Virginia Transportation Companies Say Medicaid Reimbursement Rates Are Too Low

Companies that transport Virginia Medicaid beneficiaries to nonemergency health care appointments are beginning to refuse trips because they say reimbursement rates are "inadequate," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The state previously reimbursed transportation companies directly, but changed the system after a state report revealed that transportation companies "overstated trip mileage, billed for trips not taken, billed both Medicaid and Medicare for the same trip and billed for a wheelchair trip when a person was able to walk." Under the new system, the state pays two companies $73 million over two years to act as "gatekeepers" that certify the transportation companies are meeting Medicaid safety standards and properly arranging clients' trips. One of the companies, California-based DynTek, reimburses transporters $5 for the first five miles and 80 cents to $1 for each additional mile, with higher rates for transporting people in wheelchairs. The gatekeeper companies get to keep any money not paid to transporters. According to Bryan Larsen, DynTek's vice president of transportation services, the system has saved the state "millions" of dollars. But Cornell Boyd of Richmond, Va.-based Statewide Transportation said that the rates are not high enough, and his business has declined 80% in the past year. DynTek officials met Feb. 27 with transportation companies to "come to some type of middle ground," Boyd said, and they also have met with state Medicaid administrators to "clear the air," according to Larsen. The state Medicaid agency plans to set up a transportation advisory committee to monitor the program (Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 2/27).