PETITION AGAINST THE CENTER FOR TRANSPORTATION EXCELLENCE (CTE)

To Whom It May Concern:

Enclosed is a petition endorsed by Medicaid recipients in Erie County and other entities involved either directly or indirectly with the Erie County Medicaid Transportation Program and Erie County's decision to contract the Center for Transportation Excellence (CTE). We the people have understood that this contract has been initiated to streamline transportation services for Medicaid recipients in Erie County. It is well known that Erie County as well as New York state as a whole has faced, and continues to face a very ominous and real fiscal crisis. It is further understood that such a crisis has a vast and evident impact on the fiscal stability of both the state and county economic systems. Information from the state capital has set a state deficit at $6.4 billion. This translates into an Erie County debt of $107 million . It has been speculated that such a deficit will cause cutbacks in the amount of roughly $127 million dollars. Although the value of the contract with CTE has as of yet not been ascertained, we the people feel that such an expenditure at this time is both irresponsible and unwarranted. This further compounds the county%u2019s already dire financial situation. It is our understanding that CTE%u2019s operational policy states that Medicaid consumers must contact CTE to arrange medical transportation providing such information as residence, needed medical transportation and Medicaid identification number. This is widely understood to be a redundant system in that contracts with vendors previously established have worked more to the benefit of the Medicaid system as well as the vendors themselves without a contract with a third party. We the people feel that this adds an unnecessary element to an already strange system and poses an undue hardship on consumers, vendors, and medical staff, which would otherwise not exist if the contract with CTE had not been made.

Information obtained through public channels identifies CTE as being either a subsidiary or altogether wholly owned by We Care Transportation. This new system has not been market tested prior to its initiation. The continuation of such a system proves extremely difficult for consumers, vendors and medical staff because of the existence of such a third party.

This petition calls for abolishment of such contract initiated by Erie County with CTE. This petition exists for the following reasons:

1. Creating any contract in an already burdened governmental agency without market testing and/or consultation with previously named parties is both fiscally and ethically irresponsible. This is to say that because this new program exists, it places an additional burden on multiple populations including economically disadvantaged and the disabled community.

2. This may cause an undue hardship on the clients that the Medicaid Transportation System is supposed to benefit, inasmuch that this creates additional steps that must be taken to arrange for transportation to receive vital medical services that may not otherwise be available. This poses specific difficulties for individuals with developmental and other physical disabilities because they now have become uncertain as to whether their transportation needs will be properly met with this existing program whereas previously noted very few problems, excluding vendor error, had existed previously.

In closing, we the residents of the county of Erie in the state of New York do respectfully request the dissolution of the existing arrangement with the Center for Transportation Excellence. Instead, we respectfully request the reinitiation of the previous transportation arrangement and request revised policies and enhanced vendor training as necessary.

We the residents of Erie County, thank you greatly for your time and attention in this matter. Please note signatures and enclosed information is to signify that we the undersigned do call for reimplementation of previously noted policies and regulations.

Respectfully submitted,

The Residents of Erie County