VOICEOVER: Welcome advocate Shelly Pflaum from Marshall, Minnesota.
SHELLY PFLAUM: Hi, my name is Shelly Pflaum. I’m a white female with graying curly brown hair, and I’m wearing a red and black striped sweater. I’m the mobility administrator and the lead staff for the Regional Transportation Coordinating Council at United Community Action Partnership in Southwest Minnesota.
I’ve worked in transportation for almost 17 years. A big part of what I do is help people find transportation. And I’m honored to speak to you today about the effects inadequate reimbursement rates are having on transportation access. I’ll apologize in advance because I know I won’t touch on everything or answer every question.
Let me start by giving you a little bit of background. Reimbursement rates for the Department of Human Services to non-emergency medical transportation providers are set in statute. There have been no changes to these rates in 10 years. Yet in those 10 years, the cost of everything has increased exponentially.
Since DHS reimburses only for miles with a person in the vehicle, we call these loaded miles. The problem is felt acutely by providers in rural areas. For example, if the closest driver is 35 miles from a passenger who has a four-hour appointment, there are at least 70 vehicle miles and five hours of staff time that are not billable for that trip.
No matter if the passenger’s appointment is 30 miles from their home or three miles, the loaded mileage, plus a minimal standard pickup fee, is what the provider receives to cover the cost of that trip. This creates an especially big problem for Special Transportation Services known in the transportation world as STS.
STS provides specialized door-to-door services to people whose needs cannot be met through other forms of transportation. Typically, people who use wheelchairs or need to be transported on a stretcher. Efforts to increase these rates have been brought forth unsuccessfully every year.
The most recent effort came in January of 2023, with the introduction of House File 435 and its companion bill, Senate File 316. These bills seek a roughly $1 per mile increase, which is equivalent to 10 cents per year. There has been little movement since the bill’s introductions. In the meantime, many people are struggling to get where they need to be.
Wheelchair accessible transportation has always been the thing most people need help finding. Over the last several years, this need has increased. Providers across the state have shut down, or significantly reduced their service area in an attempt to avoid shutting down. Others have simply cut ties with DHS. This has left many people, including some with regular need for dialysis, scrambling for alternatives.
But what we need isn’t necessarily alternatives, if we adequately support the resources currently available. It’s true that not every need for transportation is covered by DHS, but especially in rural Minnesota, the consistency of need for DHS transportation may be enough to ensure providers can stay in the area to meet other needs. There isn’t a single form of transportation that can meet every need, but when every form of Transportation is there to do its part, everyone benefits.