A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles blasts the way Atlanta-based LogistiCare handles medical transportation for millions of Medicaid patients in the nation’s most populous county.
News Story (California, Georgia)
Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC)
December 5, 2017
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Tags: Health Care, Medicaid
Organizations mentioned/involved: Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County (NLSLA)
DETAILS
The complaint describes sickly patients waiting for hours to be picked up for medical appointments. It says subcontracting van companies, which do the actual driving, do the work for cheap using inadequate vehicles. It cites a patient being injured because she wasn’t properly secured in a moving vehicle, and another injury from a wheelchair spill outside a patient’s home.
Meanwhile, the complaint says, health plans that contract with LogistiCare “look the other way.”
“The story with LogistiCare is consistent across the United States,” said attorney Toni Vargas, who is handling the lawsuit for Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, a public interest law firm. “Lateness. Injuries. Those are consistent in every single state. It’s a business model that’s flawed.”