Developmental services: regional centers: complaints.

The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act authorizes the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. That law authorizes the department to enter into 5-year contracts with regional centers, subject to an annual appropriation of funds by the Legislature. The act requires the contracts to specify that each regional center include annual performance objectives that will meet certain standards and allows the department to specify additional areas of support that require development or enhancement. The act requires corrective action if a regional center fails to meet the performance standards. This bill would authorize the department to specify additional areas of support requiring development or enhancement, as specified. This bill would require the department to develop processes and procedures, as specified, to address issues of retaliation against regional center employees and vendors and would require those processes and procedures to be included in the regional center standard agreement contracts. This bill would require a regional center to report annually to the department the total number of complaints it has received within a fiscal year and would require the department to report the information to the Legislature, as specified. The bill would require the department, in addition to all other audits and reviews, to conduct a review of each regional center's compliance with the procedures for developing individual program plans, as specified, and to utilize the results of the review to develop annual performance objectives. The bill would also, beginning July 1, 2013, require each regional center to post on its Internet Web site a directory of vendorized service providers, and negotiated rates, if applicable, and to update that list annually. The act provides that the regional centers purchase needed services for individuals with developmental disabilities through approved service providers that are identified through a process of vendorization. The act requires services and supports of comparable quality that are offered at different costs by different providers to be assessed and the lower cost provider used unless specified determinations are made. This bill would require the determination of comparability to be made by the program planning team and to include specified criteria.