to pay for whatever portion the subsidy doesn't cover then you probably won't be able to get it KWIM.

The way that my subsidy program works is that they take the flat weekly rate and then divide it by 5 days in the week and then pay only for the days that the child is actually in care. For example if my rate was $165/week they would pay $33 per day for every day that the child was in attendance. They also allow 10 paid holidays per year (that you have to specify in advance, 5 paid sick days (for the child) and I think an additional 5 days paid for absences that are "in the best interest of the child" like vacations etc. Anything beyond that is not covered and the parent has to pay.

If your subsidy program works similar you can always count the days that the child was in care and the days that the subsidy program will cover and then bill the client now for the days that they were absent. Once you get your subsidy reimbursement check you can check to make sure that the program covered the rest. If they are short I'd call the program first to make sure it was not a mistake on their part and have them explain the shortage to you then bill the additional days to the parent. If they pay you more and cover days that you did not think that they would cover then you can write the client a check and reimburse them back for the over payment and include a simple letter saying that the program covered more days than anticipated. This is how I would handle it anyway.