APPENDIX I
Tips for Getting
Through Your IPP
GETTING A MEETING DATE
¨ If you are a new regional center client, the Lanterman Act says that the regional center must develop the Individual Program Plan or IPP within 60 days. So if two weeks have gone by and you have not received something telling you when and where the meeting will be, call or write the regional center.
¨ If you say you want to move, an IPP meeting will be held.
¨ If you are receiving services under the Medi-Cal Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Waiver,[1] your IPP will be reviewed every year.
¨ If you live in a facility licensed as an “Intermediate Care Facility” (ICF-DD, ICF-DD/H, ICF-DD/N, ICF-DD/CN), your IPP will be reviewed every year.
¨ For everyone else, IPP meetings must be held at least once every three years – or earlier when the regional center learns that your needs have changed or if you ask.
¨ If you move to the area of a new regional center, your IPP from the old regional center will be followed until the regional center sets up a new IPP meeting. However, if your IPP from the other regional center lists services that are not available in the new area, the new regional center must set up the IPP meeting within 30 days and in the meanwhile must provide other services that meet your IPP objectives.
You can ask for an IPP meeting whenever you think your needs have changed including when your achievements make you ready for something new. You can ask for an IPP meeting whenever you think you need a new or different service. You can ask for an IPP meeting when you need regional center’s help in getting services or cash from another agency. When you ask the regional center for a service or help, you are actually asking that your IPP be changed to include the service or help you are asking for. If you ask for an IPP meeting, it must happen within 30 days.
Call your service coordinator and ask for a meeting or ask that your IPP be changed. Or write your service coordinator a letter. Ask family or friends to help you write a letter. The regional center must set up a meeting within 30 days of when you ask for a meeting.
EXAMPLE:
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I want to start working and earning money. I want an IPP meeting about the help I need to work. |
If there is a particular service you want, include
that in the letter or telephone call. Sometimes the regional center will agree
to provide or pay for a service and will agree to amend the IPP without the
need for an IPP meeting.
Tip: When you ask for a particular service or help, also ask that the regional center add what you ask for to your IPP.
EXAMPLES:
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Dear Regional Center (or Service Coordinator): I want to learn how to use the bus to get from my house to the bowling alley. I want this added to my IPP. |
Or
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I need help because Social Security is looking at my SSI. I want my IPP to say that you will help me keep SSI. |
BEFORE THE MEETING
Think about the services and assistance you now
get. Look at your current IPP with the planners at Appendices J and K, or with
the
¨ Are there services you want to continue receiving?
¨ Are any of the services something you do not need or want anymore?
¨ Do you want to change who gives you the services?
¨ Do you want different services?
¨ Do you want to change where you live? For instance, do you want to continue living where you now live or do you want to try something new? Do you want to look at other places to live to help you decide?
¨ Are there services from other agencies where you may need the regional center’s help in getting or keeping them?
The IPP Planners in Appendices J and K or other aide will help you figure out your goals. Goals can be where you want to live and what you want to do each day – work, play and friends. The IPP Planner will help you figure out what services and supports you want and need to reach or achieve your goals.
Talk to family, friends, and advocates to help you fill out the planner or make your own list. Your list should include the things you want the regional center to pay for or continue paying for like independent living services. The list also should include services and benefits from other agencies where you may need the regional center’s help to get or keep the benefits or services.
It is important to let the regional center know before the meeting what you will ask for. That way, the regional center can be ready to decide at the meeting whether it will agree that you need the services and supports you ask for. The letter in Appendix N is one example. Other examples of what you can send to the regional center include:
¨ The IPP Planner you filled out.
¨ A list of services.
¨ Your last IPP with the changes you want.
The law says that someone from the regional center who can say “yes” or “no” to your requests must be at the IPP meeting where final decisions are made on services and supports. The “yes” or “no” person is called a “decision maker.” When you send your list of services you are asking for, add this “I ask that the regional center decision maker be at my IPP meeting” or this “Please include a decision maker at my IPP meeting.”
EXAMPLE:
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Here is my filled-in IPP Meeting Planner. I really want to learn to use a computer. Please ask Becky from the Day program to come to my IPP meeting. Please include a decision maker at my IPP meeting. |
You can invite anyone you want to your IPP. It is a good idea to have someone with you who can help you advocate and take notes. You can invite your family, someone from where you live, from your day program, from your child’s school or from any other service provider. It is helpful to have people at the IPP meeting who know you and who can support you in getting what you want and need.
The people you bring or invite and the people who come from the regional center are together the team members who write the IPP. You also can tell the regional center who you want at the meeting and ask the regional center to invite them.
Some people start “buddy” programs where they each agree to go to the other’s IPP meeting for support.
The IPP meeting is about you (or your child). It is very important that you understand what is being said and that you are able to talk about what you (or your child) needs. If your English is limited or you express yourself better in another language, ask for an interpreter. The regional center must have an interpreter at your meeting. The regional center also should translate important documents for you. See Appendix T for a sample letter requesting communications with the regional center in your primary language.
AT THE MEETING
Ask the note taker to write down things you have agreed and disagreed on. At the end of the meeting, read the list to the team and make sure that everyone agrees with what has been written.
Sometimes, a planning team will only “recommend
funding” for services and supports to be provided by the regional center. Or
the regional center may say that the right people are not at the meeting to
make a decision. Or, the regional center may say that its “
As soon as the meeting begins, make sure that one
of the people from the regional center is a “decision maker,” someone who can
say “yes” or “no.” Unless a decision maker is at the meeting, there is no one
at the meeting who can say “yes” or “no” about what goes into the IPP.
If the “decision maker” is not present at your
meeting you can ask that the meeting be rescheduled or you can go ahead and have
discussions on your service needs or preferences. If the regional center will
not reach final agreement on your services and supports at the IPP meeting they
must hold another IPP meeting within 15 days (unless you agree to a longer
wait) and have a decision maker present.
Person-centered means that the IPP is about you and your choices. You are the most important person at the meeting. Person centered means that you are in the middle of the talking about your hopes, things you like and like to do, where you need help, and what services you want. The meeting is about what you want and need -- not what services happen to be available or are the ones “usually” provided for people.
There should be talk about your likes and dislikes, support needs and what you think are the most important services and benefits to be included in the IPP.
Everyone should speak in words that you understand. Ask questions. Because you are the most important person at the meeting, people will take the time to make sure you understand what people are saying.
Often the meeting works best when someone writes down notes taken on big pieces of paper that are put up on the walls so everyone can follow what people are saying.
The people at the meeting should work as a team to come up with good ways of meeting your goals and dreams. Everyone’s ideas should be listened to. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to say something again. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Your questions will help the other people at the meeting understand your choices and needs.
Make sure to write down:
¨ what services and supports you need and want (the type and amount);
¨ who is going to provide the services (will you get the services from another “generic” agency or will they be purchased by the regional center from a particular provider or type of provider); and
¨ when the services will start.
If the services cannot start right away because there are additional steps needed (for example, there is no available provider or a request has to be submitted to Medi-Cal or a health plan) the IPP must state:
¨ what steps will be taken;
¨ who is responsible for each step;
¨ the timelines for completing each step; and
¨ what interim services will be provided.
DO NOT SIGN A
PAPER THAT
The IPP you sign should list the specific goals and objectives and the services to be provided. If the regional center will not write the entire IPP at the meeting, make a handwritten list of the agreements so that everyone can sign the list. Take home a copy of the list. The regional center can then type up the document on the form it uses and send it to you.
Remember that you can agree to part of the IPP while still noting that you do not agree with other parts of the IPP document or that you disagree with a refusal to include or continue a service.
Because only those parts of an IPP that you agree to can be implemented, if a request for a new service you wanted was denied and a substitute service was written into the IPP, you might say this:
EXAMPLES:
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I disagree with the denial of “requested service”; I agree to accept “substitute service” while I try to get the “requested service.” Give me notice of the denial of the “requested service.” |
Or
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I disagree with the denial of “requested service.” I am accepting under protest the “substitute service” even though the “requested service” would better meet my needs. |
The law says that if the team cannot come to a final agreement at the meeting, another meeting must be scheduled within 15 days unless you authorize more time. Sometimes an assessment is needed before the IPP can be finished. An example is when the team decides a behavior assessment is needed before the team can decide what services are needed.
If the regional center says “no” to any new service request, the law says that you must get a written notice of the denial within 5 days. If the regional center says it wants to change or end or reduce a service you are already getting, it must give you written notice 30 days before the change or cut-off. You will need to say very clearly that you disagree with the decision not to include a new service in the IPP or that you disagree with the decision to change, reduce or end a service you get now. The notice should also include an appeal form that you can fill out if you choose to appeal.
EXAMPLE:
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I disagree with the reduction in the number of independent living services hours per week. Please send me a notice explaining why the hours are cut and how I can appeal. |
IF THINGS
¨ If there is disagreement, promptly file an appeal if you choose to challenge the denial of services. You must file the appeal within 10 days of the written notice if you want current services to be continued during the appeal process. You can appeal even if you do not get a notice. This is called “aid paid pending.” If it is a denial of a new service or you do not need aid paid pending then you have 30 days to appeal.
¨ If you do not receive a denial letter, contact the case manager. If you still do not receive it, file an administrative complaint (a “4731 complaint”) and a letter of appeal, if you choose to appeal.
¨ If agreed-upon services are not provided, file an administrative complaint.
¨ If the regional center delays making a decision, insist on a decision or treat the delay as a denial and file an appeal.
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[1]
For more information about the Medi-Cal HCBS Waiver for persons who are
eligible for regional center services, see Chapter 1 and Appendix D.