Transportation to and from necessary medical appointments can be a real issue to a vulnerable population of low-income, elderly, frail individuals. The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2019 budget may allow states to drop the non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) benefit; which has been part of Medicaid since the program’s inception in 1966. The NEMT benefit was established because what good is the Medicaid entitlement if patients can’t get to their medical appointments? LogistiCare has been providing access to this type of non-emergency medical transportation for decades. In 2017, the company managed over 65 million trips and more than 24 million eligible riders.
To learn more about the effects of this potential change read the Health Affairs blog, “Budget Proposal Would Allow States to Drop Medicaid Transportation Benefits Across The Entire Program,” authored by Marsha Simon, MS, PhD; President, Simon & Co., LLC and Eliot Fishman; Senior Director of Health Policy for Families USA’s.