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1. Welcome & Housekeeping

Introductions of participants; Welcome to the meeting; reminder that others, including states outside the region,  would be joining the meeting via conference call

Janette Shell

2. Questions for Early Roll-Out States

Vickie Van Der Kar  – (OH):

Question regarding asking outside parties to join State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (VR) in building an Employment Network (EN) – will other states do this?  If so, what will the agreements look like?

Arizona (AZ) – No partnerships will be used to develop EN’s.  Only 1 other agency in the state has approached VR to work on this opportunity.

Iowa (IA) – Will go it alone.  But, the agency will work closely with EN’s in the state (memorandums of understanding will be used), at present there are 13 in IA. 

Vickie Van Der Kar (OH)

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2. Questions for Early Roll-Out States (Cont.)

Colorado (CO) 4 EN’s approved in the state.  Agency’s legal department is working on agreements, but the agency will only pay for services that EN’s do NOT cover (example: job coaching)

In Illinois (IL), there are 26 EN’s.  VR in this state has a draft agreement that will soon be finalized.  However, VR needs to know who is holding  the Ticket because in impacts the services VR can provide.

Vickie Van Der Kar 

3. What services would an EN provide that VR can not provide? 

Follow-Up What is VR’s costs exceed the amount paid under the Ticket?

CO: If the EN is getting paid to do a service then we (VR) will not pay for that service

IA: VR will purchase service from Community Programs, just as if the Ticket program did not exist.  RE: follow-up – if

Jim Buscetta- Michigan

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3. What services would an EN provide that VR can not provide? 

Follow-Up What is VR’s costs exceed the amount paid under the Ticket? (Cont.)

you know costs will exceed the amount to be paid under the Ticket, then encourage the consumer to move his/her ticket to VR rather than staying with an outside EN. 

Jim  Buscetta- Michigan

4. If VR provides services to a consumer & his/her ticket is assigned to an EN other than VR, what can VR do at that point?

IA: Talk to EN & try to resolve the issue.  This is not likely to be an issue in IA.

AZ: VR have contracted out services with a lot of agencies and this is not going to be a problem for that reason.  (established relationships)

CO:  The situation is identical to AZ in our state.

Louis Hammer – Illinois

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5. If the Ticket is held by an EN other than VR, is it then considered a comparable benefit?

Janette Shell (RSA) – Yes

Susan Lee (WI) – MAXIMUS made this a bit difficult to understand

Kim Komitor (CO)

6. RE: Infrastructure, what has each of the states done to implement the ticket?

CO: We are concerned that it will become “a ticket to wait”.  United Cerebral Palsy got a grant to do benefits counseling for our state

CO: VR has an implementation committee responsible for gathering concern parties together to discuss the impact of roll-out.  VR has conducted Ticket 101 training for any group who wanted it.  At present, VR is working on a way to track which EN has been assigned a consumer’s ticket.

AZ: Tried to figure out how many people would use the ticket.  For our agency, the estimate is 6000 people.  We have contacted all people on our caseload that would be

June Morse (MI)

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6. RE: Infrastructure, what has each of the states done to implement the ticket? Cont.

 eligible.  The agency may hire an additional person to help manage this effort. 

WI: We have set up a call center with 5 lines.  We will staff the center with Central Office personnel on a rotating basis.  Two to 4 counselors will do benefits counseling for consumers.  We will use Order of Selection as a case management tool. 

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6. RE: Infrastructure, what has each of the states done to implement the ticket? Cont.

OK:  Central Ticket Unit in the state office will provide wrap-around services.  But, all counselors will deal with Ticket users.  Our state (OK) chose the Milestone Payment system.  We have a new job classification, Rehabilitation Technician, that handles all calls on the 800 number & fields Ticket cases.  We have explored setting up an incentive system for counselors that would financially reward productivity. 

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7. What mechanism will determine the cost recovery system used? (traditional reimbursement VS. milestone VS. outcome)

Louis Hammer –IL: Our registration checks off which method to use.  95% will be traditional reimbursement. Just look at the length of time it will take to place the person using his/her ticket. 

Kim Linkinhoker  – OH:

Is there a decision tree to figure out payment method?

 IL:  Louis Hammer’s unit will decide if we are going to use Outcome payments or Traditional cost reimbursement.  Most often, it will be cost reimbursement.  We anticipate that about 5% of our caseload will activate their tickets. 

OK: Our agency looked at the numbers and who we got reimbursement to begin with.

CO: We are going with traditional cost reimbursement to begin with.

IA:  Outcome method will be used but if the case will

Janette Shell – RSA

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7. What mechanism will determine the cost recovery system used? (traditional reimbursement VS. milestone VS. outcome) Cont.

June Morse – MI:

The New England Cost Model Project, Dr. John Butterworth’s project, may have some tentative suggestions on this topic.  For example, for SSDI consumers traditional cost reimbursement may be best.  For consumers receiving SSI may be best

cost more than X number of dollars, then we will go with reimbursement. 

AZ: Cost reimbursement will be used in most cases, however we would try Milestone payment method in some cases

8. What marketing are you doing for Ticket roll-out?

AZ: Nothing.  Benefits planning has done some and MAXIMUS is expected here in December.  The agency did some letters out to consumers.

Jim Buscetta - MI

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9. Next Meeting

Conference Call

Conference Call at 9:00 AM (CENTRAL) for to hours on January 30, 2002

Janette Shell - RSA