If you provide Waiver Personal Care Services (WPCS), the same weekly hour caps that apply to IHSS providers apply to you — and they count your IHSS and WPCS hours together. For a live-in provider, or a long-time caregiver for someone who cannot safely switch to a new person, those caps can leave authorized hours with no one to work them.
Form DHCS 2279 is how you ask the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to lift those caps. It is not the IHSS exemption form — different department, different rules, and in one important way easier to qualify for. This guide covers who can use it, how to fill it out, where the form asks for more than the law does, and what to do if you are turned down.
First, the limits the exemption lifts
Since February 1, 2016, state law has capped how many hours an IHSS or WPCS provider can work in a workweek, which runs from 12:00 a.m. Sunday to 11:59 p.m. Saturday. Every one of these limits counts IHSS and WPCS hours together.
- 70 hours and 45 minutes a week if you work for one participant.
- 66 hours a week if you work for two or more participants.
- 12 hours a day for any WPCS provider, according to DHCS.
- Overtime pay at one and a half times your rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.
Going over a limit creates a violation. DHCS mails a notice to you and to the participant. A third violation suspends you from both WPCS and IHSS for 90 days; a fourth terminates you from both for one year. Your count drops by one for each year you go without a new violation.
With an approved exemption, you can work up to 12 hours a day and up to 360 hours a month, IHSS and WPCS combined — never more than the participant’s monthly authorized hours. DHCS does not state a separate weekly cap for exempt providers.
Who can use the DHCS 2279
The form is for WPCS providers. WPCS is a Medi-Cal benefit for people enrolled in the Home and Community-Based Alternatives (HCBA) Waiver who also receive IHSS and have a doctor’s order for WPCS in their plan of treatment. To be a WPCS provider, you must be at least 18 and have completed IHSS provider enrollment. (New to WPCS? Start with our WPCS program guide.)
The biggest difference from the IHSS exemptions: you can qualify while working for just one participant. Both IHSS exemptions require a provider to work for two or more recipients.
Which track you are on depends on one date
DHCS sorts requests by when the participant enrolled in the waiver — not by when you became their provider.
Exemption 1: enrolled on or before January 31, 2016. This covers participants enrolled by that date in the Nursing Facility/Acute Hospital (NF/AH) Waiver or the In-Home Operations (IHO) Waiver, the programs that came before today’s HCBA Waiver. The participant’s medical or behavioral needs must require this specific provider, and at least one of these must be true:
- The provider lives in the same home as the participant.
- The provider has cared for the participant continuously for two years or more.
- The participant cannot find a local caregiver who speaks their language, so they cannot direct their own care.
Exemption 2: enrolled after January 31, 2016. This covers everyone else, including anyone whose first waiver was the HCBA Waiver (effective January 1, 2017). DHCS decides case by case. At least one of these must be true:
- The provider lives in the same home as the participant.
- The provider has cared for the participant continuously for two years or more.
- The participant cannot find a local caregiver who speaks their language.
- The provider gives WPCS to more than one waiver participant.
And DHCS must agree that no other care provider is available. You show that with a documented search, covered below.
The form sets minimums the statute does not — for example, living together at least five days and nights a week. The next section explains.
What the law says versus what the form asks
The WPCS exemption is written into state law at Welfare and Institutions Code § 14132.99(d). The form and DHCS Policy Letter 22-001 add details the statute does not contain. Most make it harder to qualify; one makes it easier.
- Living together. The statute says the provider lives in the same home. DHCS requires at least five days and nights a week, on a regular basis.
- Long-term provider. The statute requires two or more years of continuous care. DHCS adds at least eight hours a day. The February 2026 form also adds “five days per week,” which the 2022 policy letter and DHCS’s FAQ do not include.
- The Exemption 1 decision. For participants enrolled by January 31, 2016, the statute says DHCS “shall grant” an exemption when one of the circumstances exists. The form says exemptions will be granted “on a case by case basis.”
- The provider search. For Exemption 2, the statute tells DHCS to decide case by case, considering the same three circumstances. The requirement that DHCS agree no other provider is available — and the documented search behind it — comes from DHCS guidance.
- More than one participant. Guidance adds this as a qualifying circumstance for Exemption 2. The statute does not list it. This one works in your favor.
- Who reviews first. The statute has DHCS decide Exemption 2 requests within 30 days of receiving them. Guidance puts your Waiver Agency in front: it can deny a request before DHCS ever sees it, and DHCS’s 30 days start only when the agency sends the request on.
- The statute does not say an exemption expires. DHCS approves exemptions for one year at a time.
How to fill out the DHCS 2279, section by section
Use the current version, DHCS 2279 (Revised 02/2026), from DHCS’s website; DHCS has said older versions cannot be used. You fill it out with your Waiver Agency’s care management team, which includes a nurse and a case manager.
- Provider information (questions 1–3). Your name, your IHSS provider number, and whether you already have an exemption on another case.
- Participant information (questions 4–14). The participant’s name, date of birth, Client Index Number (CIN) and Waiver Agency; how many exemptions the case has had; and how many IHSS-only, WPCS-only and combined providers there are, with the authorized IHSS and WPCS hours.
- Answer one evaluation section only. Exemption 1 (questions A–F) if the participant enrolled on or before January 31, 2016. Otherwise, Exemption 2 (questions A–I). If you do not know the enrollment date, ask your Waiver Agency.
- For Exemption 2, answer the extra questions fully. Whether other adults in the home could be paid providers, and why they cannot or will not (E); whether the participant lives in a rural or remote area, including your town’s population (F); complex needs that require this provider, with a letter from the participant’s primary care doctor if possible (G); and your provider search log (H).
- The provider and the participant (or their authorized representative) both sign. The Waiver Agency case manager signs to certify the request.
- Send it to your HCBA Waiver Agency, not directly to DHCS. The Waiver Agency submits it with your documents.
Your provider search log
Exemption 2 requests must show you tried to find someone else, and you will need a new log each year to renew. For every potential provider you contacted, record:
- The date you contacted them
- Their name and phone number
- Where they are located
- Why they could not or would not take the work
Also attach any job ads you posted — online, in a newspaper, at community centers or post offices — and what came of them; your request to the IHSS Public Authority for its provider registry list; the home health and personal care agencies you contacted; and any other way you looked.
What happens after you submit
Your Waiver Agency reviews the request first. From there:
- Waiver Agency review. If the care management team agrees you qualify, it signs and sends the form to DHCS. If it does not agree, it denies the request in writing and explains how to ask DHCS for a secondary review.
- DHCS decides within 30 days of receiving the request from the Waiver Agency, and mails the decision to you, the participant and the agency.
- The start date of an approved exemption is the date DHCS received the complete request and supporting documents. Until then, the regular limits apply.
- It lasts one year. To renew, submit a new DHCS 2279 with a fresh search log through your Waiver Agency. It is due to DHCS 30 days before your current exemption ends. DHCS tells Waiver Agencies to set a reminder six weeks ahead, but do not count on it.
When you sign the form, you also promise to notify DHCS immediately if you stop meeting the requirements. From then on, the regular limits apply.
If your request is denied: the DHCS 2280
Whether the denial comes from your Waiver Agency or from DHCS, you can ask DHCS for a secondary review on form DHCS 2280.
- Deadline: postmarked within 30 calendar days of the date on the “Notice to Provider of Ineligibility.” Late forms are not accepted.
- Include: a copy of the denial notice, signatures of the provider and every participant on the request (or their authorized representatives), and any new supporting documents.
- New evidence is optional. You can simply ask for a different person at DHCS to review the original request.
- Where to send it: Department of Health Care Services, Integrated Systems of Care Division, 1501 Capitol Avenue, MS 4502, P.O. Box 997413, Sacramento, CA 95899-7413, ATTN: WPCS OT Exemption Secondary Review. Your Waiver Agency can also submit it for you. Ask the post office for a proof-of-mailing receipt.
- What DHCS does: reviews the original request, anything new, and the case record; may schedule a phone conference; and mails a final decision within 30 days of receiving your request, or up to 45 days if a phone conference was held.
- If the denial is overturned, the exemption is backdated to the date DHCS received your original request and lasts one year from that date.
If you miss the 30 days, the denial stands and you cannot submit a new request until 90 days after the original denial. Use that time to keep documenting your search.
If you also work IHSS hours
You need only one approved exemption — IHSS or WPCS — to work up to 360 combined hours a month. If you serve two or more IHSS recipients and may qualify for an IHSS exemption instead, see our guide to the IHSS 90-hour exemption. Those requests go to your county or to CDSS, not to your Waiver Agency.
Where to get help
About this article
IHSS Connect publishes this article for general information and education. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. IHSS Connect is not a law firm and is not affiliated with the California Department of Health Care Services, the California Department of Social Services, any HCBA Waiver Agency, or any county agency.
Program rules, forms and deadlines change — sometimes mid-year. Only DHCS, working through your HCBA Waiver Agency, can decide whether a provider qualifies for a WPCS overtime exemption.
If a decision looks wrong, or you want advice about your own situation, talk to someone who can look at your file:
- Free and low-cost legal help: org
- Disability Rights California: 1-800-776-5746
- DHCS WPCS Hotline: (916) 552-9214
Reflects form DHCS 2279 (Rev. 02/2026) and DHCS guidance in effect in September 2026. Verified September 2026.
Read more
More guides from IHSS Connect
- IHSS vs WPCS in California: Understanding the Difference for Families
- IHSS 90-Hour Exemption: Who Qualifies and How to Apply
- WPCS for Adults: A Guide to Waiver Personal Care Services
- How IHSS Overtime Is Calculated (and Why Checks Differ Between Caregivers)
- Medi-Cal Work Requirements and IHSS: What to Know About New Rules
- How to Find a Caregiver in California (and Keep a Good One)
