There is some good news from the Department of Transportation! The DOT gives $7.3M to help get people to needed healthcare. The announcement was made through the Department’s Federal Transit Authority (FTA). The money comes in the form of Rides to Wellness Demonstration and Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility Grants that will be given to 19 transportation projects over 16 states. The goal is to help those who don’t drive get necessary healthcare via better public transportation.
There is some good news from the Department of Transportation! The DOT gives $7.3M to help get people to needed healthcare. The announcement was made through the Department’s Federal Transit Authority (FTA). The money comes in the form of Rides to Wellness Demonstration and Innovative Coordinated Access and Mobility Grants that will be given to 19 transportation projects over 16 states. The goal is to help those who don’t drive get necessary healthcare via better public transportation.
The grants were announced earlier this month at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Annual Meeting. The meeting is for various providers of public transportation, as well as others involved in the field. Carolyn Flowers, the FTA Acting Administrator, made the announcement.
“At FTA, we are pleased to address the needs of some of our nation’s more vulnerable residents by investing in projects that will help improve their health through easier access to public transit. These grants will help connect transit riders to healthcare services in new and creative ways.”
Of course, the grants cover 19 programs over 16 states, but those were not the only programs interested in getting one of the FTA grants. In fact, the FTA got applications from 78 programs over 34 states. That’s a total of $28M in applications.
The grants are funded, in part, by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which President Obama signed into law in December last year. The FAST Act gave the FTA $2M for such programs. The FTA’s research, development and demonstration program provided the balance of funding from sources earmarked for such projects, specifically the FTA’s Rides to Wellness Initiative, which focuses on better access to needed healthcare, lower healthcare costs and improved healthcare outcomes. One way Rides to Wellness does this work is by finding ways of making public transportation a strategic part of getting those “chronic conditions and ensuring that at-risk populations can get to wellness appointments, healthy food, and community services.”
The decisions as to which of the 78 programs received grants were made based on criteria in its Notice of Funding Opportunity. Programs with plans that synced with Rides to Wellness’ goals were given priority. Several of those chosen for funding will use technology to create new, helpful connections between public transportation and those the programs seek to serve. Others chosen “focus on teaching patients and caregivers how to access and understand transit systems.”
Here is a small selection of programs that were given funding:
- “The Flint Mass Transportation Authority in Michigan will receive approximately $310,000 to develop a mobility management program that will coordinate non-emergency medical transportation and trip planning to deliver primary and urgent care for families, older adults and people with disabilities throughout Flint.
- The Jacksonville Transportation Authority in Florida will receive approximately $400,000 to develop a software interface connecting medical scheduling programs and transit schedules to generate transit travel times and costs for receptionists and patients as they make appointments. The database has the potential to link a large number of healthcare providers to mobility management nationally.
- The Ohio Department of Transportation will receive approximately $133,000 to fund the Mommy and Me Ride for Free program, which improves coordination and access to healthcare for pregnant women and women with infants in Northwest Ohio. By better connecting to the TARPS and TARTA transit systems, the project will improve health for mothers and babies.
- The Maryland Transit Administration will receive approximately $103,000 to build upon a mobility management program that addresses barriers for low-income individuals in Allegany County in western Maryland who lack reliable access to transportation to healthcare. The program, which will be updated with transportation coordination software, provides transportation to and from non-emergency medical appointments.
- North Carolina will receive $65,000 to fund the Research Triangle Regional Public Transportation Authority project in Durham, NC. The project will expand the GoTriangle Regional Call Center to improve coordinated transit planning and application assistance for paratransit riders who are low-income, uninsured, or have mental health special needs.”
According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, “People with limited access to reliable, safe transportation often miss their medical appointments, sometimes with dire consequences. These grants identify dozens of creative ways to address these problems, providing a lifeline to people who otherwise might skip healthcare visits. We are bridging that health care gap by improving mobility for those with low incomes, older adults, and people with disabilities.”
Score one for the DOT and FTA and good use of taxpayer dollars to help those in need!
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