Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living (DAIL)
Contracts with the fifteen developmental disabilities services providers and designates the agency responsible for each region.
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Vermont provider enrollment
How to Become a Medicaid Waiver Provider in Vermont
What Vermont requires before you can deliver home and community-based waiver services, in the order the state actually requires it. Every claim links to the official page it came from.
Provider rules change often — confirm fees and deadlines against the linked sources before you rely on them.
Overview
Becoming a waiver provider in Vermont
Vermont is the state where the usual question — how do I become a provider? — has a structural answer rather than a procedural one. DAIL contracts with fifteen developmental disabilities services providers: ten Designated Agencies and five Specialized Service Agencies, and DAIL designates one Designated Agency in each geographic region as responsible for ensuring needed services are available there, through local planning, service coordination, and monitoring outcomes. Entering that system is not a matter of filing an application against published standards the way it is in a certification state; the realistic routes are becoming a Specialized Service Agency, which requires DAIL to contract with a new one, or working under an existing agency. Before investing anywhere, ask DAIL directly whether it is accepting new specialized service agencies and what that would require. If you are looking at supported or shared living work, ask the Designated Agency for your region — it is the entity that arranges services locally.
Who certifies you
The agencies that decide
Developmental Disabilities Services Division (DDSD)
The division within DAIL that oversees developmental disabilities services and publishes provider information.
Visit siteYour region's Designated Agency
Responsible for ensuring needed services are available in its region through local planning, service coordination, and monitoring outcomes.
Visit siteBefore you apply
What has to be true first
Fifteen contracted providers, statewide
DAIL contracts with fifteen developmental disabilities services providers: ten Designated Agencies and five Specialized Service Agencies. That is the system a new provider is trying to enter.
SourceOne Designated Agency per region
DAIL designates one Designated Agency in each geographic region of the state as responsible for ensuring needed services are available, through local planning, service coordination, and monitoring outcomes within that region.
SourceSpecialized Service Agencies are the separate track
Five Specialized Service Agencies provide developmental services as entities separately contracted by DAIL, distinct from the regional Designated Agencies.
SourceParticipants must hold Medicaid
Most developmental disabilities services programs require active Medicaid enrollment for the person receiving support, and Designated Agencies help people apply.
SourceEnrollment
How to enroll in Vermont
There is no open application route. Ask DAIL whether it is contracting with new Specialized Service Agencies, and ask the Designated Agency for your region about working within its network.
- Identify the Designated Agency for your region
DAIL publishes all fifteen providers with their agency type and, for Designated Agencies, the counties each covers — from Counseling Service of Addison County through Washington County Mental Health Services.
Source - Ask DAIL about Specialized Service Agency contracting
The five Specialized Service Agencies are contracted by DAIL directly, which makes DAIL the right first conversation for an organization that wants to enter as a new SSA.
Source - Talk to the Designated Agency about its network
Because the Designated Agency is responsible for ensuring services are available in its region, it is the entity that knows where the local gaps are and how services are arranged.
Source - Understand the Medicaid pathway your participants use
DDSD publishes guidance on accessing and maintaining Medicaid for developmental disabilities services — worth reading, because it shapes who can receive what you provide.
Source
Service types
What you can be approved to deliver
Designated Agency services
Ten agencies, each with named counties
Designated Agencies cover Addison, Windham and Windsor, Chittenden, Lamoille, Caledonia, Essex and Orleans, Franklin and Grand Isle, Rutland, Bennington, Orange, and Washington counties.
SourceSpecialized Service Agency services
Five agencies, contracted directly by DAIL
Champlain Community Services, Families First, Green Mountain Support Services, Lincoln Street Incorporated, and Specialized Community Care are the Specialized Service Agencies DAIL contracts with.
SourceTimeline & cost
What this actually takes
The constraint is structural, not procedural
With a fixed set of fifteen contracted providers and one designated agency per region, an organization's entry depends on DAIL choosing to contract rather than on completing an application — so start with that conversation before spending on anything else.
SourceConfirm by phone
What the state does not publish
Vermont does not publish these in a form we could verify, so we have not guessed at them. Ask directly — and if an answer here would help other providers, tell us and we will add it with its source.
- Is DAIL currently contracting with any new Specialized Service Agencies, and what would that process involve?
Ask: Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living
- How does an organization become a subcontractor or affiliated provider under a Designated Agency?
Ask: The Designated Agency for your region
- What licensing, certification, or Medicaid enrollment applies to a provider working under a DA or SSA rather than contracting with DAIL directly?
Ask: Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living
- What standards and quality requirements does DAIL apply to its contracted providers?
Ask: Developmental Disabilities Services Division
Key contacts
Vermont provider contacts
Developmental Disabilities Service Providers
The full list of fifteen providers with agency type, counties, and phone numbers.
Visit siteDesignated Agencies (DA)
What a Designated Agency is responsible for in its region.
Visit siteDDSD — Service Providers
The division's provider information hub.
Visit siteAccessing and Maintaining Medicaid for DD Services
The Medicaid pathway for people receiving developmental disabilities services.
Visit siteFAQ
Vermont provider questions
Can I apply to become a Vermont developmental disabilities provider?
Not through an open application process. DAIL contracts with fifteen providers — ten Designated Agencies and five Specialized Service Agencies — so entry depends on DAIL contracting with a new agency or on working within an existing one.
What is a Designated Agency?
DAIL designates one agency in each geographic region as responsible for ensuring needed services are available there, through local planning, service coordination, and monitoring outcomes.
What is a Specialized Service Agency?
One of five agencies that provide developmental services under a separate contract with DAIL, distinct from the regional Designated Agencies.
Who should I contact first?
DAIL, if you are asking about becoming a new Specialized Service Agency. The Designated Agency for your region, if you want to understand how services are arranged locally and where the gaps are.
Looking for the family-facing guide? Browse state waiver guides