If ever a business needed to have its nonprofit status revoked and its license yanked, it's this one. Not only does it move at a snail's pace (an insult to snails, which move faster), many of the staff members are snide, shaming, and unhelpful. Not all, but way too many. As a vendor to the state government, you'd think this Medicaid funds flow-through agency would do everything possible to help those caring for loved ones with disabilities. But no, the onerous form that one is forced to fill out EACH TIME you hire a new staffer is the gateway to access your child's Medicaid funds. This money is how you pay workers, so you'd think the state would have a vested interest in making it simple and easy for those caring for loved ones with special needs. You'd think...but you'd be wrong. The hard copy form (yeah, "online" is not yet in Aris's toolkit) is more than 20 pages of fill-in-the-blank bureaucratic questions and is next-to-impossible to navigate. And, it must be submitted as a hard copy; filled out by hand, and mailed.
Aris has helpfully highlighted those areas in pink that the consumer (parents/guardians) are supposed to fill out--only sometimes these aren't highlighted for whatever reason. (Is there no one there to proofread what goes on the website???) And if you miss one tiny check-off box, woe unto you! Or, as one nasty staffer told me, "You should know by now how to do this by now whether it's highlighted or not!" Right. Shame on me for NOT memorizing how to fill out a 20+ page form for the dozen or more workers I hire a year.
Yes, each time a new employee starts work, the employer (me) has to fill out a NEW form, which costs at least $10 (sometimes more) to print at Staples. Or, it will eat up at least this amount in printer ink. Then, I must go over it with the new potential hire (who I need to pay out-of-pocket until Aris processes the packet, which takes no less than five weeks.) And heaven forbid that ANY of this could be online...that's just too radical for Aris. No, they want you to submit paper copies, mailed at $2.40 per packet. The tally so far is that 5/6 of my packets have been returned to me (meaning another printing job, another $2.40 in postage, another five-week wait for it to be received and acknowledged, but no matter! After all, I'm not busy at all...managing my son's care, taking a weekly class, working a full-time schedule, training and managing staff, and heading a household. Silly me.
Oh, and if Aris does find that one place you didn't sign or fill in and when you call to ask if they've received it, you are likely to hear that yes, it's on it's way back to you because you "forgot" something (but they can't tell you what)...or no, the "mail is slow" excuse. I've had more mail "lost" in the Aris mailroom than in my entire 60+ years of life.
And the turnaround time for a form that's been filled out is wrong? A month if you're lucky. "Can I get any of this money back that I've been paying to workers out of my own pocket while waiting for them to be 'approved' by Aris and the state?" Perish the thought. Today's lovely staffer told me, "As we told you, it's your choice to pay them."
Yes, it is. Apparently, no one should have to work for free except the beleaguered parents of special needs children who apparently deserve to grovel their way through this process, hands outstretched for their child's allocated Medicaid money that remains out-of-reach, meanwhile searching for spare change to pay, train and supervise real people who pay rent and have lives of their own, something denied us.
Never mind the expense of printing their onerous form, mailing it, and....waiting. Just found out today that the form I downloaded off the website and which was missing several pink & yellow highlighted areas was, for some reason, out of date. It had all the same information on it, but...I guess no one there could figure it out.
Well, this is the way Aris rolls. If they can postpone approving a worker, they will. Good luck trying to access your child's Medicaid money. And good luck trying to get them to go online with their forms--or do anything in the wacky "modern way." In order to make direct deposit payments to workers, they require canceled checks from a generation of workers who no longer even know what a checking account is.
And, this is rich, they make you submit the first timesheet as a hard copy. Yes, even though "the mail is slow." Or, as one mother who gave up on Aris asked me, "Is Aris any better than when I used them five years ago?" The answer: not really. read more
