CT News JunkieJanuary 28, 2019
Bonnie Roswig, an attorney with the Center for Children’s Advocacy, said Veyo is the “functional equivalent of the state” because its contract is greater than $2.5 million. She argued the meetings should be open to the public and they should be complying with the same open meeting laws as the state.
“The department and Veyo is only allowing whom they choose to attend those meetings,” Roswig said. “There are several people in this room who are users of Medicaid and they were told they are not allowed to go. We were told the press is not allowed to go.”
Rod Winstead, the director of integrated care at DSS, said “your distress is so noted, Bonnie.”
Roswig also questioned the adequacy of the transportation provider network.
Last May, the company reported it had contracts with 70 transportation providers.
However, there are companies such as Four Fellas Transportation in Bloomfield, which has a contract with Veyo but hasn’t been given a ride since April 2018. They are still under contract and have a $1 million ridesharing insurance policy they’ve continued to pay without any indication they will get work from Veyo.
Coppock declined to answer questions directly about Four Fellas Transportation.
“These companies are not dedicated 100 percent to Veyo,” Coppock said. “They don’t just have vehicles sitting around.”
Shawn Dehnert, of Four Fellas Transportation, said actually they have a vehicle just sitting there that they can’t use because it was dedicated to work it expected to get from Veyo.
He said the reason it looked like the company wasn’t meeting the performance standards was because they were assigning them rides in Bridgeport, when the company is headquartered in Bloomfield and serves the Greater Hartford area.
Roswig said the department really needs to be holding Veyo accountable and they’re not doing that.
A class action was filed earlier this month against the department for not providing Medicaid recipients with timely transportation.
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