The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Program was passed in 1999 to improve access to and quality of rehabilitation services available to SSDI and SSI recipients. Three years later, the Ticket program had failed to recruit the anticipated number of new employment service providers, called Employment Networks (ENs). The Advisory Panel had been concerned that EN participation would be limited by insufficient financial incentives, as well as inadequate training and marketing efforts.

This study found that the Ticket Program was serving only a fraction of eligible SSDI/SSI beneficiaries who could benefit from the program. Although 1,000 providers were enrolled in the program, only one-third of those operating actually accepted Tickets. The program placed too much financial risk on ENs, paid significantly lower reimbursements to ENs for serving SSI recipients rather than SSDI recipients, involved long delays in processing payment claims, and imposed burdensome participant tracking requirements on ENs. Further, there was no national marketing plan to ENs or coordinated training and technical assistance effort.

The Panel recommended a number of regulatory, administrative, and statutory changes to increase financial incentives for ENs, improve claims administration, involve the Panel in implementing a strategic marketing plan, and develop a coordinated training and technical assistance strategy.