Self Directed SErvices (Fiscal Intermediary) Program
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What is a Fiscal Intermediary?
A fiscal intermediary is an accounting or payroll office that provides payroll functions for employers that don't want to invest in managing payroll functions for their employees. Payroll involves accurately paying employees and withholding taxes, both for the employer and the employee. The amounts must be correct and taxes and insurance withheld must be directed to the right federal or state agency on a timely basis.
When are Fiscal Intermediary Services Needed?
Personal assistant services authorized to a person served by the Division of MRDD can be provided by:
- workers employed by an agency,
- workers who are licensed professionals (individual contractors) such as nurses, or
- workers a consumer or family member hires, trains, supervises and schedules (referred to as self directed)
When a consumer or family chooses to hire, train, supervise and schedule their own workers who are not licensed professionals, U.S. Department of Labor rules prohibit the workers from being treated as independent contractors and require the workers be treated as employees. This means the worker must have an employer. The consumer or family who wants to direct their own personal assistant services becomes the employer of record for the workers they hire. The fiscal intermediary provides all necessary payroll functions for the employer of record (the consumer or family) and acts as a liaison with various regulatory and governmental agencies.
How are Fiscal Intermediary Services Accessed?
The consumer must be authorized personal assistant services and the planning team must document in the person's plan that the consumer's (and/or family's) choice of self directing services will not put the consumer's health and safety at risk. Services authorized for the consumer will include funding to cover the cost of fiscal intermediary services. The regional office serves as a bridge between the consumer and/or family (employer of record) and the fiscal intermediary. Individual workers maintain a time sheet and record hours worked. In addition to keeping a time sheet of time worked, the worker is responsible for documenting specific activities that were performed each day. The employer is responsible for verifying/approving time sheets for workers and sending the time sheets to the regional office according to a published schedule. The regional office forwards the time sheet information electronically to the fiscal intermediary. The fiscal intermediary processes the time sheets, generating a direct deposit to each worker's specified account, and calculating and remitting all payroll related taxes. The fiscal intermediary processes payroll twice a month.
