If a participant in California's Self-Determination Program has asked you to provide a service — respite, community integration, behaviour support, transportation, a professional therapy, or something else entirely — you may be wondering what hoops you have to jump through to get paid.
Here's the good news, and it's the thing most people get wrong: you do not need to be a vendored regional center provider.
In the traditional regional center system, providers must go through vendorization — a long, formal approval process. Many people assume the same applies in the SDP. It doesn't.
The Self-Determination Program was designed so participants can choose who they want, including people and businesses that have never worked with a regional center. An independent professional, a small local business, a community organisation, even a neighbourhood gym — all can be paid through SDP without traditional vendorization.
What you do need is to register with the participant's Financial Management Service (FMS) and meet the qualification requirements DDS sets for the service you provide.
This is the part that trips people up. The requirements aren't one-size-fits-all — DDS sets them per service code and per provider category (whether you're an individual or an agency). The same service can require a licence from an agency and nothing from an individual.
So a registered nurse providing skilled nursing needs their nursing licence. A person providing community living supports has no state licensing category at all. A child day care facility is licensed by the Department of Social Services; a person minding a child is not.
A good FMS works this out for you rather than making you guess.
Depending on what you do and how you operate:
If you provide hands-on personal care — bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, transferring, or feeding — you need a DDS background check (Live Scan) and clearance before you can be paid. This applies regardless of how you're paid.
Two things worth knowing:
If you don't provide hands-on personal care — community integration, transportation, a professional service — no background check is required.
This one matters, and honest providers deserve a straight answer about it.
Under the Bill Payer model, you are paid as an independent business. You invoice, you get paid, and you handle your own taxes. That works when you genuinely operate as an independent business.
But California's ABC test (Labor Code § 2775) sets a real standard. If the participant sets your schedule and directs how you work, if you provide ongoing daily-living support to just that one person, and if you don't offer your services to anyone else, then the law may view you as an employee — not a contractor — no matter what the paperwork says.
That isn't a technicality. Misclassification has consequences for everyone involved. A responsible FMS asks about it up front rather than discovering it later, and will talk it through with you instead of quietly setting you up the wrong way.
Once you're registered and approved:
You should never have to wonder whether an invoice went through. If your FMS can't tell you where a payment stands, that's a problem with the FMS, not with you.
Our registration form asks what services you'll provide and whether you're an individual or an agency, then shows you only the documents DDS actually requires for your situation — nothing more. You can't accidentally submit an incomplete registration, and you won't be asked for paperwork that doesn't apply to you.
If anything is unclear, call us on 213-419-6133 or email welcome@truecarefms.com. A real person will answer, and no question is too small.
Take the stress out of managing your services. You choose your providers; we handle the bills, the budget, and the paperwork—so you can focus on what matters most.
