River Valley Regional Commission



River Valley Regional Commission

Human Services Transportation (HST) Workshop

Tuesday, November 2, 2010, 9:30 am – 2:30 pm

Pope Center, South Georgia Technical College, Americus, GA

Attendee List

Allen Davis, LogistiCare

Jan McGowan, DOL – VR Program

Janice Short, Taylor County Transit

Mary Day, River Valley AAA

Mary Jane Ethridge, Southern Star

Roger Williams, Region 8 DHS

Rosa Evans, METRA Transit

Rush Wickes, Columbus Consolidated Government

Shelly Montgomery, River Valley Regional Commission

Sue Davis, Southern Star

Tina Rust, River Valley Regional Commission

Danita Crawford, DHS

Daniel Foth, CHA

Audra Rojek, Jacobs-JJG

Jenny Lee, Jacobs-JJG

Dave Cassell, Governor’s Development Council

Charlotte Nash, Governor’s Development Council

Bethany Whitaker, Nelson Nygaard

Handouts

Agenda

HST Fact Sheet #2

Participant Survey

Software Survey

Workshop Summary

The workshop began at 9:30 a.m. Daniel Foth with CHA began the meeting by introducing the study and the progress made thus far. He reported that the alternatives analysis portion of the study would begin with the second round of workshops and finish in December. A third and final round of workshops are scheduled for January. Mr. Foth then lead introductions and explained the connection between this study and the Governor’s Development Council, which was represented at the meeting by Charlotte Nash and Dave Cassell.

Presentation on Phase 1 Key Findings and Updates from Region

Bethany Whitaker then began her presentation on the River Valley Region Case Study, which included a summary of the results from the Needs Assessment.

Overview of the Existing System

Department of Human Services (DHS) contracts with the River Valley Regional Commission (RVRC) and Southern Star CSB to provide coordinated human service transportation to its clients in the 16-county region. RVRC, in turn, contracts with MCA Transportation and RMS to provide transportation for the DHS clients in eight counties previously covered by New Horizons CSB (since August of this year). The RVRC also purchases bus passes and tickets from METRA in Columbus. Southern Star CSB, previously called Middle Flint Behavioral Healthcare, provides transportation services for its clients the remaining eight counties.

Trips in this area are booked by agencies, not directly by clients. Southern Star utilizes a combination of sub-contracting trips to the 5311 providers and delivering the service themselves. If there is a 5311 provider available, they use them because they tend to be less expensive. Also, all providers in this region also provide Medicaid trips that they get assigned from SWGRC.

Muscogee County is the only one to receive 5307 funds, while Talbot, Taylor, Macon, Crisp, Dooly, Clay and Quitman Counties receive 5311 funds.

Changes to Maps and Flow Chart

Ms. Whitaker presented the funding flow chart and maps of services for review and possible correction by the group. The region noted that:

• Six county-wide systems (Dooly-Crisp United Transportation System (DCUTS), Taylor, Macon, Talbot, Quitman and Clay)) and one city-wide system (Americus) provide 5311 public transit service.

• Southern Star provides Medicaid trips to its clients.

• Southern Star does not provide 5311 trips but contracts with 5311 providers where they are available and less expensive.

• 5311 service will be available for Stewart and Randolph Counties by next summer.

DOL –VR

Unlike other regions, the Department of Labor’s Vocational Rehabilitation is not part of the funding formula for the DHS coordinated system. They tried coordination in the past but it was not successful. In addition, the existing DHS service is not appropriate and reliable enough for employment use. As a result most of vocational rehabilitation’s transportation service is in the form of mileage reimbursements and flex vouchers. Drivers in rural areas are reimbursed for fuel and this system uses METRA passes in Columbus.

RVRC Coordinated Service Initiative

River Valley is starting a 4-county 5311 program. This will be available in Quitman, Clay, Randolph and Stewart (Randolph and Stewart currently do not currently have 5311 service). The program is scheduled to start in the summer 2011. They are building a facility in Springdale, Randolph County that will include a call center, staff parking and vehicle maintenance. They will also be hiring a new service provider, but have not yet done so. The goal is to provide public transit service in these areas. Construction and ongoing costs are supported by state and federal funds, primarily 5309 funds, and possibly 5311 funds in the future. The counties are primarily providing in-kind match including property and some construction help. The bulk of the money from the equipment and facility is coming from GDOT. Currently, there are no plans to further expand this consolidated service in the future as it will be the first time the RC has taken on this role.

5311 Providers

There was only one 5311 provider at the session, Janice Short, who is responsible for running the transit call center and arranging trips in Taylor County. Ms. Short said the county is able to operate the service using combined funding from 5311 with contracts (DHS and DCH), farebox and some county contributions. As such, she currently has to report to GDOT, DHS and DCH. She uses a basic spreadsheet to schedule her trips. The county program experiences a shortage of vehicles which constrains the service.

DHS Service Providers

Only Southern Star CSB was present at the meeting. They function as both a call center/broker and as a service provider. They currently provide service in counties that do not have a 5311 provider as well as some after-hours trips. Funding for Southern Star comes from DHS and DCH (who assigns them trips). They also provide transportation for some of the other CSB programs; these services are 100% locally funded. Southern Star also does its own reporting, monitoring, purchase its own vehicles (without using GDOT funds, although some of their vans are titled by DHS).

Frustrations/Challenges

In order to receive funding from DOT, DCH and DHS, the providers must be concurrent with three different procedures and produce three different sets of reports. Streamlining some of these requirements would help enable the providers to offer better service:

• Driver qualifications

• Safety guidelines (although DHS/DOT and DCH will accept each other inspections)

• Complaint processes

• Client eligibility

• Boundaries for reporting

Payment channels get blocked up by certain things, such as staff vacancies or changes in personnel, unsigned contracts, etc. The providers feel it takes them longer than it should to get money from the state. One of the things that providers like about Medicaid is that they pay within 15 days of receiving the invoice. The inflexibility of federal guidelines was regarded as hurting the service delivery of the programs they supported.

State-level decision-makers were seen as lacking experience in rural transit service delivery, and therefore unfamiliar with the approaches that may work best in rural areas. In this region, the DOL purchased one man a bicycle so he would have transportation to work. The region does not want to surrender their ability to solve problems in this manner as part of this study. The region feels it has some good ideas locally that are challenged as they try to work their way up.

The RVRC may be interested in expanding its role in coordinating transportation in the future, but not necessarily now. At this time, they would most value additional staff training, especially for at the RC as they are about to start their 5311 service. They need help in billing/grants management/contracts management/RFPs. They liked the idea of peer-to-peer training more than attending a NTI course.

Discussion of Activities in Case Study Regions and Applicability to River Valley Region

Ms. Whitaker presented examples of best practices from other regions around the state. In discussing these possibilities, the following points were made:

• Regional DHS Board has a Regional Transportation Coordinating Committee (RTCC) which oversees the coordinated transportation services. RVRC sits on this board and participates – both from a transportation perspective and as the administrator of the aging program.

• Not much issue with insurance, in part because it does not use volunteer drivers. Southern Star subcontracts with one taxi service, but outside of Americus and Columbus, there isn’t taxi service for the providers to use in a pinch.

• Funding for some programs is too specific – some programs have excess funding, while others are underfunded. The region felt that it leveraged its DHS funds well and managed to avoid shortfalls. TANF funds were routinely left over at the end of the year due to lack of TANF trips, and the region would like to be able to use more of those funds.

• DOL -Vocational Rehabilitation and CASA are preparing a resource directory which will include transportation. This will be published in electronic and hard copy version. It is due out in Jan 2011.

• The region has explored/considered establishing some fixed-route service. For example, the region previously explored the possibility of DCUTS dedicating a vehicle to the I-75 corridor, for trips up to Atlanta with a stop at the trade school in Warner Robins.

• Crossing county lines is challenging – not always easy or fluid. Part of the difficulty stems from the cost of making long trips for one or very few passengers. In Taylor County, however, almost all the trips have to cross the county line to get medical services, which are unavailable within the county.

• They are working on urban-rural coordination, such that rural providers can bring people to a transfer point for METRA buses. This coordination was begun in earnest at the last Georgia Transit Day, and METRA appears to be increasingly willing to work with the surrounding counties. 5311 programs appreciate the option of transferring some passengers to METRA in order to free up van space for other riders.

• There is a wide range of technology available – some use pen and paper, excel, Trapeze (primarily for billing for Medicaid/SWGRC – not scheduling trips). LogistiCare also said they have proprietary software that they share with providers which assists in scheduling, billing, trip reservations, cancellations and re-routing.

• METRA applied for 5316/5317 funding to provide Night Owl service so that 2nd shift employees could ride the bus to/from work. This has fallen through because FTA requires cash match and DHS can only provide in-kind match.

Next Steps

The meeting drew to a close with Ms. Whitaker thanking the regional representatives for their attendance. She provided contact information for Daniel Foth, the consultant project manager, and Steve Kish, the GDOT project manager, for further information and comment.

Lessons Learned

• Need for streamlined reporting process and requirements

• Need for 5311 service for all counties in the region

• Coordination occurs at the provider level by mixing and matching funds

• Good ideas locally are challenged as they try to work their way up

• With assistance from the state and regional partners, RVRC may be interested in expanding its role in coordinating transportation in the future

Attachments

Sign-In Sheets

Participant Survey Summary

Software Survey Summary

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