Blair County MATP: How Blair Senior Services Runs Medicaid Rides and Where Ride Companies Fit

In Blair County, one agency handles Medicaid rides from the rider’s first call to the van ride. Blair Senior Services, the county’s Area Agency on Aging, registers riders, books their trips, and drives in-county van rides in its own lift vans from a transportation office on Loop Road in Hollidaysburg. A ride company that wants work around Altoona, Hollidaysburg, and Tyrone deals with that agency and with the county commissioners who fund it.

Who runs MATP in Blair County

The Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) pays for rides to Medical Assistance services for members with no other way to get there. Most counties run it themselves or through a vendor, while the state contracts directly with transit agencies in 13 counties and uses a broker in Philadelphia; the Pennsylvania guide covers the statewide rules, Public Utility Commission licensing, and driver clearances.

Blair Senior Services, Inc. is a private nonprofit that the Blair County commissioners set up in 1974 as the county’s Area Agency on Aging, rather than keeping aging services inside county government. It began its shared-ride vans in 1975 with two vehicles, and it has operated the county’s MATP since 1984. The state’s June 25, 2026 broker study lists Blair as a county vendor county, where a vendor runs both the rides and the paperwork while the county oversees it.

The county holds the Department of Human Services (DHS) grant and signs a new MATP contract with the agency each year. Recent MATP items before the Board of Commissioners:

Date	Action
July 17, 2025	Approved the MATP participation grant agreement with the Commonwealth for July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 (Resolution 349-2025)
September 25, 2025	Accepted an initial 2025-26 allocation of $2,199,966 and approved the MATP contract with Blair Senior Services for July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 (Resolutions 456-2025 and 457-2025)
February 26, 2026 agenda	The final 2024-25 allocation of $1,973,865
July 30 and August 6, 2026 agendas	The 2026-27 MATP agreement between the county and Blair Senior Services
August 20, 2026 agenda	The participation grant agreement for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027
October 1, 2026 agenda	A 2026-27 MATP allocation of $2,174,635

The board usually meets Thursdays at 10 a.m. Its office is in the Blair County Courthouse, 423 Allegheny Street, Suite 441A, Hollidaysburg (814-693-3030), and agendas go up on the county website before each meeting.

How Blair Senior Services gives MATP rides

The agency’s MATP guidelines, revised in September 2021, require the least costly ride that meets each rider’s needs. They offer four ways to get there:

• Van rides in the county, shared with other riders and booked 1 to 14 days ahead.
• AMTRAN bus tickets, required when a rider is able and both home and destination are within a quarter mile of a stop. The next tickets wait until the rider returns proof the appointments were kept.
• Mileage payments for riders who drive or get a ride, requested before the trip, plus receipted parking and tolls.
• Out-of-county trips by bus, train, or private van service. These need written notice of the appointment and a referral from a Blair County physician or primary care provider, and requests the agency cannot fill go to the County Assistance Office.

The guidelines exclude stretcher, door-through-door, and attendant-required trips, and the drivers work to the agency’s April 2024 service guide:

• Book by 2 p.m. one business day ahead, up to two weeks out. No same-day trips.
• A driver knocks, waits up to five minutes, then may mark a no-show.
• Service is door-to-door: drivers walk riders between doors but never go inside.
• Every van has a lift rated for 850 pounds of rider and device together, for devices up to 30 by 48 inches.
• Automated calls remind riders the evening before and again when the van is 15 minutes away.

The state’s MATP contact list, updated June 18, 2026, gives Blair’s call center as weekdays 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and its ride hours as weekdays 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Saturday rides for dialysis only.

PennDOT’s report for fiscal year 2024-25 (July 2024 to June 2025) shows the van service in a county of 525 square miles and 122,822 people (2020 Census):

Blair Senior Services shared ride, fiscal 2024-25	Figure
Trips for riders 65 and older	41,179
MATP trips	28,459
Other shared-ride trips	10,793
Persons with disabilities program	716
All shared-ride trips	81,147
Vehicles in peak service	24
Average cost per trip	$31.91
Average fare per trip	$20.43

The agency also drives ADA paratransit for AMTRAN, Altoona’s bus system, for riders within three quarters of a mile of a route. Its financial report for fiscal 2023-24 says daily van trips fell from 450 to 345 since the COVID-19 pandemic, and that transportation costs exceeded revenue for the fourth year in a row.

Where Blair’s MATP money goes

The agency’s audited statements for the year ended June 30, 2024 break down that year’s MATP block grant:

MATP, fiscal 2023-24	Amount
Block grant	$1,966,178
Paratransit rides	$1,541,501
Administration	$353,680
Reimbursements	$47,286
Senior shared ride	$15,908
Mass transit	$7,803

The same audit credits the agency’s own van department with $616,153 of MATP revenue that year. Its guidelines name taxis and private van services as other ways it carries riders. Ask the MATP coordinator how much of the paratransit budget goes to outside carriers, for which trips, and at what rate.

How a NEMT company can get Blair County work

1. Get your authority first. No paid ride may run before your Public Utility Commission paratransit certificate is issued, and every driver needs the three MATP clearances. The Pennsylvania guide lists the steps and fees.
2. Call the Transportation Office. Ask at 814-695-3500 whether it buys trips from private carriers and what it requires of them. Its own rules leave these trips open:
   • Appointments outside the county, which its guidelines already send to bus, train, or private van service. See long-distance medical transport.
   • Saturdays beyond dialysis, Sundays, and rides after 6 p.m. See dialysis transportation.
   • Wheelchairs over the 850-pound or 30 by 48 inch lift limit. See bariatric transportation.
3. Follow the courthouse. The county’s MATP contract with the agency runs July to June, and it came up in September 2025 and in July and August 2026. Watch the agendas for the next one.
4. Serve the trips MATP leaves out. Stretcher rides go to the rider’s HealthChoices plan. Blair is in the Southwest zone, where UPMC for You coordinates medically necessary wheelchair van and ambulance trips through UPMC Medical Transportation at 1-877-521-7433, and Highmark Wholecare is one of the other plans.
5. Price against the local figure. The agency averaged $31.91 per shared-ride trip across all programs in 2024-25. Work out your own cost with the cost per mile calculator before you quote.

Blair Senior Services is also the county’s aging agency, offering 28 programs directly or through subcontractors. Its shared ride takes riders 65 and older anywhere in the county for any purpose, with the Pennsylvania Lottery paying 85% of the fare. See Area Agency on Aging transportation for how that money buys rides.

Next door, Cambria County runs MATP through CamTran, whose April 2025 booklet lets Cambria riders travel to Blair appointments any weekday. Huntingdon, Bedford, Centre, and Clearfield counties also border Blair.