Metro’s overstressed and cost-intensive transit service for people with disabilities is being burdened with an influx of new passengers after a recent decision by the District to cut transport service for some Medicaid patients and shuffle them to MetroAccess.
“We first became aware of this when Medicaid customers started to get letters telling them their service was discontinued and that they needed to contact Metro.” said Christian Kent, director of Metro’s Access Services. “Our understanding is that the cost of that program was starting to become problematic for the District.”
But the cost now could become problematic for Metro, which received 900 new applications for MetroAccess from Medicaid patients in the District last month alone.
MetroAccess, the agency’s shared-ride, door-to-door service for people who are physically unable to use buses and trains, was set up in 1994 to meet federal regulations requiring public transit operators to provide equal service to disabled passengers.
MetroAccess, which has about 20,000 registered passengers and provides more than 5,000 rides a month, has seen a 16 percent ridership increase over the past year.
The influx of Medicaid customers is expected to cost Metro an additional $4.1 million in operating costs this year and to further tax a service that is already one of the agency’s biggest money drainers.
Agency officials said they have not determined whether Metro’s complicated budget rules will require the District to subsidize that money, or whether the cost will be split among the area jurisdictions.
“It’s kind of like system dumping,” said Gordon Linton, a member of Metro’s board of directors who represents Maryland. “We don’t get money from Medicaid, and when those individuals come to our system, it increases costs significantly.”
Medicaid is the federal health insurance program for the disabled and the poor.
Rob Maruca, senior deputy director of the Medical Assistance Administration for the District, said the city underestimated how many rides its contractor, Medical Transportation Management, would have to provide and that the D.C. Council approved only $4 million of a requested $9 million increase for the service.
To cut costs, the city advised the contractor to downsize, use high-quality providers and forward anyone eligible to Metro.
“If somebody qualifies for MetroAccess, that would be the preferred mode of transportation, bearing in mind that [the District] pays for Metro,” Maruca said.
[email protected]
