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Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel
Year Four Priorities for the period of August 2003 to August 2004
(in alphabetical order)
Capitalization and Expansion through Blended Funding - Provide advice on redesigning interactions between the Ticket Program and Federal/State programs, including Medicaid, to address issues such as the inadequate capitalization of ENs, increasing the number of ENs, and expanding resources to serve individuals with the most severe disabilities. Provide advice to increase the extent to which DOL field programs and One-Stops serve SSI and DI beneficiaries.
Continuing Disability Review Protection - Provide advice to Congress on extending continuing disability review protections currently provided in the Ticket Program to any SSA beneficiary participating in an approved vocational rehabilitation program leading to employment.
EN Issues - Provide advice on the small number of ENs that are authorized and accepting Tickets, raising concern about consumer choice and the success of the Program. This topic involves consideration of changes in the EN payment structure and other factors affecting the number of ENs—as noted in and in follow up to the EN Summit. Conduct research and provide advice on the partial benefits issue. Provide advice on how work incentives affect consumer choices to use ENs.
Health Care - Provide advice to CMS and the Congress as appropriate concerning the Medicaid and Medicare provisions of TWWIIA and their interaction with all existing policies. Specific issues to be examined include the direction of the Medicaid Infrastructure Grants, the lack of a definition of work in the Medicaid Buy-In and the lack of any evaluation component for the health care provisions of TWWIIA. (To what degree have the buy-in provisions increased work participation by individuals with disabilities).
Marketing - Provide advice on the need for a National Marketing Plan to market the Ticket program to Employment Networks and Employers, covering topics such as EN diversity, level of effort, costs, other work incentives and Medicaid. Provide advice relating to a National Plan on education and training for beneficiaries and families.
Mental Health - Provide advice to SSA and other federal partners (Administration on Developmental Disabilities, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department Of Labor, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) on statutory, regulatory or policy issues regarding designing employment supports for people with mental impairments.
Post Entitlement Issues - Provide advice on a cluster of issues including overpayments and the management of earnings reports, SSA infrastructure and the extent to which the current SSA infrastructure (staffing and workload) supports the successful implementation of TWWIIA. Should a higher priority be given to this work at the field level? And how can SSA could begin to implement a nation-wide change in operations, policy and mission to integrate RTW in all aspects of Agency operations, including 1300 field offices and 65,000 staff?
Training - Provide advice on adequate resources for training, including costs, of field office employees, professional training in the field of employment services and rehabilitation, to SSA grantees, for Employment Networks, to State Systems, etc. Should there be a National Training Plan?
VR - Provide advice on concerns relating to communication between State VR systems and Employment Networks about the Ticket Program as well interactions between VR programs and SSI/DI clients, and rules for ticket assignment.
Youth - Provide advice to SSA on statutory, regulatory and policy issues affecting the labor force participation of transition aged youth who are SSI/SSDI beneficiaries.
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