Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program Initial Evaluation Report

payment system. Only one SVRA (Oklahoma) has assigned a large number of Tickets under
its EN payment mechanism. As discussed further in Chapter V, this SVRA is making a
concerted effort to identify clients for whom the agency is likely to obtain more revenue
under TTW than under the traditional payment system. In general, these are relatively
lower-costs clients who might work enough to achieve some milestone payments, but are
unlikely to work at levels sufficient to generate payment under the traditional payment
system.
b. Pipeline and New Cases
SVRAs work with three types of SSA beneficiaries—individuals who are not eligible for
TTW (non-Ticket cases), individuals who were already clients of the SVRA at the time they
became Ticket eligible (pipeline cases), and individuals who become Ticket eligible before
they become clients of the SVRA (new cases). SSA has provided guidance to the SVRAs on
providing services to each of these groups through Transmittal 17 of the Vocational
Rehabilitation Providers Handbook (SSA, 2002). Current SSA guidance for each of these
three categories is briefly described below.
Non-Ticket cases are beneficiaries who are not eligible for a Ticket. SVRAs are not
allowed to serve these individuals as an EN. SVRAs can serve non-Ticket cases under the
traditional payment program and receive reimbursement when all SSA guidelines for the
program are met. They can also serve these individuals using their regular non-SSA funds.
Pipeline cases are beneficiaries who first become Ticket eligible after developing and
signing an Individual Plan for Employment (IPE) with an SVRA. Pipeline beneficiaries have
three options: (1) assign the Ticket to the SVRA; (2) assign the Ticket to an EN; or (3) not
assign the Ticket to any entity. If a beneficiary assigns the Ticket to the SVRA, the SVRA
can use either the traditional payment or its selected EN payment system. Ticket assignment
in pipeline cases occurs when the beneficiary and the SVRA both sign an IPE and the State
Agency Ticket Assignment Form (Form 1365), and the SVRA submits the form to the
Program Manager.
If a pipeline beneficiary does not assign his or her Ticket to the SVRA, the agency can
still serve the individual under the traditional payment system, but only if program
requirements for payment are met before SSA makes a payment to an EN to whom the
beneficiary has assigned the Ticket. This provision has led SVRAs to devote considerable
resources to contacting Ticket holders on their existing caseloads, explaining the Ticket
program to those individuals, and encouraging them to assign their Tickets to the SVRA, as
opposed to a non-SVRA EN.
New cases are beneficiaries who first become eligible for TTW before signing an IPE
with the SVRA. A new case beneficiary can assign a Ticket to the SVRA by signing Form
1365. If the beneficiary does not sign Form 1365, however, the unsigned form can be
submitted along with the front and last page of the IPE if both the beneficiary and SVRA
representative have signed the IPE.
55
III: TTW Early Implementation