Statement of Dan O’Brien, Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Chairman Shaw, Ranking Member Matsui and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for holding this Hearing to evaluate the state of Ticket to Work implementation. The Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services was one of the 13 initial rollout states for the Ticket to Work in 2002.

The reality of the Ticket from the street level perspective is that the system is broken and if not fixed will go the way of the failed Alternate Participant (AP) Program. Most of the problems have been predictable and the Adequacy of Incentives (AOI) Interim Report and the Ticket Panel’s Employment Network (EN) Summit report summarize both the problems and make workable recommendations for solutions. We would encourage Congress and SSA to adopt their recommendations forthwith before any more potential energy is squandered. As they say in Oklahoma, beneficiaries are beginning to wonder if they have been sold a “pig in a poke”, at this point the Ticket seems long on promise and short on delivery.

It is our position that there is a substantial consensus among experts and EN’s alike that the Ticket can be salvaged if quick and decisive action is taken soon. The market based competitive model envisioned for the Ticket was undone by the lack of funding of the Ticket payment structure. Baring a huge influx of new funding, a blended funding approach, using existing resources to complement the Ticket, is the only logical solution. The AOI Committee recommendations (report link below), which operationalize this approach, should be implemented rapidly and to the fullest extent possible.

http://www.dri.uiuc.edu/research/p03-08h/interim_report_03-08h.pdf

Oklahoma DRS has made every effort to ensure the Ticket’s success in Oklahoma. To that end we conducted the following activities:

Recruitment of EN’s: When the Ticket legislation passed the DRS agency assumed that it would be structured as complementary to the traditional VR reimbursement program, much like the AOI study group has recently recommended. We recruited our traditional partners in delivering Supported Employment, a total of 26 Community Rehabilitation Programs, to be Alternate Providers under the previous SSA return to work program. It was our understanding that these organizations would be grand fathered into the Ticket EN system, thus ensuring Oklahomans a health EN network once the Ticket rolled out. However, SSA decided not to grandfather in the AP providers and required them to resubmit an application. The combination of this paperwork burden with the low rates of payment resulted in few of our CRP recruits becoming EN’s. Those that did complete the paperwork have not been active. The primary problem is the low payment rates, the Ticket milestone payments represent a small fraction of what it costs for CRP/EN’s to provide Supported Employment services. Implementation of the AOI Interim Report recommendations #1, to increase Milestone payments and allow payment for partial self-sufficiency, and #3 known as the Partnership Plus, would address the EN underfunding/undercapitalization problems that are restricting the Ticket’s EN provider systems growth.

Ticket Outreach Pilot: Under an SSA state partnership grant, Oklahoma DRS piloted an assertive outreach/marketing effort combined with Work Incentive education and choice of vendor using a vocational voucher, similar to the Ticket but better funded. Beginning in 1999 and ending in 2003 the ODRS developed systems for recruiting, educating on work incentives and providing Job Coaching services to beneficiaries with a Mental Health diagnosis. The techniques developed under this grant were used to develop the procedures described in #3 through #7 below.

Required Benefits Planning: Supported Employment Contractors are required to provide benefits planning assistance to all beneficiaries who are placed in a job.

Active Recruitment of Ticket holders: Oklahoma DRS created a Ticket Unit that works with the Workforce system to actively recruit Ticket holders. Since February 2002 the Ticket staff have invited all callers to the agency toll free Ticket hotline to Ticket Orientation meetings held at the Workforce One Stop Centers. Thousands of Ticket holders received basic work incentive training at a One Stop to enable them to make use of their Ticket and plan their return to work.

Expedited Eligibility Process: Oklahoma DRS developed an expedited eligibility process for Ticket holders that resulted in determination of eligibility and assignment to a VR/VS counselor within 3-5 days after application. This is significantly faster than the normal paperwork processing time prior to the Ticket rollout.

Training of DRS Staff: All DRS staff including front line staff received training on the Ticket to Work and the agencies assertive collaboration with Workforce on Ticket rollout.

Direct Marketing of the Ticket with the Disability Program Navigators: The DRS and Workforce system have recently collaborated on a pilot direct Marketing campaign designed to reinvigorate the Ticket. Beginning in February and ending in April 2004 a pilot is being conducted where every Ticket holder in a suburban county near Oklahoma City is being invited to attend a Ticket Orientation meeting at the Local Workforce One Stop conducted by the Disability Program Navigator. In addition the SSA funded Benefits Planner, SSA’s Area Work Incentive Coordinator and local VR staff are present to answer questions about available work incentives. This effort has received excellent feedback from those involved and will be evaluated for it’s expansion potential.

We share the CCD’s concern, expressed in Paul Siefert’s written testimony, about SSA’s rule on automatic assignment of the Ticket. As one of our staff has said, “We don’t make the rules, we just abide by them.” SSA considers the signature on the IPE to be an indication that an individual decided to use the ticket to obtain services from the State VR Agency. SSA memos state “…the  Ticket is assigned when the IPE (VR Individualized Plan for Employment) is signed.” The separation of the Ticket and Reimbursement systems, as recommended by the AOI study group, would resolve this problem.

SSA reimbursement funds, over $100 million per year nationally, provide services to thousands of additional beneficiaries each year. Loss of reimbursement funds, as is happening this year across the country, primarily due to the slow economy, reduces our ability to serve beneficiaries. The VR system is the only part of the Ticket system that is providing a significant level of services. SSA seems to be in the process of dismantling the Reimbursement program without having a working system to replace it. The logical step is to cross breed the two systems, as the AOI group has recommended, which will correct the deficiencies in both systems.

Our agency has collaboratively developed an EN agreement with our EN/CRP partners, which both parties consider fair. Any funds recouped under these agreements, strictly a theoretical case as to date there are none, would allow the agency to serve additional SSA beneficiaries.  Our VR-EN agreement only requires EN’s to pay VR 50% of payments received from SSA under the Ticket up to the amount actually expended by VR on direct client services. Theoretically, as no shared cases have been developed, this is only necessary in the small minority of cases where beneficiaries actually leave the SSA rolls. It is our understanding that only one out of 14 beneficiaries who have work activity ever leave the rolls, so most likely DRS will only receive any reimbursement in less than 7% of the cases where we expend money. And most beneficiaries do not work the entire 60 months of the outcome period. Therefore DRS, hypothetically, would expend an average of $10,000 per case and on 93% of the cases get nothing back from the EN and on 7% of the cases would get back considerably less than the cost of services. One would not be far wrong if you said this argument is much ado about nothing.