How are clients referred?

Regional center staff, in cooperation with the client and family, determines at regularly specified intervals those services that are required by the client. The need for a service must be identified in the client's Individualized Program Plan (IPP) before it can be purchased.

It is the philosophy of the regional center system to obtain as many services as possible for the clients through public community resources and generic agencies and to advocate for the development of the services when they are lacking. If there is no public agency available to provide the needed service the regional center may purchase it. The decision to which vendor to use is based on a number of criteria; the type of service provided, the developmental level of the client, the geographic residence of the client, etc. The availability of regional center funds at any given time may also be a factor in the type and frequency of services that can be purchased.

Becoming a vendored service provider does not mean that the vendor will automatically receive referrals from a regional center. Rather a vendor is simply eligible to provide the vendored service for regional center clients at the vendored rate of reimbursement.

Each vendor is included on a statewide vendor list. A description of the service will be provided to each regional center in the Los Angeles/Orange County. This description will be made available to regional center staff and when needed, a staff member contacts the vendor to make arrangements for the provision of service.