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U.Va. Human Resources
Backup Child and Elder Care Questions and Answers
  1. Will people be able to submit this fee on their flex-spending account form?

    U.Va.’s current FSA provider, Chard Snyder, will reimburse for this fee for care provided for children up to age 13.

  2. Is the fee per child or per household?

    The co-pay is $15 per day per child for center-based care, and $30 per day for in-home care (this amount covers up to three dependents in the home).

  3. If an employee exceeds their 10 day bank of days, can they still use the service? If so, does the rate change?

    If employees use up their 10-day bank, they may continue to schedule care on their own. The rate goes to $125/day for center-based care and $280/day for in-home care.

  4. What is the definition of a “day”? Does the fee cover only 8 hours, 10 hours or 24 hours?

    A “day” is 10 hours or less.

  5. What type of records/documentation is needed before child care service arrives? For instance, how do they handle children with food allergies?

    For center-based care, employees generally need to fill out a few forms for the specific center. Often, Work Options Group is able to get these forms for the employee ahead of time. For in-home care, it will be up to the employee to educate their caregiver about rules, food allergies, do's and don'ts in the house, etc., before leaving the caregiver for the day.

  6. Is there a pre-registration process for the child care service? If so, how does that work?

    We do encourage employees to register for the program. Registration takes about three minutes and is available online or over the telephone. We will gather basic information like name of employee, address (work and home), phone number (work and home), e-mail address and alternate contact (as appropriate).

  7. What is the age limit for these services?

    Because the program handles all temporary breakdowns in service for all ages - infants through the elderly - there is no age limit for backup care. For center-based care, many of our centers go up to age 6, but we also do have some centers that will accept children up to age 12. In-home care is available for all ages.

  8. Can we see a list of centers/resource providers in the Charlottesville area and surrounding counties?

    Work Options Group does not provide lists of centers for a number of reasons. First of all, they arrange all the care on the employees ’ behalf. When an employee calls to say they need care, Work Options finds the centers and/or in-home agencies that have availability based on employee needs (day, times, ages, health conditions, etc.). Employees may then choose from those options before we secure the care on their behalf.

    The list of centers is constantly changing, so a list provided today could be obsolete tomorrow. Work Options is always adding centers to its list, and of course centers do drop out. Also, since it is backup care, just because a center is on a “list” doesn't mean it will be available for care on the day the employee needs.

    Day care centers are for healthy children only, so on the occasions where employees need center care, they generally know about these needs ahead of time. They are more than welcome to call Work Options up to 30 days in advance for that type of care. Once care is scheduled at one of the centers in our network, we can then work with them to set up a tour of the center before their care date.

    If employees have a specific center in mind, they are more than welcome to contact Work Options and inquire if that specific center is in our network. If it is, Work Options will gladly contact them first for care. If they are not, Work Options can often work with the employee to get the director's name from them and call the center to see if they qualify and/or are interested in joining the network.

    With Work Options’ years of service provision, they have identified usage trends based on number of employees, industry, geographical location, etc. that tells them how many providers in a certain area they need. If they are approaching a 93 percent fill rate, they will either recruit more providers or, better yet, encourage the providers they have to expand their capabilities.