Can I write “vendor TBD” in my Self-Determination Program spending plan?

Many FMSes are starting to require vendor names. According to the Department of Developmental Services, all of the vendors that we use in SDP are supposed to be Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) compliant. What that means is that they provide services to everyone, whether it's individuals with disabilities or not. If it's a service that is specifically for disabilities, they're not going to approve it.

Some FMSes are having issues with getting reimbursement from Regional Center because vendors are not HCBS compliant, so they have started to ask for the names of all of the vendors that you're going to have. Regional Centers and FMSes are just trying to make sure that if they get audited, everything checks out because they don't want any issues.

When your Regional Center signs off on a spending plan that has multiple vendors, they should be the ones checking that they are HCBS compliant or not. Some Regional Centers even have a department that checks on HCBS compliance before that spending plan can be approved.

If you don’t know the vendor name when you’re creating a spending plan, or if you later change vendors, that’s fine. Submit a spending plan revision when you know the name. If it’s just a name change, revision should go a lot faster, but it depends on the Regional Center. If you have multiple revisions, you might as well wait a bit to submit them all together. Some FMSes don’t require vendor names in the spending plan but do require rates.