In some cases, a contract may be used by an agency and its third party service providers to formally define limits to the number of clients that can be served by the provider. This can potentially be useful to both parties. It may give an agency increased confidence that a provider will be able to accommodate the contracted number of clients, helping ensure that clients will always be able to receive services. From the provider's perspective, it may help them to manage their capacity, especially if they also receive client referrals from other sources.
CPM allows a resource manger to add a place limit in a contract specifying the number of places reserved by the provider for the clients authorized by the agency, and for those services covered in the contract. This element can be specified for providers that provide placement services.
For example, Happy Days Day Care enters in to a contract with the agency for the delivery of Early Age Day Care, with a place limit of 10. This effectively reserves 10 of Happy Days' 20 places exclusively for the agency's clients. The agency can check the places utilized before authorizing a placement and decide whether to send the client to Happy Days.