Lorain County NET Transportation: The Ride Contracts, Bid Prices, and Next Bid (2027)

Lorain County Job and Family Services (LCDJFS), in Elyria, buys NET rides from a small group of companies it picks by sealed bid. Each company signs a purchase of service agreement with a yearly dollar cap, and the Board of Commissioners approves every agreement and extension in a public meeting. The work runs on the federal fiscal year, October 1 to September 30.

How NET rides work in Lorain County

Every Ohio county job and family services office runs a NET program under rule 5160-15-10, for Medicaid rides a health plan does not have to give. The Ohio guide covers the plan side, and county NET contracts in Ohio compares how other counties buy rides.

In Lorain County, the LCDJFS Transportation Coordinator, at 844-640-6446, checks that a rider is on Medicaid and opens a NET case with one contracted company. The rider then calls that company to book. As of October 2, 2026, the county’s rules are:

• 48 hours’ notice for every ride, with no limit on how many rides a rider takes.
• Plan members last. A member of a Medicaid health plan qualifies only after the plan’s ride benefit is used up.
• Medicaid appointments only.
• Trips out of the county only when the facility takes Medicaid and the doctor or facility states in writing that the care is not available in Lorain County.

The Ohio Auditor of State’s June 2025 audit of Summit County’s program, which used Lorain as a peer, found that Lorain re-checks NET eligibility every three months in batches and has one staff position dedicated to NET.

The department’s transportation page still names LifeCare Ambulance Services, Provide a Ride, and Lorain County Transit as the companies it opens cases with. The commissioners’ agreements below are the current list. Provide A Ride is also the broker for CareSource’s Ohio Medicaid rides.

Who holds the contracts

On October 24, 2025, the commissioners adopted four purchase of service agreements for NET, each running October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026:

• Americab Transportation, Inc., Cleveland. Up to $750,000 (Resolution 25-710).
• Rakesh Ranjan MD and Associates, Inc., doing business as Charak Center for Health and Wellness, Garfield Heights. Up to $450,000 (Resolution 25-711).
• Lorain County Transit, Elyria. Up to $450,000 (Resolution 25-712).
• D & D Rides, LLC, Berlin Heights. Up to $250,000 (Resolution 25-713).

At that meeting, the LCDJFS director told the board that the program gave about 35,000 trips to 800 Medicaid residents in the past year, about 100 rides a day across the four companies. A commissioner asked whether the work went out to bid, since several of the companies are from other counties while LifeCare and other agencies are local, and the director said it had. Americab also holds Cuyahoga County’s NET contract.

The board then extended three agreements to September 30, 2027 at the same caps: Americab and Charak on August 25, 2026 (Resolutions 26-474 and 26-475), and Lorain County Transit on September 11, 2026 (Resolution 26-514). The board’s agendas from January through September 29, 2026 carry no extension for D & D Rides. The 2025 agreements were approved on October 24, retroactive to October 1, so a late extension is still possible. At the September vote, the director reported that Lorain County Transit gave 8,500 trips to nearly 200 people in the past year. The interim county administrator said the transit agency hopes to try a pilot next year as a broker for LCDJFS, the way Muskingum County’s transit works with its JFS.

The pattern goes back at least to 2023. The board approved agreements with Lorain County Transit, Charak, and Americab at $450,000 each on November 3, 2023, raised Americab’s cap to $750,000 on June 21, 2024 (Resolution 24-409), and carried extensions of all three to September 30, 2025 on its September 13, 2024 agenda.

What the bids paid

Each company bids its own prices: a charge to start a trip, a rate per mile, a charge for each extra rider, and a no-show fee. D & D Rides bid the lowest start charge in 2025, and Lorain County Transit the highest.

Bidder	September 2023 bid	September 2025 bid
Lorain County Transit	$20.57 a trip, $2.321 a mile, $12.00 no-show	$21.80 a trip, $2.46 a mile, $16.00 no-show
Americab Transportation	$20.81 a trip, $2.00 a mile, $12.96 no-show	$21.00 a trip with the first mile, $2.20 a mile, $13.00 no-show
Charak Center	$19.25 a trip, $1.95 a mile, $12.00 no-show	$21.52 a trip, $2.33 a mile, $13.00 no-show
D & D Rides	No bid	$12.50 a trip, $2.25 a mile, no no-show fee

Extra riders who are not personal care attendants cost $5.03 to $12.50 each in the 2025 bids, and nothing at Lorain County Transit. At those prices, a 10-mile ride pays $35.00 at D & D Rides’ bid and $46.40 at Lorain County Transit’s. The county pays no more than your charge to the general public, so the 2023 packet asked each bidder for its public rate sheet. Check your own costs with the cost per trip guide, and see billing for no-shows.

How LCDJFS scores a bid

A review committee of LCDJFS employees scores each bid, and the agreements go to the lowest and best bidders. Under the 2023 packet, the county weighs four factors in this order:

1. Ability to do the work. Your qualifications and capacity come first, ahead of price.
2. Price. Your start charge, mileage rate, extra rider charge, and no-show fee.
3. Past performance. The packet asks for three current customers in the area, with a contact name and phone for each.
4. Responsiveness. How fully your bid answers the request. The packet asks you to answer every numbered item and mark any that do not apply N/A.

The questions cover your hours, fleet, insurance, driver training, how you schedule and verify trips, how you measure mileage and build monthly reports, how you talk with drivers, and how you meet the rule 5160-15-14 driver checks. LCDJFS may award one company or several, and the number of riders each company gets depends on how many win.

What the county asks of a ride company

The 2023 bid packet is the latest one the county posts, and its terms covered the 2023 agreements and their extension to September 2025. Read the newest packet before you bid, since terms can change.

Service rules

• Door-to-door rides for ambulatory riders, from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., every day of the year, in every ZIP code in the county. The driver helps with walkers and wheelchairs but is not required to lift the rider.
• Rides stay in Lorain County unless the care is not there, with some trips to Erie, Cuyahoga, Medina, Ashland, or Huron counties.
• No rider arrives more than 30 minutes early, waits more than 45 minutes after asking for a return ride, or rides more than one hour inside the county.
• Before logging a no-show at a home, the driver honks, calls, knocks, and waits 15 minutes. A no-show fee applies to the pickup trip only and cancels the return. Three no-shows in a row go to LCDJFS.
• You answer ride requests by phone 24 hours a day and keep a toll-free number.

Vehicles and drivers

Every vehicle should be able to carry a non-motorized wheelchair. Each must show your name and logo in large letters on both sides with its own unit number, and carry a two-way radio on a dedicated frequency. A cell phone without a two-way radio feature does not count. Drivers wear a photo ID, hold an Ohio license, have no conviction listed in rule 5101:2-5-09, and train in vehicle evacuation. Children under 8 and under 4 feet 9 inches ride in car seats. LCDJFS may inspect any vehicle without notice. Private companies also pass the state’s vendor checks under rule 5160-15-14.

Insurance and billing

The 2023 terms call for professional and general liability of $1,000,000 per claim and $2,000,000 in the annual aggregate, auto liability of $1,000,000 per accident, and workers’ compensation, with LCDJFS and the commissioners as additional insureds. Invoices are due by the 10th for the month before, with a trip sheet the rider signs for every trip, mapped mileage, and a monthly roster. LCDJFS pays within 60 days, pays nothing for services invoiced more than 60 days after the service month, and never pays past your cap unless the agreement is amended.

How to get Lorain County NET work

1. Get bid alerts. Sign up on the county’s Bid Postings page. The 2025 notice ran in The Morning Journal on August 27 and September 3, two weeks before bids were due.
2. Get the packet early. In 2025, packets came from the county Fiscal Department, 226 Middle Avenue, Elyria, by pickup, email request, or mail request. Written questions went to the LCDJFS Fiscal Supervisor at least four days before the opening.
3. File the forms. The 2023 packet listed a W-9, a notarized affidavit covering non-collusion, anti-discrimination, and personal property and real estate taxes, a safety policy statement, and a notarized affidavit under section 3517.13 of the Revised Code. It wanted a typed original and four copies. The 2025 bid tab checked the same affidavits and safety policy.
4. Line up references now. Three current customers in the area count toward your score, so build those accounts before the next bid.
5. Subcontract in the meantime. The 2023 terms let a contract holder subcontract if it sends LCDJFS a copy within 10 days, and you follow the same terms. See running trips as a subcontractor.
6. Protest in time. Under the 2023 terms, LCDJFS considers a written protest received within five business days of the letter rejecting your bid.

Plan members’ rides go through the plan brokers named in the Ohio guide, and members outside a plan who need a wheelchair van may call an enrolled wheelchair van company, which bills Medicaid directly. Neither goes through this county program.