Common Partnership Plus Models
State VR agencies around the country are experimenting with different approaches to Partnership Plus. While many are choosing to serve all beneficiaries under CR, a few are implementing small pilot projects with certain groups of beneficiaries and a couple are leaving the choice between serving a particular beneficiary under CR or as an EN under the Ticket program up to the VR Counselor.
- To learn more about the most common Partnership Plus model.
- To learn how six states decided initially to approach Partnership Plus, check “Partnership Plus: Creating Opportunities for Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Networks to Work Together” (PDF).
- Check out “Partnership Plus Case Scenarios.”
Partnership Plus: Unique Opportunities for State VR Agencies and ENs to Work Together
Under the new Partnership Plus option, State VR agencies and ENs have incentives and opportunities to:
- Establish procedures and improve the coordination of services provided by State VR agencies and ENs.
- Maximize CR payments to the State VR agency and Ticket payments to the EN.
- Minimize the administrative tasks associated with submitting CR claims and requests for Ticket payments by sharing data on a beneficiary’s work and earnings.
- Supplement funding to all components of the state and local infrastructure of service providers that are facing shrinking budgets and other financial challenges resulting from the current national economic situation.
VR Functioning as an Employment Network
State VR agencies still have the option, on a case-by-case basis, to serve a beneficiary as an EN under the Ticket program. This choice must be made at the time that the IPE is being signed because the VR agency must secure the beneficiary’s Ticket assignment by either having the beneficiary sign the SSA-1365 or sign an IPE that clearly indicated the beneficiary’s informed consent to assign his/her Ticket to VR.
Thus, an IPE that includes a statement addressing the beneficiary’s informed consent to assign his/her Ticket or an addendum to the IPE may be used in place of the signed SSA-1365. Check out an example of a IPE addendum (DOC).
When a VR agency chooses to serve a beneficiary as an EN, VR must now abide by all of the same rules as any other EN. If the beneficiary re-assigns his/her Ticket to another EN after VR case closure, the VR agency and the EN would likely be splitting any Ticket payments that were earned, either based on a negotiated agreement or on the services each provided and how those services contributed to the beneficiary’s success in attaining the work and earnings that triggered Milestone and Outcome payments. In such cases, the additional compensation that is potentially available under the Partnership Plus option (i.e., the combination of a CR claim and available Milestone and Outcome payments) is not an option.
A statement that could be included in an IPE to address the beneficiary’s informed consent to assign his/her Ticket to VR can be found in the IPE statement (DOCX).
An IPE addendum that addresses a beneficiary’s informed consent to assign his/her Ticket to VR and includes statements about the protection against medical CDRs and how to maintain that protection after VR case closure can be found in the IPE statement (DOCX).