General

ISAS Background Information

Since June 2013 the State of Maryland has introduced a new electronic timekeeping and accounting system to keep track of the hours the caregivers work providing care for our Community First Choice clients.   A similar system has already been introduced and operates in several other states.

The In-house Support Assurance System (ISAS) enables the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) to monitor the delivery of in-home personal care services.  Only personal assistance services are included at this time.  ISAS ensures that services are delivered by an authorized service provider according to the participant’s Plan of Service (POS).

The purpose of ISAS is to monitor in-home services and to ensure accurate and timely provider payment.  Providers are required to call the ISAS toll-free phone number (1-855-463-4727) to record service start times (“clock-in times”) and end times (“clock-out times”).  Calls are matched with the provider, agency, participant and POS.  If the system cannot verify all the information, claims are pended and manually reviewed by DHMH staff. If the system can verify all the information, claims are automatically generated daily and submitted to the Maryland Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) for processing and payment.

To access the ISAS phone system, providers dial a toll-free number (1-855-463-4727) and enter their credentials. Upon successful credential verification, the service start time and end time are recorded.

Voice Print is no longer utilized. 

Recording Work Time

A caregiver records the beginning of the shift (clock-in) and the end of the shift (clock out) by dialing the toll free number from the client’s home telephone (the ground line). The caregiver will receive payment for the services only if the shifts are recorded in the system correctly.

One Time Password (OTP)

In most cases the phone verification system verifies the participant based on the phone number assigned to the landline where the service call is initiated.  In circumstances where a landline is not available, or two participants reside in the same household, participants are issued an OTP device by the participant’s Supports Planner (Social Worker).  An OTP device is a time synchronized device used to authenticate the time when a service takes place.  It is a key chain sized device kept in the participant’s home. The device has a serial number that is assigned to individual clients. The front of the device displays a randomly generated six-digit number. This randomly generated number changes every 60 seconds and can be traced back to a specific date and time, which in turn is used to authenticate the service provided.

Additional Information about ISAS

You can listen to and view the online seminar on how to use this system (in English). The workshop is available on this internet site: www.ltsstraining.org. For more information about the ISAS system please visit the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) mmcp.dhmh.maryland.gov.

We created detailed step-by-step instructions on how to work with the telephones and record your work time both using the client’s phone and a cell phone in both English and Russian.  We also created a list of frequently asked questions – Q & AYou can find this information on our secure password protected page on this website.