Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
Local Motion's fleet of vans and buses is getting older with some failing.
Generations Unlimited (GU) is responsible for operating the transportation service, Local Motion. Recently, Barnwell County’s office on aging has scaled back operations to only offer rides to those receiving Medicaid. Mass transit trips have been cut.
“For our services right now, we are at a scale back, prioritizing our services for Medicaid,” said GU Executive Director Ethel Faust.
According to Faust, mass transit trips are “not feasible for the cost that we are generating from it.”
A bit of background
GU is currently undergoing a restructuring after years of financial instability.
Higher operating costs for fuel and materials alongside decreased revenue from a lack of Medicaid-funded trips amidst the pandemic left GU in a bind in early 2022. Allegations of administrative mismanagement resulting in the upheaval of the former director and board did not help.
Medicaid is South Carolina’s medical assistance program and is administered by the S.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS). Non-emergency medical transportation, such as utilizing Local Motion buses to doctor’s appointments, is part of these services.
One of GU’s main revenue sources is providing transportation to Medicaid members through a broker of non-emergency medical transport called Modivcare. Under the SCDHHS contract, Medicaid transport is arranged by Modivcare. GU gets reimbursed for offering these rides, but must pay for the operations in full upfront as reimbursement is not immediate.
During the pandemic, virtual healthcare visits increased and the monthly revenue miles (rides) diminished; therefore, so did the agency’s revenue stream. Cuts had to be made.
Prior to the pandemic, over 90,000 miles were being driven per month. In June 2020, monthly miles decreased to 43,069 per month, showing an over 50,000 decrease in rides, according to information provided by Neil Crider in a Jan. 2022 report. Crider is GU’s financial consultant from McGregor & Co., a public accounting firm.
In this report, Crider explained the agency would best operate at 100,000 total miles with one-third being refunded Medicaid rides.
In April 2023, merely 12,583 Medicaid miles were driven with 127 clients. Only 20,587 miles were driven in August with 184 clients. Medicaid revenue in April was around $17,000, and in August it was roughly $27,000. These figures were presented at the August GU board meeting.
This slight increase was explained to be due to Medicaid offering GU more trips.
Although numbers have slightly increased, GU is still set to receive a reimbursement from these Medicaid rides. One of the issues the agency has been running into is submitting the invoices for reimbursement to Modivcare on time and correctly.
According to Faust at the board’s November 15 meeting, she believes errors include the method of submission. Faust explained the agency was still waiting for reimbursement from Modivcare for various Medicaid rides in the past year due to this incorrect submission regarding wait time.
The agency currently submits this by post mail, and are looking into moving this submission process online. The current method adds to the potential late submission, and Faust hopes moving things digitally will aid with this issue.
Unlike Medicaid trips, the agency does not receive a 50 percent reimbursement from mass transit trips. The agency does receive a reimbursement from the state for mass transit, but not as much as Medicaid trips.
The toll to ride mass transit did not exceed $6 each way for trips to Charleston or Columbia.
In August, rides for mass transit were being offered from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in an effort to increase early morning Medicaid trips. Services previously began at 3 a.m. Mass transit trips can take passengers to work, shopping, medical appointments, and other events.
“We decreased some mass transit to increase Medicaid trips,” said the GU transportation director at the August meeting. “We take a Medicaid trip, then we have to turn down a mass transit trip. Medicaid is paying us more right now.”
Mass transit trips can be refunded through programs such as 5311 Formula Grants for Rural Areas administered by the Federal Transit Administration - which provides funding and operating assistance to states to support public transportation in areas with a population of less than 50,000.
“Medicaid trips/miles have slowly increased and every effort needs to be made to continue accepting these trips as well as becoming more efficient in routes,” states the August financial report.
However, with limited buses, GU’s 12 Modivcare drivers and six mass transit drivers found themselves waiting for operable buses to return to make their trips.
Failing Fleet
At the August 28 board meting, GU's maintenance manager Tim Zissett said there is a large bill at the Barnwell Service Center where Local Motion buses are repaired.
At the August meeting, Zissett explained GU was roughly $6,000 behind in repair bills since mid-June. Although the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) does reimburse for some routine repairs, GU is responsible for upfront payment and other forms of repairs.
“To a certain extent they support the rehab and the replacement,” said Faust of SCDOT.
According to Faust, she is looking into a grant through the state to replace and/or repair some of the buses.
“We’ve got some vehicles that are high on that list, but at this time I am not certain where we are,” said Faust at the Nov. meeting. She explained she recently requested an update from the state department.
“If you don’t have anything to ride in, then you won’t make any money,” said Zissett at the August meeting. “I don’t have any money to make any repairs on any of my buses at this time.”
Zissett explained the fleet was decreasing by roughly one bus a week; some falling subject to things like bald tires and broken air conditioning. In August, three were in the shop with bad engines.
As of October 16, eight buses were not running. The remaining vehicles were in need of routine repairs such as oil changes, tire rotations, and brake inspections, as well as specific issues such as a broken wheelchair lift, overheating, a broken fan belt, and an engine replacement.
According to GU’s August financial report, the transportation program yielded a loss of $1,893 that month. Fuel costs were over $15,000, and vehicle maintenance was nearly $3,000.
At the November meeting, Local Motion rider Ellen Herman explained she has ridden on buses with broken windows sealed with cardboard and tape, and buses with no air conditioning in the middle of July.
“I was on a bus that had a whole back window out, and it was taped with duct tape and plastic which came loose,” said Herman.
Buses have a periodic maintenance schedule every 5,000 miles including breaks, oil change, and tire rotation. However, GU cannot consistently afford the maintenance.
“The more you have broken down, the less people are going to ride, and the less money you’re going to bring in,” said Zissett.
Long explained at the Nov. meeting that the board is looking at which buses can be sold and which ones they will keep with assistance from the Lower Savannah Council of Governments (LSCOG).
A bit more background
“In the past, apparently, there were no checks and balances,” said board member Dianne Youngblood at the November meeting. “In general, what I’ve seen across the board, there has not been anyone who has held people accountable.”
This is not the first time the transit program has been limited due to finances and lack of administrative upkeep.
Bank statements showed GU had $102,504.34 as of January 31, 2022, but the reconciled book balance for cash was $39,908.88, according to previous reporting by The People-Sentinel.
In February 2022, the GU board at the time voted unanimously to shut down Local Motion due to a lack of funding. Barnwell County Council then dissolved the board, took over governance of the agency, and fired the former director.
In March 2023, GU was still being operated by the county council with Faust at the helm of the agency. She was often on council and committee agendas to provide updates on the state of GU.
Allendale County Office on Aging Director Dawan “Pookie” Smith has been providing guidance to Faust since early July.
At a July 10 services committee meeting, Smith explained he found the billing process in need of correction to show positive results at GU.
Smith explained his Allendale County office can operate entirely from Medicaid ride reimbursements, and aims to get GU in a similar situation. He plans to work with Faust to look through Modivcare records to ensure the agency was billing correctly to be reimbursed.
A new six-member board appointed by Barnwell County Council to operate GU held their first meeting on July 11 and assumed operation. Board members include chairperson Cheryl Long, vice-chair Vorise Peeples, Dianne Youngblood, Wanda Coleman, Edwin Felton, and DJ Washington.
Some of their initial areas to address, according to Faust at the August county council meeting, included streamlining services, professional development, community engagement/public relations, resource development, and revenue sources.
“We tried to pick good people that would clean this mess up,” said Barnwell County Council Chairman Jerry Creech at the November GU board meeting. “The future of GU depends on y'all.”
At the Nov. meeting, Creech explained although the council supports the board, they will not be getting any more money from the county this year. GU previously received $200,000 from the county on July 1 to keep operations afloat, according to Creech.
Current finances
GU’s August financial report showed over $60,000 owed from SCDOT, as well as other owed money from things such as meal cost reimbursements. The report states GU has been receiving these payments timely. The report continues to state GU was owed $9,868 from Modivcare including trips from the past month, and much of this was received in August.
Total administrative costs for August were $38,098 with a profit of $11,654; however, $8,000 of this is from non-recurring grants. This brought the fund balance to a negative $42,048, “which is of significant concern,” states the report.
“There will be a serious need for additional funding along with tight budget monitoring going forward,” states the report. “Cash flow will be a problem for making payroll and benefit payments.”
In the September 2023 financial summary and analysis presented by Crider, GU has not been receiving the totality of some reimbursements on time due to submission errors and later invoice submissions. Much of this is due to long-term administrative issues like organization and staff limitations.
“GU was owed $17,661 from Modivcare which included trips from the past months. A reconciliation of billings to collections needs to be done to keep track of what has been received and what may need re-billing,” states the Sept. financial report.
For the entirety of the month, the agency only yielded a $610 profit. The fund balance is at a negative $41,437, “which is still of significant concern,” states the report.
However, this low cash balance was close to impacting payroll for GU employees. According to Faust at the Nov. meeting, payroll was not an issue in October.
According to Long in a conversation with Crider, profit is going toward paying back-dated bills.
“He did say we are not where we are supposed to be, but we are closer than we were before,” said Long at the Nov. meeting.
To fix some of the administrative errors leading to a negative balance, such as incorrect reporting for refundable trips, Faust has been working to reconcile the rides since January – the last time a reconciliation occurred, to ensure reimbursements were received for back-dated rides.
Faust is also considering new revenue streams and is working with the LSCOG to develop further options.
Editor's Note: This is the first article in an upcoming series about GU.
