b) 20 CFR 411.145 & 411.325 - Requesting Ticket Unassignments

Secure Provider Portal
Accessing the Portal
Let’s take a look at how the EN portal is accessed. When you go to the provided URL, you will see the
site shown here. Notice that there is a “Sign In” link located on the upper-right of the screen.
Participating ENs will need to click this link to access the portal.

Once the Sign In link has been clicked, the user will be prompted to enter his or her login credentials.
These credentials will be provided.

Once logged in, the user will be taken back to the Website starting page. This time, however, there is a
toolbar at the top of the page, indicating that the user has signed in. To access the portal, the user will
need to click on “Go to” in the toolbar and select EN Portal from the menu.

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Clicking on ENPortal will bring the user to the portal home page. From here, available tools can be
selected using the navigation area on the left of the screen.

Forms
In presenting the forms, it should be noted that the review and confirmation screens appear in a similar
fashion for all the forms in the portal. As a result, we will only present them once in this guide as part of
the first form covered. However, both the online forms and the submissions will be reviewed.
Payment Request – Online Form
Let’s take a close look at the first form, which is the EN Payment Request form.
When the user first enters this screen, he or she will notice that the EIN is already populated on the
form. This is because this is tied to the user’s login ID. Next, the user will need to enter the SSN of the
beneficiary. If the user enters the number incorrectly, he or she will receive an error message indicating
that that particular beneficiary does not have a ticket assigned with that organization.
If the SSN is correct, and the employer information is already in the system, this information will autopopulate, as shown here. Next, as with the physical form, the user will select the payment method for
that particular ticket assignment.
If the request is for a Phase 1 Milestone 1 payment, the user would select the appropriate information.

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Next, the user would select the details of the certification payment request. It is important to note that
only certification payment requests can be made through the portal. This is because security
limitations prevent the attaching or uploading of information that may contain PII. As a result, no
evidentiary payment requests can be made.
When completing the rest of the form, the user will not be able to directly enter a date. Again, this is a
security limitation. Instead, the user will need to use the date picker that is made available.
When the form is completed, the user will click on the Next button.

Review and Verification
Clicking the Next button will take the user to the Review screen. On this screen, the user will be
prompted to review the information that had just been entered. As shown here, the information is
grayed out on this screen, indicating that it is locked. If the user notices an error and would like to make
a correction, he or she can click on the Return button on the bottom of the screen. This will go to the
previous screen where those corrections can be made.
If the entry was completely in error, the user can click on the Cancel button to discard the entire entry.

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After the user has checked everything and made sure that all the information is correct, he or she can
click the Submit button to send the information to MAXIMUS.

Confirmation Page and Email
Clicking the Submit button will bring the user to the Confirmation Page. This page provides information
on who made the submission, when the submission was made, and what form was submitted. The user
will also receive this information in the form of an email.

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Earnings Inquiry Request – Submitted Form
The next form is the Earnings Inquiry Request (EIR). When using the Portal version of this form, many of
the necessary fields will populate automatically for the EN. Since this information is already there, the
user will only need to enter the SSNs and the Ticket Assignment Dates. There is a default listing of six
fields. However, users can add more fields clicking on the Add Beneficiary link.

Earnings Inquiry Request – Submitted Form
The EIR will come to MAXIMUS in the form of a normal email. It will contain only the information
needed to process the request. It will look similar to the following:
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: 03/03/2011 03:07PM
Subject: Request for Earnings Inquiry Request
Earnings Inquiry Request

Submitter's
Name
EIN

: Ankur Jaswal

: 840420225
CP OF COLORADO / EMPLOYMENT
EN Name
:
WORKS
Submitter's Title : Manager
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Date of Request : 03/03/2011
Earnings Info of Beneficiaries

SSN

Date of
Assignment

001462818 08/31/2010

Individual Work Plan – Online Form
Now let’s look at the Individual Work Plan (IWP). Like the other forms, the user will need to enter the SSN. Next,
the user will need to select the support services required immediately and those that will be provided after nine
months. In both cases, checkboxes are provided to make these selections. Note that “Other Services” is not
available. This is because the selection of “Other Services” would require elaboration, which cannot be done
through the portal, since there are no open text fields for users to type in information. Again, this is a result of the
low security level of the portal. ENs that need to use the “Other Services” option will need to fax the physical form.
For the same reason, the form must be faxed in if there are Additional Terms and Conditions, as this will require
some level of elaboration.

Form 1365 – Online Form
The next form is Form 1365, which is used by State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies for ticket
assignments. The controls on this form are the same as the controls available on the other forms. As
with the IWP, the online form asks only for basic information and does not allow for elaboration.
Because of this, the form that is submitted to MAXIMUS contains only the information needed to
complete the form.

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Timely Progress Review Response – Online Form

Next, we have the Timely Progress Review (TPR) Response. This form is to be used when the EN has
been notified by MAXIMUS that certain Ticket Holders have not responded to the Timely Progress forms
that had been sent. ENs can enter their responses online through this form instead of filling out the
paper and faxing it back.
For each beneficiary the EN will need to enter the TPR period and answer a series of Yes/No questions.
Because Timely Progress is defined differently for each review period, the questions will change based
on the review period. The questions here are those that need to be answered when a beneficiary is
undergoing the first 12-month review.

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Future Project
SSA is in the process of building the Internet Ticket Operations Provider Support System (iTOPSS). iTOPSS
will subsume the Secure Provider Portal. iTOPSS is in the early stages of design. It will include a portal that
will allow both Social Security contractors and Social Security beneficiaries to login and conduct business
with the agency.

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