While writing checks is still a primary way to make payments, it is increasingly becoming an outdated practice with a growing number of providers. Some family providers no longer accept checks, while day care centers increasingly are requiring either payment with a debit card or even to require parents to enroll in an automated or recurring payment system. While most providers have exceptions for occasional financial difficulties with a family, the bottom line is that they need and expect to be paid for services rendered just like everyone else.
Child care providers who accept subsidized child care payments from the state may also find that their efforts to get paid are easier as well. The state of Oklahoma has recently made laborious paperwork and attendance tracking systems a thing of the past by instituting a new e-childcare solution. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS)has created e-Childcare after noting the success of the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program for food stamps.
How does Oklahoma's e-Childcare work?
Essentially, the program provides parents who are receiving subsidized child care with a swipe card that is used to check a child in and out of daycare. Daycares participating in subsidized child care programs receive swipe-card readers to track care and qualifications. Features include instant eligibility verification that notifies both the parent and provider of coverage and copays.In addition, child care providers are paid for services faster and more accurately. Automatic payment calculations are based on actual attendance, which eliminates the need for invoicing paperwork. The program also touts that less labor is required for auditing invoices as electronic records of realtime check-in and check-out provides accurate and useful data. The Oklahoma program is promoting that it saves about 10 percent in program costs. With better program administration, day care providers are more likely to participate and stay in the program, according to OKDHS, which helps parents find the care they need.
North Carolina is also planning to roll out a similar program in early 2010, and other states are also eyeing the child care payment and tracking systems.
Ginny (last name withheld), a child care provider who previously participated in the state's child care program but opted out after having numerous difficulties with getting paid, says she will reconsider participating in the program if a similar electronic payment system is successfully implemented in her home state of Texas. "I think the state subsidized program provides an essential service, and I was proud to participate it in it for many years. But the amount of paperwork and then chronic delays in getting paid for services led me to no longer participate. I'd love to be able to partner with the state again, and will be closely watching about how this card-swipe sytem goes over," she says.