DSS Curbs Taxicab Rides
The DSS currently provides transportation services for about 900 seniors, Adams said. The department also provides rides for about 5,000 Medicaid transportation-eligible clients, who will also now be required to use CATS bus and rail service instead of taxicabs as their primary means of transportation. There will be no charge for Medicaid-eligible clients. The tab for bus and rail passes, in those cases, will be paid using federal and state funding.
Seniors and Medicaid clients who are physically unable to ride a bus will be provided door-to-door transportation by Mecklenburg Transportation Services (MTS) and CATS Special Transportation Services (STS) vans or, as a last resort, a contracted service provider such as a taxi. A fee of $2.80 per one-way trip, up from the existing $1.50 fare, will be charged for each MTS/STS van or contracted-provider ride.
Clients will be required to undergo an assessment by STS, in order to be exempted from using the bus as their primary means of agency-provided transportation, or provide proof of a current exemption. Clients whose residences are more than three-quarters of a mile from the nearest bus or rail stop are also eligible for exemptions. Adams said about 250 of the 900 seniors for which the DSS provides transportation service have existing exemptions, along with about 400 of the 5,000 Medicaid-eligible clients.
The DSS is also changing the policy for its program that provides transportation for clients who live in rural parts of the county. The program currently provides door-to-door service from rural locations to qualifying destinations, such as medical appointments or work, within the city limits. That changes next month, when transportation will be provided from a client’s place of residence to selected CATS bus or rail stops with connecting rides to destinations within the city limits. The $1.50 per one-way trip fare for the service will not change.
Adams said that the DSS has received mostly positive feedback from clients who will be impacted by the transportation changes. Most of the calls they’ve received, he said, have focused on questions about Medicaid eligibility and services that will be provided by MTS and STS vans and CATS bus and rail routes.
“I think most people realize this service was always meant as a supplemental form of transportation, not a primary one,” Adams said.
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