(Spirit Lake)– A representative of an agency that provides transportation services to a good deal of northwest Iowa says they will soon be facing some difficult decisions. Cindy Vos of RIDES gave an annual update at this (Tues.) morning’s Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting…
“I’ll be very honest with you, we are looking at operating in a deficit year moving forward, and we are in all of our counties, not just Dickinson, but we are in all of our counties. So we’re looking at how do we continue to provide the best service within the funds that we’re granted.”
Vos says several factors have led up to the difficulties, including covid, reductions in state and federal funding, and more notably, according to Vos, is a transition to a state brokered system for those with disabilities, making them no longer able to choose their own source of transportation…
“What used to be our Medicaid funding which was a very large piece of what we did has all but dried up for us. I would say on average prior to all this we would do 10 to 12 and sometimes as much as 15 special trips a day. If we have five a week now we’re lucky. That’s how drastic the change has become.”
Vos says they will soon start the agonizing process of trying to determine which services could be reduced or eliminated…
“It’s really just going to be a matter of, you know, where are we going to bleed the least, how do we save the most, and still provide the best service. There will be a little bit of everything. A little bit of how busy are we already in that area. Can we condense, can we combine, can we drop down to three days a week? All of those things are right now on the white board being discussed.”
Vos adds there’s one thing in particular that concerns them when it comes to the situation…
“What I find the most frustrating about that is most of the individuals that will be impacted have not had or have had the ability to have a say in what’s happened.”
Vos added that any reduction in transportation services for dialysis patients would be the very last thing RIDES would consider.
