Annual Vendor File Re-Certification

Your file needs a check-up once a year. 

If you provide services to a participant enrolled in California's Self-Determination Program (SDP) through FMS Pay, we are required to review and re-verify your vendor file annually. This article explains what that involves, what you will need, and what happens next.

Most vendors complete their re-certification in 10 to 15 minutes.

Why we do this

FMS Pay is a Financial Management Service operating under a federal Medicaid Waiver. Appendix C of that waiver sets the qualification standards for anyone paid with waiver funds, and it requires the FMS to verify and document those qualifications on an ongoing basis — not just once at enrollment.

Put simply: the file we built when you first enrolled has to stay accurate. Licenses expire. Businesses change hands. Staff come and go. The annual re-certification is how we confirm that everything on file still reflects reality, so that payments to you continue without interruption.

Our vendor files are subject to audit. Keeping them current protects you as much as it protects the program.

What we review

Not everything will apply to you. The re-certification form only asks for what is relevant to your situation.

Business license A current copy of your business license or city tax certificate. If your city or county does not require a license for your business type, you can attest to that instead — see "Special situations" below.

Professional licenses and certifications If your services require professional licensing (speech, occupational, or physical therapy, chiropractic, dental, behavioral health, and similar), we need a current copy. These expire, so we ask each year.

Vendor qualifications (Appendix C) If you do not hold a formal license or certificate for your services, we confirm your qualifications through your experience and background instead. A written summary of your relevant experience is fully acceptable — there is no required format or credential.

Learn more about Vendor Qualifications ("Appendix C")

Direct care staff and background checks DDS requires a background check for any individual providing direct care services, defined as assistance with dressing, grooming, bathing, or hygiene. If you have brought on new staff since your last certification, we need their clearance documentation.

This is one of the most common gaps we find. Agencies often add staff mid-year without realizing FMS Pay needs clearance on file for each person.

Learn more about SDP Background Checks

Regional Center rate letter If you are vendored with a regional center and billing at your traditional regional center rates, we need your current rate letter. Rate letters are reissued periodically, and paying at a rate we cannot document creates a compliance problem for both of us.

Billing category Every vendor falls into one of three categories under the DDS "Billing Requirements in SDP" flowchart — Local Business/Community Resource, Regional Center Vendor, or SDP Vendor. Your category can change from year to year, and it determines your invoicing requirements.

Review the DDS Invoice Requirements

HCBS setting assessment If you provide residential services, day programs, or employment supports, HCBS Final Rule requirements may apply to your setting.

Learn more about the HCBS Setting Assessment (Enclosure B)

Tax information Your IRS Form W-9 and your California withholding certification (CA-590 or CA-587). If nothing has changed, you can skip this section entirely — you will not be asked to re-enter your tax information.

FMS Pay cannot offer tax advice. Please consult a tax professional if you are unsure.

IRS W-9 Tips · CA-590 and CA-587 Tax Forms

Payment information Your ACH banking details. As with tax information, if nothing has changed, you can skip it.

EVV compliance If your services are subject to Electronic Visit Verification, you must report visits into the state's Sandata aggregator under FMS Pay's vendor number.

Learn more about EVV

What to have ready

Before you start, gather:

• Your current business license or tax certificate (a photo or scan is fine)
• Any professional certifications that apply to your services
• Your current Regional Center rate letter, if you are an RC vendor
• Background check clearance for any new direct care staff
• The last 4 digits of the SSN or EIN on file with us, so we can match your existing file

You do not need to re-gather your W-9 or banking information unless something has changed.

The form only asks what applies to you

The re-certification form is built around a simple question repeated in a few places: has this changed?

If your contact information, services, tax details, and banking are all the same as last year, you will answer "no" and move straight past those sections. What remains is confirming your current documents and signing the acknowledgements.

Vendors whose situations have changed will see more questions — that is expected, and it is why the form asks rather than assuming.

Special situations

My business license expired, or I am renewing it right now Upload your most recent license and enter its expiration date. We will follow up with you. Do not wait until the renewal comes through to submit your re-certification.

My city or county does not require a business license Some businesses operate in unincorporated communities with no city licensing jurisdiction — Fallbrook in San Diego County, for example. If that applies to you, you can attest to it on the form and we will document the exemption in your file.

Please verify first: some counties require a license at the county level even where no city requirement exists.

I got a new EIN, or my business became a new legal entity This one requires a conversation before you fill anything out. Payments and 1099 reporting are tied to your taxpayer ID number, which means a new EIN cannot simply be updated on your existing file — a new vendor intake is required for the new entity, and your existing file needs to be closed out properly.

Please contact us at connect@fmspay.com before you begin. There may be outstanding invoices, current-year 1099 reporting, an SDP Spark account, and participant service agreements that all need attention.

I do not hold any licenses or certificates for what I do That is common and it is fine for many service codes or service types. Appendix C allows qualifications to be demonstrated through experience. Describe your background and how you learned to do this work, and that will satisfy the requirement. If there are any questions, our team will follow up.

I hired new staff this year Tell us on the form and attach their background check clearance if they are providing direct care services.

What happens after you submit

A member of our compliance team reviews your submission and will confirm whether anything further is needed. If something is missing, we will tell you specifically what it is rather than sending you back to start over.

Once your file is confirmed complete, nothing further is required until next year — unless something changes in the meantime.

What happens if you do not respond

We are not permitted to release payments to vendors with incomplete files. If your re-certification is not returned, invoices may be held until your file is current. Out of compliance vendor files will ultimately be terminated if compliance cannot be achieved.

We would much rather not do that. If you are running into difficulty — you cannot locate a document, you are not sure what applies to you, or you simply need help getting through the form — please reach out. We can usually resolve it in a short conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to do this separately for each FMS I work with?

Yes. Every FMS in California operates under the same Medicaid Waiver, but each of us maintains our own vendor files and is audited separately. Documents you have provided to another FMS do not transfer to us, and ours do not transfer to them. If our requirements look different from another organization's, we can only speak to what ours are and why.

Why do I have to send documents you already have?

Mostly you do not. The re-certification asks you to confirm what is on file and to replace only what has expired or changed. The exception is anything with an expiration date — licenses and certifications — where we need the current version each year.

I have not had any clients this year. Do I still need to re-certify?

If you intend to continue providing services to SDP clients enrolled with FMS Pay, yes. Keeping your file current means you are ready when a participant selects you, rather than starting a compliance process while someone waits for services.

Nothing about my business has changed at all. Do I still have to do this?

Yes, but it will be quick. The waiver requires annual verification regardless of whether anything changed, and confirming that nothing changed is itself the verification.

I am not sure which answers apply to me.

Come to our weekly support and office hours, or reply to the email that brought you here and we will walk through it with you. Guessing is worse than asking.

Ready to start?

Begin your Annual Vendor File Re-Certification

Need help?

FMS Pay holds weekly support and office hours where our team walks through requirements, answers questions, and troubleshoots directly with you. Many vendors find it faster than email.

Weekly Support & Office Hours schedule

Questions? Email connect@fmspay.com or call 858-281-5910.

Related articles

• VENDOR QUALIFICATIONS - "APPENDIX C"
• Service Provider / Vendor Intake
• Service Provider / "Vendor" FAQs
• SDP Background Checks - Direct Care Services
• SDP SPARK ENROLLMENT - VENDOR/PROVIDER
• DDS Invoice Requirements