Maggie Dowling: It's tougher now

Yesenia Amaro's "Payroll system rollout will be late" (Nov. 2, Page A-1) was informative.

It is not surprising that the rollout of CMIPS II has problems. CMIPS has had many fits and starts over years of development.

As a consumer of both In-Home Supportive Services and a federal waiver home care program (Waiver for Personal Care Services) I have over 500 hours of home care per month. The consumer was not asked to participate in the development of CMIPS II. Not only are there hitches in CMIPS II but consumers have not been told a thing. I have five providers and still I am in the dark about how I am going to handle five individual payrolls when our time comes.

Currently, all five of my providers are on one timesheet.

Each provider tracks their time on their portion of the time sheet. My job is to add up all hours of service, ensure it does not go over my allotted time on WPCS of 135 hour per pay period (two weeks), sign and date. Payroll has 15 days to pay my providers. Now, without help, I must track five separate timesheets. Will thousands of us be able to do this? Doubtful!

MAGGIE DOWLING Pittsburg