Transportation Listening Sessions

People enrolled in MassHealth Standard, CarePlus or CommonHealth are entitled to assistance with non-emergency medical transportation needed to obtain covered medical services. An office within EOHHS has contracts with transportation brokers to provide these non-emergency medical transportation services as well as to provide transportation for consumers who receive services from other EOHHS agencies.  If you have experience with using these services and ideas for improving them now is your chance to be heard!

 

Some hot topics in the past have been the difficulty getting "door through door" or "carry down" service for MassHealth members who can't get from their homes to the street without help.  We've sometimes heard only ambulance providers are equipped to do this & they will not do it for non-emergency trips. This is from the Request for Info (attached)

 

MassHealth members require varying levels of assistance including so-called “curb to curb”, “door to door”, and “door through door” transportation.  Currently, curb to curb transportation for members residing in the community is authorized by MassHealth using a Provider Request for Transportation (PT-1) form and arranged by Brokers contracted by the HST Office.  Door to door and door through door is arranged using a Medical Necessity Form and provided by Fee For Service (FFS) vendors who contract directly with MassHealth. EOHHS is considering creating a single unified process for requesting, authorizing and delivering transportation to all eligible MassHealth consumers, regardless of whether the member requires curb to curb, door to door, or door through door transportation. This single unified process would give Brokers oversight and responsibility over current MassHealth FFS transportation.  

The RFI also asks for ideas on the use of Ride Hail Services for non-emergency medical transportation & how that might best be done.

 

And did you know MassHealth will reimburse eligible members for the costs of using public transportation to obtain medical services but provides little or no information about this benefit or how to obtain it --this is not mentioned in the RFI but no reason for you not to raise it. 

 

The HST Transportation Office  has scheduled listening sessions in Boston on April 29, Springfield on May 6 and Chelmsford on May 8 (details set out below). People can also submit written comments until May 31 in response to a Request for Information (attached).

 

More information from the Human Services Transportation Office  including the times & locations of the listening sessions is set out below

 

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