Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
SUBSTITUTE-Creating an Ad Hoc Metro Paratransit Medicaid Waiver Funding & Policy Review Committee.
Body
PREAMBLE
The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requires Metro Transit to provide paratransit services complimentary to its fixed route service. For over 20 years, Metro Transit has been able to provide paratransit services above and beyond the minimum standards and criteria required by the ADA primarily because of its partnership with Dane County and the Medicaid Waiver (commonly refer to as “MA Waiver”) Program.
MA Waiver is a Community Integration Program (CIP) that supports developmentally disabled individuals to live and work in communities as opposed to state institutions (ie., they “waive” out of the state institutions, thus giving rise to the name MA “Waiver”). Pursuant to Chapter 49 of the Wisconsin State Statutes, MA Waiver programs provide funding through county Departments of Human Services for community services to qualified persons with developmental disabilities. The Common Council annually adopts resolutions that authorize the Mayor and Clerk to contract with Dane County for the funding and provision of Metro paratransit services for people with developmental disabilities to fully participate in community living through the MA Waiver Program. This arrangement has allowed state funding to be passed through Dane County to Metro Transit such that Metro Transit is currently reimbursed for 60% of the actual cost of Waiver participants’ paratransit rides. Metro Transit currently charges $3.25 per paratransit ride compared to an actual cost of $33. MA Waiver funding accounts for over $3.7 million of Metro Transit’s approximately $9 million paratransit budget.
The state is in the process of changing the administration of the MA Waiver program through the implementation of the Family Care program such that the same funding would be required to private, for profit entities, such as insurance com...
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