SNOW HILL — There’s no such thing as a free ride — or there won’t be anymore unless you’re a Medicaid recipient in Greene County
The county’s transportation department will be eliminating Saturday service and out-of-county Monday service and implementing fees for non-Medicaid riders beginning July 1.
Revenue cuts and a reduction of staff in July when two full-time employees will be retiring are the reasons the department is making changes.
Director Mike Lovett has been saying for at least the past couple of years he believes, eventually, regional brokers will end up in the driver’s seat of transportation service and his department could likely dissolve.
“If we do go to this broker system,” he said, “you would probably dial a 1-800 number. We would probably not even take you. It wouldn’t involve anybody local, anymore.”
Following a public hearing Monday night attended by about 65 people, the Greene County Board of Commissioners approved making the Monday and Saturday service cuts.
The transportation board will be setting up a fee schedule and making a recommendation to the commissioners.
At Monday’s meeting, Brenda Blackmon of Snow Hill asked if dialysis patients are the only riders on Saturdays.
Lovett said the 26 Saturday riders are all dialysis patients being transported to DaVita in Snow Hill, and 17 of them were riding in two shifts last Saturday.
“Most of the homes that I go to,” he said, “at 4:30 in the morning, a quarter to 5, there are other vehicles in the yard.”
Blackmon asked whether volunteers could drive the vans. Lovett said he would have to pay for screening, drug testing and scheduling.
“Most dialysis patients that I transport do not live alone,” he said. “… But here again, I think it’s more of a convenience than it is a necessity to provide our service.”
Lovett said he’s asked DaVita to move the Saturday van riders to Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but that hasn’t happened.
Representatives from DaVita in Wilson would not comment to The Free Press on how they will handle the discontinuation of Saturday service of their patients.
Recently, the board had approved eliminating out-of-county Friday service. Medicaid service is currently provided Monday through Thursday to Greenville, Farmville, Winterville and Kinston for non-emergency medical appointments scheduled from 9-11 a.m.
Reducing the service to three days will fill more seats on the vans. There are fewer riders and more cancellations on Monday, Lovett said.
Exceptions are made for medical appointments that can only be made in the afternoons and Work First passengers heading to Lenoir Community College in Kinston or Farmville or adult day care in Kinston, he said.
Janice Moye of Snow Hill said she has an out-of-county appointment every other Monday. Lovett said changing the day to Tuesday would be preferable, but if Medicaid allowed her to ride the van by herself on Monday, he would do so.
“Normally, you can schedule (routine appointments) Tuesday through Thursday,” he said. “And that forces the riders to fill the vans, which makes it cheaper to operate.”
Vans will continue to run Monday through Friday for in-county service, including transporting seniors to the congregate nutrition site, which is paid by the Home & Community Care Block Grant and EDTAP funds.
Fridays will be reserved for Medicaid passengers going to Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.
Riders receiving transportation paid through the Rural Operating Assistance Program will have to pay a fee beginning in July to cover the department’s match or the cost of the ride if no ROAP funds become available, Lovett said.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.