Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

B.13
placing SSA beneficiaries than placing VR clients because the former are more motivated to
work. CCSA has placed its TTW clients in a variety of jobs, ranging from professionals and
top-level executives to janitors and truck drivers.
The poor economy has significantly hampered job placement for TTW beneficiaries; the
CCSA director noted that the industrial sector has declined consistently for the past 36
months. People with disabilities still encounter discrimination. The interviewee stated that
individuals with disabilities need twice as many contacts and ten times the number of
interviews to get a job. He sees his marketing role as very important, describing how he
needs to sell individuals to an employer and sell the employer to the individuals. He does not
make specific references to a disability, SSA or the state VR agency in conversations with
employers. He presents himself as someone in the legal or personnel profession.
CCSA has received few payments thus far, but the interviewee believed that greater than
50% of its receivables will come from TTW in the near future. TTW has the potential to be
a major source of revenue for CCSA, with revenues ultimately outweighing costs. He
believed TTW could be a more viable source of income than its current contracts if the
administrative issues described below are addressed.
Program Administration. The interviewee sends beneficiaries an Employment Status
Verification form to ascertain whether they are working. He informs beneficiaries that it is a
federal violation not to report their work activity. The interviewee said that he often has to
go beyond simply requesting information; he needs to intimidate clients a bit to get them to
send pay stubs. Before providing service, he asks beneficiaries to sign a form that gives him
permission to obtain pay stubs from employers, although he would prefer not to do so.
The interviewee said that CCSA has had a “terrible problem getting paid,” and added
that, “SSA has a terrible system in place.” CCSA has claims that are four months old that
have not yet been paid. He said, “Any other business would seek help from a collection
agency!” The problem has not improved in recent months. The Program Manager processes
and passes along CCSA’s invoices exactly as they are supposed to be processed, and SSA
then sits on them, to the point where CCSA must conduct an investigation to find out what
is happening with its payments. This problem occurs with initial milestone and outcome
payments, as well as with subsequent payments. Another problem is that, occasionally, SSA
will deny a claim, but fail to inform the Program Manager why the claim was denied.
According to the interviewee, SSA does not provide adequate cooperation and support for
ENs, which he considers a very poor practice. Communication with the Program Manager,
however, continues to be excellent.
Concerns and Expectations Regarding Future Success. The CCSA director had
two main concerns with TTW: (1) Improving the payment/reimbursement process; and (2)
Improving the channels of communication. With regard to the payment process, he stated
that SSA must handle payments more promptly if ENs are to remain in the program. He
stated that communication between the ENs and SSA is nonexistent. He said he recognized
the Program Manager’s role as an intermediary, but said it limited communication between
the EN and SSA. He pointed out that SSA had direct communication with providers under
the AP Program. He sees SSA as his employer, not the PM; yet he has no interface
Appendix B: Provider-Specific Case Study Summaries