Nebraska VR shall retain a vested interest for any items or equipment in which its share of the current market value is $5,000 or more.  If a recipient sells an item of equipment in which Nebraska VR has a vested interest, VR has a right to its share of the current market value or the proceeds from sale. Nebraska VR uses a straight line, 20% per year depreciation schedule to determine the current market value of its share. After case closure, when VR's share of the current market value is less than $5,000, the vested interest is relinquished. 

1. After determining client need for an item(s), VR Specialist will refer to ATP or AgrAbility if appropriate.  
2. If ATP/AgrAbility referral is made, review the report with the client, and determine which items will be needed and where funding will come from for each item (client contribution, VR, comparable benefits, etc.)
3. An authorization for the item(s) VR is providing will be completed.  Upon writing the authorization, if the item is one that qualifies for Vested Interest, an acceptance agreement will be generated by QE2 and printed out with the authorization.  Please note, the VR Acceptance Agreement form has different language on it than the ATP Acceptance Agreement form, and our form MUST be used for our qualifying items.  If ATP is supplying the item, the Acceptance Agreement form will be attached to the Authorization and provided to ATP, and they will have the client sign it and will then return it to VR.  At this point, the specialist can place it into the case file. 
4. If at any point during the course of the case, the client sells the item, those funds will be returned to Nebraska VR based on the portion of our contribution.
5.   Upon case closure, any item over $5000 will be tracked annually, until the depreciated value falls below $5000.  Nebraska VR will only track depreciation based upon our contribution.  So, if an item costs $20,000, and VR paid $10,000 depreciation would be tracked until OUR portion of the value of the item drops below $5000, not the entire cost of the item.  So, in this example, once the total depreciated value drops below $10,000, that would put our portion below $5000, and VR would no longer continue to track this item.
6.  QE2 will automatically track the depreciation value, at a flat 20% annual rate, and it will be displayed in the Equipment Issuance Screen.  Reminders will appear on the Specialist's To Do screen when follow up with the client is required.  
7. After case closure, on an annual basis, the client will need to be contacted to determine if they have sold the vested interest item.  If they have not sold the item, the VR Specialist will notate this and the annual check in is complete.  If the client has sold the item, Nebraska VR needs to be reimbursed from the portion of the sale that equates to the current depreciated value.  Please note that if you select "No", meaning that the client has NOT sold the item, a task note will be autogenerated.  If you select "Yes", meaning that the client has sold an item, you will then need to take the steps to get the appropriate refund, and document your steps in a task note you generate. 
8. Office Directors should periodically check the Equipment Issuances agency-wide overview screen.  The purpose of this is to review whether there are any closed cases with $5,000+ equipment issuances that are assigned to a VR Specialist who is no longer with the office.  If a specialist leaves the agency, or moves into a different role, the OD will need to either assign that case to a different specialist, or handle the annual check in with the client themselves.  The link to the overview screen is  https://qe2.nebraska.gov/quest/case_management/equipment_issuances.