Yellow Cab sees red over Medicaid ride program bidding in Pinellas
The Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization will weigh in Wednesday on a battle between two taxi companies for a $3.6 million annual contract to give Medicaid patients rides to appointments. One side says "backroom politics" and "the good old boy network" will cost taxpayers millions — claims the other side dismisses as "sour grapes."
Officials with Clearwater Yellow Cab say members of an MPO advisory committee connected to competitor United Taxi have tainted the process of awarding the bid.
For roughly 15 years, Medicaid patients in Pinellas who needed rides to and from appointments called Greater Pinellas Transportation Management Services, a private dispatch company, and chose from a number of potential transport options, like Clearwater Yellow Cab or United Taxi....
The MPO decided in December to change the system, however. Instead of letting customers choose, the MPO put out requests for bids for one company to take the calls and manage transportation. The winning bidder will decide what companies do the driving, a decision MPO officials say could lead to efficiencies, like carpools and shared rides.An advisory committee to the MPO ranked GPTMS No. 1, with Yellow Cab a close second. Yellow Cab officials cried foul,
Who wants to do MPO's and Medicaid among taxi drivers in Pinellas County anyways, this a total rip off
ReplyDeleteI think, that government should step in and start to regulate Medicaid taxi charges on behalf of taxi drivers in Tampa Bay, because as far as I am concerned, Medicaid and MPO programs are condoning "third world sweatshop policies" right here on US soil, by letting cab companies to exploit drivers on those charges by paying them next to nothing after expenses.
Deleteyou need to write open letter to Obama, hehehe
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