NORWICH – Having faced a tremendous fiscal loss this year due to statewide changes in transportation assistance for people on Medicaid, the First Transit bus company in Chenango County is slated to receive more than half a million dollars in state aid to help stop its financial bleeding.

Last week, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) issued a total $3 million to counties throughout the state that have been adversely impacted by changes to Medicaid transportation. Money is earmarked for transitional assistance for the local public transit system, which in Chenango County is the First Transit bus service company.

Of that $3 million, Chenango County received $565,424 – the second highest disbursement in the state.

“We lost a lot of money when things changed,” said a spokesperson for First Transit. “Money given (by the state) is an attempt on their part to give something to help us, but it really doesn’t come close to what we lost ... The money we’re getting has pretty much already been spent.”

He added that First Transit is still committed to staying in the area as long as possible.

Funding is a one-time allocation that comes from the state’s share of Medicaid expenses. The county can’t expect the same help in the future.

Financial troubles for First Transit trace back to structural changes made by the state DOH in 2010. At that time, social services law permitted DOH to assume administrative management of non-emergency transportation in New York State counties in an effort to reduce Medicaid costs and payments.

Since the state takeover of Medicaid transportation services, DOH has required that a private Medicaid brokerage system be implemented in each region of the state. This led to a contract between New York State and Medical Answering Services, a public transportation company based in Syracuse. That contract awarded Medical Answering Services the entire Central New York Region which encompasses 24 counties, including Chenango. It went into effect in October, 2013.

Because Medical Answering Services was awarded the contract, non emergency rides for Medicaid recipients that would have previously been assigned to First Transit were switched to taxi and ambulance providers, many of which are based in areas outside of Chenango County.

All this means First Transit, a private bus company, is no longer getting state reimbursement for transportation of people on Medicaid; and since a bulk of its ridership was Medicaid recipients, the company says changes have deeply cut into the company’s bottom line.

“We lost a lot of money when things changed,” said a spokesperson for First Transit. “Money given (by the state) is an attempt on their part to give something to help us, but it really doesn’t come close to what we lost ... The money we’re getting has pretty much already been spent.”