Allegheny County MATP: Who Runs Medicaid Rides and How Transportation Companies Get the Work

In Allegheny County, the county’s Department of Human Services decides who rides with MATP and how, and the rides themselves go to other hands. Door-to-door trips run on ACCESS, the shared-ride system Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) sponsors, and Travelers Aid of Pittsburgh handles bus tickets and a ride-hailing option. For a transportation company, the work sits with ACCESS and its four carriers.

Who runs MATP in Allegheny County

Pennsylvania pays for Medicaid rides through MATP, which counties, their vendors, or transit agencies run everywhere except Philadelphia, where a broker does. The Pennsylvania guide covers the state rules and the PUC authority every paid trip needs.

Here, MATP belongs to the Department of Human Services, Office of Behavioral Health, on the first floor of the Human Services Building at One Smithfield Street, Pittsburgh 15222. Its phones answer on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 412-350-4476 or 1-888-547-6287, according to the state’s county contact list updated June 18, 2026. Walk-ins are taken from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The state’s June 25, 2026 MATP study puts Allegheny among seven “county hybrid” programs, where county staff share the work with a vendor, usually a transit provider. In practice the split looks like this:

Step	Who does it
Application and eligibility	County MATP office. Riders return the signed forms within 30 days.
Choosing the travel mode	County MATP office, which must pick the least costly mode that fits
Bus, T, and incline tickets	Travelers Aid of Pittsburgh, by mail
Mileage, parking, and tolls	County MATP office, paid after proof of the visit
Door-to-door shared rides	ACCESS, through its four carriers
Ride-hailing for approved riders	Travelers Aid, weekdays only

The same study names Allegheny and Philadelphia as the two counties that schedule shared rides on their own systems rather than the statewide shared-ride scheduling software. Allegheny sits in the Southwest HealthChoices zone, where the physical health plans as of September 2026 are AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania, Geisinger Health Plan, Jefferson Health Plans EverWell, Highmark Wholecare, and UPMC for You.

ACCESS and its four carriers

ACCESS has given door-to-door, advance reservation rides in Allegheny County since 1979, and PRT describes it as among the largest coordinated systems in the country. PRT’s fiscal 2026 budget says the management firm Transdev operates ACCESS on PRT’s behalf, books it as purchased transportation, and names who drives: commercial carriers and nonprofit community agencies under contract to Transdev. The ACCESS program office is at 650 Smithfield Street, Suite 440, Pittsburgh, and answers at 412-562-5353 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The county’s rider booklet names the four carriers that drive MATP trips. Each serves specific areas of the county, and riders are told which one is theirs.

ACCESS carrier	Phone in the county booklet
AirStar	412-381-7230
PRN	1-888-634-8773
NAMS	412-781-6774
S&S	412-829-7627

How big the ACCESS work is

PennDOT’s report for fiscal 2024-25 (July 2024 to June 2025) counts ACCESS trips by program:

ACCESS shared-ride trips	Fiscal 2024-25
Seniors 65 and older	430,699
ADA complementary paratransit	179,015
MATP	161,528
Other shared ride	72,762
Persons with disabilities	23,193
Total	867,197

That makes MATP about one in five ACCESS trips. The same report puts the average ACCESS shared-ride cost at $45.32 a trip and the average fare at $25.15, with 201 vehicles in peak service. PRT spent $30.9 million on ACCESS in fiscal 2025 and budgeted $31.7 million for fiscal 2026. Those are system averages, not what any one carrier is paid.

The trip rules ACCESS carriers follow for MATP

The county booklet, current as of June 2026, sets the rules riders are told to expect, so they are the rules a carrier’s drivers work to:

• Hours. ACCESS carries MATP riders from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., seven days a week, all year, holidays included.
• Pickup window. A DHS waiver lets the vehicle arrive up to 10 minutes before or 20 minutes after the scheduled time, and it waits only five minutes. That replaces the statewide pickup window of 15 minutes either side.
• Vehicles. The ride may come in a van, a wheelchair lift vehicle, or a sedan, always marked with the carrier’s logo.
• Help at the door. Drivers help riders up or down no more than four steps, and they do not shovel snow or chip ice.
• Who rides. Only riders and escorts MATP has authorized. Escorts are 18 or older, ride free, and are booked with the trip. Children under 4 ride in a car seat and children 4 to 8 in a booster seat, both supplied by the parent, who rides along.

Booking runs through the county, not the carrier. Riders call MATP up to two weeks ahead and at least two weekdays before, by 4:00 p.m.: Monday, Saturday, and Sunday trips by Thursday, Tuesday trips by Friday, and so on. Next-day trips are taken case by case before 3:00 p.m. the prior weekday.

Return trips work differently. A rider whose appointment starts before 2:30 p.m. may use a will-call return, calling the carrier directly before 5:00 p.m. once ready. Later appointments need a return time set in advance. The driver may arrive within 5 to 45 minutes of the call. Riders cancel with the carrier at least one hour before pickup.

Where Travelers Aid and ride-hailing fit

Travelers Aid of Pittsburgh, at 343 Boulevard of the Allies, mails bus, T, and incline tickets to riders who call 412-281-5474 at least a week ahead. The rider’s provider signs a Verification of Billable Services form, which must come back within 10 days, or future tickets stop after three misses.

Travelers Aid also books MATP ride-hailing, at 412-436-9621, for riders MATP refers and Travelers Aid approves. Cars come from two ride-hailing companies and a taxi company, on weekdays only, with pickups from 8:45 a.m. and return calls by 4:00 p.m. The drivers give no help, and the service skips pharmacy trips. Riders who need help from the driver, a wheelchair lift, or a weekend ride must use another MATP service, which for door-to-door trips means ACCESS.

How a transportation company gets MATP work in Allegheny County

1. Get PUC authority first. Every ACCESS trip is a paid ride that starts and ends in Pennsylvania, so you need Public Utility Commission paratransit authority. The state guide walks through it.
2. Call the ACCESS program office. Carriers contract with Transdev, so ask at 412-562-5353 how carriers are chosen, which service areas are short of vehicles, and when carrier agreements come up again.
3. Call the four carriers. Ask each whether it uses subcontractors or leases work to smaller companies, and what it requires. Our guide to subcontracting NEMT trips covers what to get in writing.
4. Watch both bid pages. PRT posts its bids and requests for proposals online. The county DHS posts its own solicitations and runs a mailing list. As of September 30, 2026, none of its open solicitations were for transportation.
5. Chase the rides MATP does not carry. Stretcher and ambulance trips go to the rider’s health plan, not MATP. The plan guides for UPMC for You and Highmark Wholecare cover that work.

ACCESS also carries more senior and ADA trips than MATP trips, so a seat inside ACCESS brings more than Medicaid rides. See paratransit for how those programs differ. Neighboring counties buy rides their own way: Butler County works through a nonprofit that runs its shared ride, and Washington County through Freedom Transit and its contractors.