DSHS Approves Common Ground Demo

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) approved moving forward with a demonstration project allowing Pierce County Medicaid clients and Pierce Transit ADA passengers to ride together on the same vehicles and share costs.

Pierce Transit and Paratransit Services, the Pierce County Medicaid broker, provide a large number of passenger trips to the same locations such as Adult Day Health and Kidney Dialysis Centers. By scheduling passengers together and sharing costs, the transportation providers hope to provide more rides and maintain the service quality. ACCT will review the project proposal at the December 3rd meeting.


INCREASE ADVOCACY

ACCT's Legislative Agenda

The Council will ask the legislature to take action on the following items in the upcoming legislative session:

Revise stretcher bill to reduce barriers
ACCT supports updating laws that govern travel by stretcher. Currently, anyone who has to travel in a lying down position must be transported by ambulance, even in cases when they do not need medical attention. Traveling by ambulance is prohibitively expensive to most travelers and is a barrier for communities to providing efficient transportation. This legislation would allow people who own or lease personal gurneys to travel by means other than ambulance.

Grant temporary routes for intercity providers
ACCT supports the Utilities and Transportation Commission's (UTC) requested legislation to allow them to grant temporary certificates to intercity transportation providers. Currently, there is no way for a provider to start up a service without going through a lengthy permitting process with the UTC. This became an issue this year when Greyhound Bus Lines stopped serving several rural communities in Washington. In response to Greyhound's pullout, local ACCT coalitions worked to find other providers to continue the service runs. Unfortunately, their efforts to replace the routes were blocked when the UTC was unable to grant permission for anyone to assume the abandoned routes. This legislation would provide communities the ability to quickly implement transportation solutions.

Add members to the ACCT Council
To better represent parties interested in special needs transportation, the Council would like to add voting members from the following organizations:

• Washington Association of Cities
• Washington Association of Counties
• Department of Community, Trade, & Economic Development
• Employment Security Department

ACCT Legislative Report to Highlight Results

ACCT provides a report to the legislature by December every other year as required by state law (RCW 47.06B). This year's report will highlight:

• community planning
• demonstration projects
• performance measures to show how coordination can increase service and provide additional passenger trips