Partnership Plus and Post–Employment Services
With the changes in the Ticket regulations, there are new options for addressing a beneficiary’s need for post-employment services. The Partnership Plus option provides three different options for accessing needed post-employment services.
- The State VR agency can purchase post-employment services as it always has and submit the cost of these services as part of the CR claim for that beneficiary.
- The beneficiary can be encouraged to assign his/her Ticket to an EN after the State VR agency closes the case and receive post-employment services and supports independent of any VR assistance.
- The beneficiary can assign his/her Ticket to an EN and VR can purchase needed post-employment services from the EN to provide an incentive to the EN to help make up for the loss of the Phase 1 Milestones.
If a VR agency is planning to purchase post-employment services from an EN as a financial incentive to help make up for the loss of Phase 1 Milestone payments, the type of services provided and the timing of the payment will be critical factors in determining whether such payments can be included in the CR claim for that case. If the services meet the definition of post-employment services in Chapter 5 of the VR Provider Handbook and the payment is made prior to the beneficiary achieving the 9 months of SGA earnings that qualify for a CR claim, the payments can be included in the CR claim. To learn more about how SSA defines and reimburses for post-employment services, access the VR Provider Handbook (DOC).