Aloha everyone, I just wanted to start this blog to reach out to all the NEMT Hawaii providers that are contracted with Logisticare and TMS.
This blog is an open invitation to all NEMT Hawaii provider to come together and share what experiences they have had with Logisticare and TMS.
Prior to Logisticare and TMS (EVERCARE & OHANA), Like many of you I was a Medicaid provider. Since the roll out of Logisticare and Tms, there have been many changes. As of late, many of you know that we have been offered to voluntarily drop our service rates. As all of you know our rates have been set by the state. When was the last time our rates were increased? As far as I know its been more than 5 years. Cost of living alone in the past 5 years have increased tremendously here in Hawaii. Gas alone is a killer for our business.
I've spoken to a few other NEMT providers on Maui, Big Island, and Oahu. How many of you have been told.... " the company that has the most cost effective price will be given priority over those who have not voluntarily dropped there rates". One of the providers that I spoke to said
"if he doesn't drop his rates he will not be given any work". This is illegal for them to say this.
Now, I've been told that many of the Logisticare providers have dropped there rates while few have not.Not sure if this is Logisticares way of pushing us into dropping our rates...fear that the other company will get more work. I don't know too much about the TMS providers. I myself have chose not to drop my rates for Logisticare or TMS. How can we live off of the proposed rates that they would like us to be paid? Not to mention having to increase our insurance just to maintain our contract. Many providers have had to close there businesses.
I decided to do some research on my own. I spoke to the Department of Human Services and found out that TMS and Logisticare is being paid the "full amount". Why then is this not being passed along to the providers? For those of you who have decided to drop your rates, who do you think pockets the rest of the money?? I know that its not being passed on to Medicaid. So, money that should belong to you for your hard work is being kept by Logisticare and TMS.
What bothers me, is that they are getting us to compete with each other. We should be doing the opposite. There is enough work for everyone. We need to ban together and stop them from taking advantage of our businesses that we worked so hard for.
Please pass along this blog to any Hawaii provider that you may know, and feel free to post your comments.
I agree a 100 percent,what ever happened to the service we provide to our clients? Now it's about the almighty dollar! We suffer and the clients suffer. We had to get higher liability insurance, which is more money, but we don't get enough business to pay for it. Why did it have to change? Why couldn't it be the way it use to be? I think we know the answer to this question....
ReplyDeleteI really think we need to come together some how. It's the only way we can have any leverage in having a fair pay rate for all the providers. We know it's about the dollar....so why is it that we are the ones working hard and making money for Logisticare and Tms? Here's a question for all the providers.... are you in business to not make money? So why agree to drop your rates?
ReplyDeleteDoctors that have a medical practice. Have they asked them to drop there rates?
Why is our money being passed down from Medicaid to Evercare/ Ohana , to Logisticare/ Tms then to us? Why is it that Logisticare and Tms always claim that Medicaid is "cutting back". So why then haven't we received a letter from DHS stating that they are requesting to voluntarily drop rates? The only letter that I have received is from Tms and requests from mark kanno to drop my rates. These request come from them only. Medicaid is not asking us to drop our rates! Medicaid has not said that they will utlize the most cost efficient company! Show me some proof that Medicaid is asking us to drop our rates. Like I said in the above post. It is confirmed that medicad/dhs is paying Evercare and Ohana the full amount that is intented to be payed to us!
Still want to drop your rates?
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ReplyDeleteyou don't know my financial status nor do you know every provider's financial status in Hawaii. Let me also remind you that my financial status or anybody elses is none of your buisness.
ReplyDeleteDo you think I don't know what is happening around our country? what gives you the right to judge someone that may have a bigger home or a nice car! do you know for a fact that all these people attained these homes and cars from being a nemt provider?
i'll tell you this much, i do not have a large home nor do i have many nice cars in my driveway.
do you think that i don't suffer from this economy in hawaii! my wife has been laid off since last year from her county job, so don't tell me that i don't know whats going on. I too have children. and they are affected from this as well.
you asked..."if you did not lower your rate then why do you care and why are you whinnig like an 8 year old school girl?"
that just goes to show how intellegent you are! it also shows that you don't give a crap about your providers here in hawaii. yes i have not dropped my rates. i do this because i care! i care about the future of my business.
there are alot of providers out there who are hardworking and honest people trying to make a living trying to make ends meet. whats the use of dropping our rates if we make no profit? you know the numbers medicaid pays us. do the math. we don't make that much money after all the expenses and overhead.
nemt providers are at the bottom of the chain. why haven't they asked doctors to voluntarily drop there rates?...how about you voluntarily lower your salary!
nemt providers should be paid what medicaid has regulated no less!
also...this is about being paid what we should be paid! i'm sorry for your friend who is a teacher i really feel for the teachers here in hawaii, but that is an example as to why all nemt providers should bann together and stick up for what we deserve.
ReplyDeletemr. kanno, of all people i would think you would understand. like i said there are alot of "good apples" that are working for logisticare and tms. we are not asking for more...just what medicaid has agreed to pay us. you're very fortunate that logisticare dosen't ask you to lower your salary.
you also talk about truth....why don't you start with payment from medicaid. DHS has told me that they are paying the "full amount" of money to evercare and ohana. why then is it that you are asking us to voluntarily lower our rates?
ReplyDeleteyes, the path of the old program may not be sustainable now but evercare and ohana have done a great job with cutting back transportation services for the medicaid population. that alone must have saved them thousands(ie. transportation to medical appt only, no pharmacy transport, etc).
not once have i received a notice from medicaid that they are asking us to voluntarily drop our rates. this request has only come from tms and logisticare.
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ReplyDeleteits easy for you to sit there and say that you would take a pay cut when you work for someone. its a little different when all the providers own and operate there business. do you know what overhead is? as a business owner we have employee payroll, employee taxes, employee insurance, auto and business insurance, gas, rent, wear and tear on vehicles, vehicle maintenance, phone bill, etc.. after all that then business owners can try and pay themselves.
ReplyDeleteso before you compare your cut in salary to what we have to deal with maybe you should walk in my shoes for a while. there a some months that i don't even get paid. ya, i may get a check from logisticare but after all my overhead and expenses, there is not much left. This has been on going even with the "full amount" paid to me.
oh...here is the amount for ya mark...curb to curb $9 each way plus 1.95/mile wheelchair $25 each way plus 1.95/mile! shouldn't you already know this?
wow, you're smarter than you look! i answered your question about the whining!
you claim,.... "everyday you feel for all of us and many times stood up for us"....why then is it that when i had a meeting with you, you insisted that another provider droped there rates and that i should too because i would not get any business(hey providers does this sound familiar to you?) its funny cause you met with that same provider and told them the same thing about me when in fact the two of us never did drop our price! the other provider and i got together that day and found that you had lied to the both of us with the intent that we would be drop our prices based on what the other provider was doing. is this your way of defending us? you are such a smooth talker.i know how much you "feel for us"...providers i urge you to speak with your fellow providers before you make any decision on voluntarily dropping your rates.
so let me be more vague about "full price"
(i guess i need to show you again) curb to curb $9 each way plus 1.95/mile, door to door $22.50 each way plus 1.95/mile, wheelchair $25 each way plus 1.95/mile!...is this more clear for you? this is the set rates that the state has regulated for us. this is what all providers should be paid period!! no less!!
i am confident in my finding and i will give that source to you soon. i also suggest you watch how you ask your providers to "voluntarily drop" there rates. for you to tell us that "if we do not drop our rates we wont get any busines" is illegal and is considered extortion. does your boss know how you handled your business? don't worry i plan to have all my legal criteria in order.
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ReplyDeleteNow,now, the way I see it, I might not care for what is happening, but there is a recession out there and I somewhat understand the cutbacks,I think we deserve to know where the extra money is going to,I dropped my rates, lost all my evercare dialysis clients, had no evercare clients for almost 2 weeks, then I started to get evercare clients, majority is AMB, but hell, clients depends on us. We started with 35 drivers, 7 yrs ago, and now we have 4, and that includes myself and my boss, but before evercare and ohana came in, the recession was there. I might not like whats going on, but our clients come first,like I said, they depend on us, and I still have a job. They say *money is the root of all evil*, so true, look around .............
ReplyDeletehello
ReplyDeleteTMS and Logisticare are very fortunate to run a business with out no capital. These 2 brokers that came from hell, invaded my costly modified van and let me provide a very high cost insurance and just added these 2 brokers their names as an insured, what do you call this "corruption" NEMT tp wake up! we are being corrupted by these 2 brokers and they are laughing at us because they think that we are "STUPID" NO!NO! these 2 brokers are under estimating us,"WE" NEMT TP are alot smarter that them, that's why this website is formed for us to express our concern, NEMT TP cannot talked to these 2 brokers fairly "ONLY ONE SIDED" because you know why "THEY ARE WIMP" i CALLED THEM A WIMP BEACAUSE #1. THEY HAVE A ONE SIDED CONTRACT THAT'S ONLY FAVORS THEM.#2THEY USED MY VANS TO USE THEIR TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS HERE IN HAWAII.#3 THEY REQUIRED SUPER UNREACHABLE LIABILITY INSURANCE, COMMERCIAL AUTO INSURANCE, SEXUAL HARRASMENT ETC. LASTLY#4 AFTER YOU PROVIDE THESE 2 PROVIDERS WHAT THEY REQUIRRING,boom! THEY WANT OUR RATES TO LOWER AND LOWER.qUESTION FOR YOU tms AND lOGISTICARE "hOW LOW YOU WANT US TO LOWER OUR RATE?" wHY DON'T We switch position and I'll see if you can do it.By the way "KANNO" do you really check the definition of "GREED" in the dictionary? because I don't think you really know the difinition of it! After you reading everything I mentioned above^! do you still call us NEMT TP a "GREEDY". Now! tell me who is greedy now! Isnt that you and your company? why do you want the blogger to be exposed? hmmm,let me think.....oh! I know now! so,you can scare her or him to be out of the system forever yeah? oh! where are you getting this power?feeling good to have power now which is never have before?Anyway don't be jealouse what other's have! those Beamers,Mercedes,Lexus,porches that you saw in their drive way and beautiful houses,Did you ever asked youself "how they able to get those?" In your wildest dream you do't have no Idea, beacause you have not done it "working hard is the key" we worked very very hard to get all those.By the way do you know where Pay check coming from? from my NEMT business not Logisticare beacause logisticare itself and TMS itself that you guys are paying all you called "EMPLOYees" are all from NEMT budget.
ReplyDeletethanks for your comments jaylene and carlahawaii!
ReplyDeleteit looks like mark kanno has decided to delete his comments. thats ok, i made a copy of his comments.
ReplyDeletei had the oppportunity to speak with a human services lawyer today. he had a lot of great insight. more to come....
hello fellow transport,please if you had comments post them, everyone should know you have all the rights to voice out your concern.
ReplyDeleteto tms and logisticare,you might be figuring it out that we are so dumb,that we are not educated like you,you are wrong, we are educated,proffessional with manners, If ever older transport had done it should not be reflected to all of us, that is without your buss. we have our own court to see that if it is true or not.Can you not assest them, in the meetting alone you can judge them the way they ask questions, the owners are from retired honorable position ,some of them are quite, but look no matter what ,why do you scared each everyone you met,that if they don;t lower their rate, they will not have any buss. at all. Isn;t enough that you create grudge among nus transport in hi.? your staff assign one client in two transport, you cut the medicaid pay supposed to be for us, can you show a memo from the medicaid orderring you to do that, hm. I doubt, cause you are contracted by the evercare people who did not issue us even a revocation order of rate.Isn;t enough that , but to add more expenses added the the heavy req. you ask, your staff will fax cancellation tripple times in A IN ONE SINGLE PAPER AND ANOTHER ONE IN B, Do you know the cost of ink, an ink which will last only for a week? OU buss. we start is fresh and clean and we all follow what is required in this state, I doubt if your requirement was pass on to the Dept. of Security and Public Transportation, I doubt, According to the washington state commissionner of Public transport, your not supposed to impliment your Mainland rule, am I correct?What else you like, ah I had a copy of your comments, you sad you envy good cars and big houses that was posseed by some transport, are you not satisfied to carla;s statement?. are you there,I know already if transport give up this will be your chance to start your own transport, so that boom boom you will have your mansion,Do you want to invest your money in a buss. then you will have nothing at all??Uhmm I felt I was just an ordinary driver who pay for your insurance here in hawaii, am I right?Or is this why patient plan of care in their medical insurance cut because the budget was taken by the two greedy powerful agency? ya, ya, if you only heard patient saying "{ I work so hard now they even cut my doctors visit, who want to be sickly nobody")Dental also is not covered, now what are your moves, maybe you are now busy transacting to those transporter whom you can scared. Fellow transporter don;t be afraid now, now is the time to wake up, I hope the state government will look upon this and I hope also that this matter will be presented to our dear President whom i know He adored much in hawaii.
ReplyDeleteI believed that we should start coming out from that closet you are hidden fom fellow transporter, it's been too long that you have hidden there, this is the time for all of us to support "blogger" otherwise your business will be more in Jeopady because right now probably you are picking enough to survived but if you noticed that your pick up are getting lesser and lesser what are you waiting for fellow Transporter? Waiting for these 2 providers to swallow you allive? We NEMT shoul react now! for the following reasons:
ReplyDelete1. modify the contract into dual-contract, so both have rights for the benefits for the advantage.
2. to have rights to refused and accept what pick up appopriate for the vehicles you have and have the rights to refused to those I cannot give or provide the service that the customer desserve.
3. we should have 24 hours cancellation fee if customers don't cancell their appointment with in the 24 hours.
3. we should get paid one leg if we actually went there to pick up the client and no call no show. It just right to charged logistic and TMS for the expense:ie, gas,driver and wear and tear for the van.gas is not cheap and driver pay is 9-10 an hour is not free!.Logisticare and TMS just so easy for them to tell us (NEMT)the trip is cancelled and you can just leave, what about my gas, dver and wear and tear, oh my God they don't understand!.
4. Logisticare and TMS should pay NEMT for paper and ink for faxing double, triple or non-stop faxing the same customer information.
5.It is not right that TMS or Logisticare included them to be an additional insured to my insurance,why logisticare and TMS did not give me money to pay half of the insurance in order for them to add on. Logisticare and TMS buy your own insurance so that my insurance will be lower. Don't ride with me for free.
6.Why logistic and TMS that NEMT cannot talk to you both fairly and openly with out getting undue exercise of power. Threats or punish. where you Logisticare and TMS practice these proceddures I thought this is America land of "FREEDOM" or a FREE country. but how come "KANNO" you are not answering my questions and worries.TMS why you are inconsistent with your policy, " you said no patient choice" how you allowing now for patients choice,What is it for sure are yo a "YOYO" cannot make up your mind. What ever, but don't you worry you'll get straighen up your crooked policy and you too Logisticare.
4.logisticare and TMS should lower what
4.
2.
To all the NEMT Providers I know TMS and Logisticare especially Mark Kanno are trying their bestest now to fish in the sea to caught who started this and supporting this, but NEMT you are all alot smarter than these 2 brokers think to all of us, for our own advantages. Don't allow these 2 giant alligattors to manipullate, humilliate and most of all take advantage of you otherwise these 2 giants alligattors will swallow you allive including your mercedes,beamer, lexus and porches and beautiful houses don't be a lossers. Aloha and Mahalo to everyone.
ReplyDeletemahalo carlahawaii for your comments! you have some great insight! it is true that all providers should "come out" and speak there minds! there are things happening right now as we speak and all of you are not aware. i ask that you all be pro active as we try to move forward from tms, logisticare and DHS from taking advantage of us.
ReplyDeletethis is what m.kanno posted then deleted....
ReplyDeletemkanno said...
Many individuals will be losing their health benefits and moved into a plan called Basic Health Hawaii. Think about it... people are losing their health coverage because of the econmic challenges we are facing. The unemployement rate is not getting any better. A teacher friend of mine told me that every month she receives $500 less because of the furloughs. State and County workers have all taken pay cuts and many have been laid off. The private sector slashed jobs and salaries a long time ago. I myself was a casualty of the cutbacks and was laid off from the company I worked for. I had to lie awake at night and worry about my family, our home, our health insurance. My son was 10 months old when it happened. I am just thankful now to have job.
Do you seriously not see what is going on around you? There are many families out there struggling to survive and have it a lot worse than you do. Trust me, you are not alone in these tough times. I have been to many of your homes and after seeing the Mercedes, Lexus, Porsches, and Beemers in your driveways, I know that it will be a hard adjustment for you. After seeing many of your homes, I can tell you that 95% of you own homes that I can only dream of one day owning. It is sad to think that you are so blinded by your own greed that you have convinced yourself that we are not in troubled times. The path that the old program was on was not sustainable, especially in these economic conditions. I would double check your sources. If there is one thing that I have learned in this industry, it is not to trust anyone. If you want to know the truth, just turn on the news, pick up a newspaper, or visit the unemployment office.
By the way, in your first posting, you said you did not lower you rate. If you did not lower your rate then why do you care and why are you whining like an 8 year old schoolgirl?
June 19, 2010 3:15 PM
this what m.kanno posted and deleted as well....
ReplyDeletemkanno said...
I have taken pay cuts at other jobs and I know what it feels like. Does anyone actually get paid what they feel they deserve? I can actually honestly tell you, that if it came down to taking a paycut or losing my job, I would gladly take the paycut.
Yes, I openly say, if you didn't lower your rate, then why are you whining as if you did. You act as though you are trying to pitch in to help make this program better. Believe it or not, I try to pitch in for the program. Everyday I feel for all of you and have many times stood up for you and voiced my opinion to defend you. Why do you think I have not let in all the tranport companies knocking on my door offering $1 mile and saturate this market at rock bottom prices? It would easily drive many of you out of business and as a bonus I wouldn't have to deal with websites and comments such as these. However, I feel for all of you out there, yet at the same time need to balance what is in the best interest of the program and my company. In my own little way, I try to make this program better everyday whether that is cutting costs, building better relationships in my network, or servicing our members, I try to improve on what we have. I do the math, and I have done the math, and I know the numbers so you cannot stand there and tell me that I don't know what the numbers are.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions and you have made yours clear. I would like you to clarify "full price". I would like to do some research of my own. I am not saying you are right or you are wrong but "full price" seems very vague. If you are so confident in your findings, then why the anonymity? I have openly given my identity for all to see. It would be interesting to pass along to Evercare, Ohana, and DHS the name of the person leading the price fixing charge. If you are correct in your findings from DHS, they should back you up shouldn't they? Why would DHS care if you are trying to price fix the market if they are paying "full price" anyway?
June 19, 2010 11:31 PM
ladytransport...thank you for your comment. its great to see some of you participating!
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that should be said is the locations of the pickups. A lot of us live in Central Oahu, and I know there's a couple of providers that are on the Leeward side and downtown. TMS/Logisticare should know where our locations are, and should send the nearest provider to appropriate area, not sending a Waipahu-based provider to Hawaii Kai, or Kahuku. I don't know how they have it in their call center, but they should have a map of the island with the locations of the providers and at least a general idea of the towns and cities people live.
ReplyDeleteI admire your courage NEMT for coming out and speaking your mind, even though I don't really know your real identity, I wish everybody had your guts,you are so right about Kanno, that's exactly what he told me and I'm sure with the rest of the transportation providers, he's very intimidating and as a provider we felt like we don't have any choice but to follow whatever he was telling us to stay afloat, I don't feel he is concerned at all about us, he's obviously jealous about our success because of how he mentioned about luxury cars, big houses, that 's very unprofessional and I'm sure that's the reason why he deleted his comments, imagine his Boss from the mainland reading that, how about the Department of Human Services, QEXA/ Evercare/Ohana, that will be too embarassing for Logisticare to have a representative like kanno to represent them in Hawaii,he should be fired immediately.kanno obviously is power hungry, first time for him to have this kind of position, imagine he was put incharge of all successful transportation providers, he was amazed but more so very jealous on how we obtained our wealth.When NEMT's blog first came out one of us forwarded this blog to Kanno right away, i want to ask that provider, why? for what? then Kanno emailed everybody trying to find out who was the author of this blog,we all know why, he will use his power to cut you off, what's new? Kanno has been enjoying this power for a while now, it's about time for Logisticare to investigate on his activities, his one to one meeting with transportation owners, who is he favoring, what is he getting out of these transactions.....i encourage those providers to come out and reveal what transpired during your private meeting with him,anyway I want to commend you NEMT for starting this blog, wish to meet you soon and goodluck!
ReplyDelete"impulsive" thank you for your comments. its great to see that you are pro active!
ReplyDeleteto all the hawaii providers. i would like to know how many providers are behind organization and forming an association for all Hawaii NEMT providers. I have been speaking to other NEMT associations on the mainland and have been getting some great advice on putting this together, but before I proceed I need to know how many providers are actually interested in this?
I know that I am tired of the unfair business practices and harrassments. if we continue to let logisticare and tms have full control of our businesess we will see provider after provider slowly close there doors until only 1 or 2 major companies will be left. this is what they want!!
don't be fooled!....so, i ask you....are you interested in organizing? please reply!!
I am interested to form the real organization,let me know when.
ReplyDeleteseconds to minute and then hours to a day then weeks passed and here is the month,again and again DOc, statement is always happening do they really see this ? gasoline never go down, Please fellow transport ,do you feel and understand what is my point, when will they stop doing this, is there any fairness at all? Shall we just allow them to do what they want?
ReplyDeletewhy does logisticare constantly change there "routers"? it seems like they change them every other month!
ReplyDeleteso, it seems that not too many providers are interested in getting involved or they are just waiting on the side lines for someone else to lay it on the line. waiting for something to happen so they can reap the benefits. why is this?
there have been a few people with great feed back and a few interested in organizing....does anyone out there want to help? one can't do this alone....are you all content with how we are to run and get paid for our businesses?....step in, take the initiative!
I know I can feel your frustration for all these providers that un-cooperative. You exactly right they just waiting for something good to happened so they can get benifitted with out getting them involved but all they are doing is complaining on the back but they don't want to step in, they want only "some-one" will do the job for them because they don't want to put the initiative ever that's the problem.
ReplyDeleteof course these providers are not "HAPPY" of what is going on, but still they don't want to do anything period, for what reason their own personal benefit and they are scared to be out of the system and loss their job, so they only waiting for you to do the job alone,"NO COOPERATION".
ReplyDeleteSo what do we do? Just let the cards fall? See who survives? Can the providers on each island get together and have a meeting?
ReplyDeleteokay, when is the meeting, or you mean by group or by zipcode,. Hello fellow providers, tomorrow is another day, and we are entering another half of the year, this is too much,shall we inform the media since there was a column before that transport abused elderly ?news is only stating the past, not even a single word on the present status,Fellow transporter, can we please reunited again to build a stronger org. to meet the obstacle ?.
ReplyDeleteLadytransport, why don't you get some of the providers where you are together and have a meeting?
ReplyDeleteOne transport called me that there is a plan to have a meeting by friday, everybody invited, she said there will be a media, satelight, But she never mentioned the place.
ReplyDeletethat is great news! try and pass the word around! i will also pass it along as well!! keep us posted on the specifics!...thanks ladytransport!
ReplyDeleteladytransport....email me when you have time.
ReplyDeletenemtproviders@gmail.com
I think the meeting I heard was not done at all, do youknow whats the cause? I was not able to attend. I guess they are all busy having a bunch of client.
ReplyDeleteHello? it's now 2014! What happened???
ReplyDeleteAmera Solutions is looking for a W/C NEMT provider for Monday 11/23 on the Big Island. He is a retired Vet only 30min appt. We will pay well. Please call 281-872-6400 opt 4 ask for Maurice
ReplyDeleteAmera Solutions is looking for a W/C NEMT provider for Monday 11/23 on the Big Island. He is a retired Vet only 30min appt. We will pay well. Please call 281-872-6400 opt 4 ask for Maurice
ReplyDeleteAmera Solutions is looking for a W/C NEMT provider for Monday 11/23 on the Big Island. He is a retired Vet only 30min appt. We will pay well. Please call 281-872-6400 opt 4 ask for Maurice
ReplyDeleteDoes ModivCare (aka Logisticare) still offer low rates?
ReplyDelete