Clearfield County Transportation: How CPCA Runs MATP and Buys Rides From Carriers

Clearfield County splits its rides between two organizations. Central Pennsylvania Community Action (CPCA), a nonprofit on East Cherry Street in Clearfield, runs the Medicaid ride program and pays carriers to drive it. The Area Transportation Authority of North Central Pennsylvania (ATA) runs the buses and the shared ride anyone can book. A ride company that wants Medicaid work around Clearfield, DuBois, Curwensville, and Houtzdale starts with CPCA.

Who runs Medicaid transportation in Clearfield County

The Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) is Pennsylvania’s free ride benefit for Medical Assistance members who have no other way to reach covered care, and outside Philadelphia each county picks how it is run. Licensing, clearances, and the statewide rules are in the Pennsylvania guide.

CPCA began on November 14, 1965 and incorporated on December 14, 1967 to serve low-income families in Centre and Clearfield counties. Besides MATP, it runs housing, weatherization, and food pantry programs from its main office at 207 East Cherry Street. Its MATP page describes the program as funded by the Department of Human Services (DHS) and administered by CPCA in Clearfield County, with “vendor transportation or mileage reimbursement” and the least expensive ride that meets each rider’s needs.

The state’s June 25, 2026 MATP broker study lists Clearfield as a county vendor county: one outside organization handles both the rides and the paperwork, and the county oversees it. In Clearfield that organization is CPCA, and CPCA in turn books the trips with carriers.

What the commissioners approve

The county holds the DHS grant and signs a subrecipient agreement with CPCA each year:

• August 26, 2025. The board approved the agreement with CPCA for MATP, noting the program would receive $1,886,120 for fiscal 2025-26 (July 2025 to June 2026).
• September 22, 2026. The agenda listed the next subrecipient agreement with CPCA to administer MATP.

The commissioners meet on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m., usually twice a month, and post agendas and minutes in the county’s online agenda center. Their office is at 212 East Locust Street, Suite 112, in Clearfield (814-765-2642).

How CPCA gives MATP rides

New riders enroll by calling 814-765-1551, extension 1197, which CPCA calls a secure line, with their name, phone number, date of birth, and Social Security number. After that, the state’s MATP contact list, updated June 18, 2026, gives Clearfield’s call center as weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and its ride hours as:

• Weekdays: 3 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Saturdays: dialysis only.
• Sundays: no rides.

So the only weekend MATP work in the county is Saturday dialysis, a run that repeats every week. See dialysis transportation for how those standing schedules work.

CPCA’s 2023 community needs assessment says that ATA and a private paratransit company “provide para-transit medical transportation services for our program,” and its 2025 impact snapshot names a private ride company among its key partners. For a ride company, that makes CPCA the office to approach for MATP work in the county.

How many trips that is

CPCA’s yearly reports show MATP trips falling from 60,010 in 2022 to 51,454 in 2025, still about a thousand a week:

Year	MATP trips	People served
2022	60,010	1,784
2023	58,433	1,769
2024	53,315	1,193
2025	51,454	1,443

The 2023 assessment also notes that 53.8% of Clearfield County’s people live in rural areas, against 21% statewide, so expect long drives between riders. Rural NEMT covers how to price and route them.

ATA’s part in Clearfield County

The commissioners of Cameron, Clearfield, Elk, Jefferson, McKean, and Potter counties incorporated ATA on May 19, 1976. PennDOT’s report for fiscal 2024-25 names it as Clearfield’s shared-ride agency and its rural bus operator. ATA’s own site says its MATP service is available only in Elk, Cameron, and McKean counties. In Clearfield it is the public transit system and, in CPCA’s 2023 assessment, one of the MATP carriers, not the MATP office.

ATA’s shared ride is open to anyone, and riders 65 and older pay a reduced fare when they book a day ahead. In Clearfield County, its countywide service runs weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and also on Saturdays. Local service in the Clearfield area runs weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Coalport and Kylertown have their own shorter hours. Across its six counties in fiscal 2024-25, PennDOT counted:

• 124,178 shared-ride trips, 47,011 of them for riders 65 and older
• 36 shared-ride vehicles in peak service
• an average cost of $47.46 per shared-ride trip, against an average fare of $5.58

The county’s payment to ATA is rising. At its December 2, 2025 budget discussion the board said its ATA allocation rose from $118,000 in 2025 to $215,000 in 2026, and on December 9, 2025 it set the local match at $215,499 (Resolution 2025-#10).

How a NEMT company can get Clearfield County work

1. Start with the PUC. Pennsylvania requires Public Utility Commission paratransit authority for every paid trip, and MATP adds child abuse, State Police, and FBI clearances for each driver. The Pennsylvania guide walks through both.
2. Call the MATP office. CPCA’s MATP Supervisor is at 814-765-1551, extension 1120. Ask how it chooses carriers, how it pays per trip, which hours and towns it is short on, and what insurance and vehicle records it wants. The subcontracting guide covers the terms to read before you sign.
3. Offer the hard hours. Rides start as early as 3 a.m., run until 8 p.m., and include Saturday dialysis, so say so if you have early drivers and Saturday coverage.
4. Check your price against ATA’s. Its $47.46 average cost per shared-ride trip in fiscal 2024-25 is a regional benchmark. Work out your own number with the cost per mile calculator before you quote.
5. Plan for slow state money. In fall 2025, during the state budget impasse, CPCA said it had received no state funds since July 2025. A carrier paid through a county program needs a cushion; see NEMT cash flow.
6. Talk to the health plans about stretcher work. MATP pays for no stretcher trips, so it refers those requests to the rider’s HealthChoices or Community HealthChoices plan. Clearfield sits in the Northwest zone, and UPMC for You is one of its four plans.

Next door, Centre County is its own MATP transportation provider, and Indiana County lets the state run MATP through a direct agreement with a transit agency. Cambria County and Blair County, like Clearfield, hand MATP to a vendor.