Fairfield County Job and Family Services Transportation: How The LINK Buys Medicaid Rides (2027)

Fairfield County Job and Family Services (FCJFS) in Lancaster no longer runs its own Medicaid rides. Since 2024 it has paid the county’s transit system, The LINK, to coordinate them, and The LINK passes the driving to private carriers it contracts with one year at a time. For a ride company, that makes the transit office on Lawrence Street the door to this work, not a JFS bid.

Who arranges Medicaid rides in Fairfield County

Ohio’s county JFS offices handle the Medicaid trips that no health plan has to give, under rule 5160-15-10. The Ohio guide covers the health plans and their brokers, and the county NET contracts guide shows how other counties buy these rides.

Here the FCJFS medical assistance page tells members to ask their managed care plan about rides first, or to call FCJFS Transportation at 740-652-7682. That is the same number The LINK lists for non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT), which it coordinates for eligible Medicaid recipients in the county. Riders apply by phone or with its online NEMT application.

The county moved this work in three steps:

1. JFS ran its own transportation. The county’s 2024 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing says FCJFS operated its own transportation department and also bought loop bus passes from the Lancaster transit system for clients.
2. The county took over transit. On June 25, 2024, the commissioners accepted Lancaster-Fairfield Public Transit from the City of Lancaster, effective July 1, 2024 (Resolution 2024-06.25.b). The same day they approved a JFS agreement with the transit system for July 2024 to June 2025 and let the county administrator sign the contracts needed to move JFS transportation to it (Resolution 2024-06.25.j).
3. The transit office became the coordinator. On September 23, 2025 (Resolution 2025-09.23.g), they approved the current FCJFS agreement with Fairfield County Transit, July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027. It states that the transit system will not provide any NEMT itself and that third-party designees will.

What FCJFS pays the transit office

The 2025 to 2027 agreement sets what FCJFS pays for each trip, and the carrier rates below mirror most of it:

• $30.00 a trip per person, wherever it starts and ends.
• An extra $10.07 a trip paid to the transit office, not the carrier, based on the Ohio Department of Transportation fully allocated cost and adjusted each quarter against actual costs.
• $5.50 a loaded mile, counted only outside Lancaster: billing starts when the vehicle leaves the city limits and stops when it comes back in.
• $25 an hour of waiting, after the first 10 minutes.
• On nine holidays, from New Year’s Day to Christmas Day, $60 a trip, $11.00 a mile, and $50 an hour of waiting.

FCJFS pays mileage only for the Medicaid-eligible rider, from origin to destination, not for miles added by other passengers. It may also pay for a scheduler’s time when that employee works only on FCJFS trips. FCJFS authorizes payment within 10 days of an accurate monthly invoice, and it will not pay anything invoiced after June 30, 2027.

Who drives the rides and what carriers earn

Fairfield County Transit holds a Provider Services Agreement with each carrier for one state fiscal year, and the commissioners approve and sign each one. The 2025-26 agreements were approved in March 2026, months into their term, and the 2026-27 set on June 30, 2026, the day before it began.

Each agreement caps the year’s pay, and the county opens a purchase order against it:

Carrier	Based in	Cap, July 2025 to June 2026	Purchase order, June 2026
Fairfield Center for disAbilities and Cerebral Palsy	Lancaster	$770,000	$660,000
Creative Coach Company	Lancaster	$730,000	$270,000
Carealot	McArthur, Vinton County	$440,000	$160,000

The 2026-27 agreements with the Center for disAbilities and Carealot keep the same caps, $770,000 and $440,000. The June 2026 purchase orders run until December 15, 2026.

Carriers earn the same base rates FCJFS pays: $30.00 a trip, $5.50 a loaded mile outside Lancaster, and $25 an hour of waiting after 10 minutes, counted in 15-minute steps, with higher pay on the nine holidays. A trip that stays inside Lancaster pays $30. A trip with 20 loaded miles past the city limits pays $30 plus $110, or $140. One escort or attendant rides free, and you may not charge the rider anything.

You invoice the transit office by the 7th of the next month, and it authorizes payment within 30 days of an accurate invoice. A trip on the first of a month can wait about two months for its money, and the agreements add that the transit office does not control when FCJFS pays it. Plan your cash flow around that wait.

What a carrier agreement requires

The 2026-27 agreements set these rules:

• Trips. The transit office assigns trips and promises no minimum. It picks carriers on the quality and availability of their service, its trips get equal priority with your other work, and it may assess damages for trips you accept but do not complete.
• Operations. Keep a backup plan for every accepted trip, answer the scheduling line during business hours, return voicemails within 24 hours, and call the transit office if a rider will be 15 minutes or more late for a medical appointment.
• No subcontracting. You may not pass these trips to another company or assign the agreement.
• Drivers. No driver or attendant may have any felony conviction, or an OVI, reckless, or careless driving offense in the last five years. Each needs a BCI check, a driving record updated yearly, and training in defensive driving, helping riders with disabilities, emergencies, wheelchair tie-down, and CPR and first aid.
• Vehicles. Vehicles that carry mobility devices must meet Federal Transit Administration rules for lifts, ramps, and securement, and every vehicle must meet the transit office’s vehicle compliance form.
• Insurance. Fleet liability of at least $1 million per occurrence and $1 million per person, Ohio workers’ compensation, 30 days’ notice before any cancellation, proof within two business days of a request, and a report within 24 hours of any accident with a contracted rider.
• Records and exit. Keep trip logs with rider signatures for three years after the agreement ends. Either side may end the agreement on 30 days’ written notice.

How to get Fairfield County NEMT work

1. Call the transit office. Ask Fairfield County Transit at 740-681-5086 how it adds carriers. The routing forms filed with the 2026-27 agreements mark them as not subject to the county’s bid and RFP rules, so do not wait for a bid notice.
2. Time it for spring. Terms run July 1 to June 30, so talk with the office in early 2027 about the term starting July 1, 2027.
3. A Lancaster office is optional. The agreements set no local office rule, and Carealot’s address is in McArthur, in Vinton County.
4. Build the file first. Have your insurance certificate, BCI results, driving records, training records, and a vehicle list ready to send.
5. Watch the transit study. On June 30, 2026 the commissioners approved a seven-month study of demand-response and fixed-route service, including a fare study, for up to $116,904. Its recommendations could change how demand-response rides run.
6. Take other trips meanwhile. Health plan rides go through the brokers in the Ohio guide, and Franklin County next door pays its 29 contract companies by the mile (as of March 2026). Because these agreements bar subcontracting, NEMT subcontractor work has to come from other contracts.