Lawrence County, Pennsylvania MATP: LCCAP Assigns the Rides and ACTS Shared Ride Drives Them

Lawrence County keeps its Medicaid rides inside one family of nonprofits. Lawrence County Social Services, Inc. administers the Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) under contract with the county, and its sister agency, Allied Coordinated Transportation Services (ACTS), drives the door to door trips from its office on North Mercer Street in New Castle. Both belong to the Lawrence County Community Action Partnership (LCCAP). A ride company that wants this work deals with LCCAP.

Who runs MATP in Lawrence County

Pennsylvania pays for MATP through each county, and only Philadelphia uses a broker. The Pennsylvania guide covers Public Utility Commission (PUC) authority, insurance, and how county subcontracts pay.

The state’s June 25, 2026 broker study lists Lawrence as a “county vendor” program. LCCAP describes itself as three corporations joined in one partnership: Lawrence County Social Services, Inc., ACTS, and United Community Services of Lawrence County. It employs about 280 people and runs programs in 27 counties.

The 2026-27 vendor agreement

On June 2, 2026, the commissioners voted 3-0 to approve a vendor services agreement with Lawrence County Social Services for MATP from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. The county had approved the same vendor for 2025-26 on July 8, 2025. The agreement spells out the vendor’s job:

• Riders. Outreach, enrollment, and eligibility decisions.
• A carrier network. Building a transportation network to broker trips to providers, and matching each rider to a provider and mode.
• Checks. Verifying trips before and after they happen, and monitoring each provider’s contract.
• Other modes. Paying private mileage and issuing fixed route bus tickets.
• Reports. A monthly invoice by mode, and a monthly trip file uploaded to the state’s PROMISe system with each trip’s date, mode, no-show status, and escort.

The county pays a monthly fee for service from the state grant, plus a thirteenth invoice at year end, once DHS approves it, for costs the monthly payments did not cover. For MATP riders 65 and older who ride ACTS, MATP pays 15% of the shared ride fare and the PennDOT Lottery program pays the rest. The vendor keeps fiscal, rider, and trip records for at least four years.

Which ride a rider gets

LCCAP must assign the least costly mode that fits:

1. Mileage repayment at $0.25 per mile, plus parking and tolls, for riders with a car or a driver.
2. Free bus tickets on the New Castle Area Transit Authority (NCATA) routes, for riders who live near a route and are going to a medical stop along it.
3. An ACTS ride, for riders with a disability or trips the buses do not serve.

ACTS, the shared ride MATP riders use

ACTS was incorporated on December 31, 1985 and brought its operations in house on April 1, 2000. PennDOT’s fiscal 2024-25 profile (July 2024 to June 2025) shows its size:

ACTS shared ride	Fiscal 2024-25
MATP	33,787 trips
Riders 65 and older	26,027 trips
Other shared ride	23,356 trips
Persons with disabilities	3,945 trips
Total shared-ride trips	87,115
Vehicles in peak service	24
Average cost per trip	$28.36
Average fare	$16.85

MATP is about 39% of the total, its largest single program. ACTS’s own 2024-25 annual report counts 30 accessible small buses, about 450 trips a day, and 97.36% of appointment trips on time. It added 7 vehicles in November 2024, including a Ford Transit van that seats 8 with room for 2 mobility devices, next to larger buses holding 14 to 16 riders. About 40 people work there, including 27 drivers. Full-time drivers need a commercial driver’s license with a passenger endorsement, and part-time drivers, up to 35 hours a week, do not.

Out-of-county trips rose from 4,547 in fiscal 2023-24 to 5,487 in fiscal 2024-25. Beaver County, including Ellwood City, led with 2,720 trips, followed by Mercer (1,216), Butler (868), Allegheny (683), and Venango (22).

Ride rules ACTS riders expect

• Booking. By 2 p.m. the business day before, Friday for Monday, up to two weeks ahead. Out-of-county trips need three business days, and ACTS can cancel one up to 24 hours before the appointment if fewer than two riders are headed to that county.
• Pickup window. Thirty minutes. Appointment pickups run 15 minutes either side of the estimate, returns from the requested time to 30 minutes after, and the driver waits 5 minutes. See pickup windows.
• Same day. ACTS has taken part in PennDOT’s same-day pilot since July 1, 2022, and same-day trips rose 42% in fiscal 2024-25, to 688.
• No-shows. Cancel at least two hours ahead. A third no-show within 30 days can bring a 5-day suspension, and a fourth a 10-day one.
• Help limits. Drivers push manual wheelchairs only when chair and rider weigh under 400 pounds together, never over stairs or thresholds above 3 inches. ACTS does not carry stretcher riders or give door-through-door help.
• Saturdays and holidays. Saturday service covers only New Castle and its nearby areas. ACTS closes Sundays and on New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.
• Dialysis. Riders can be picked up early enough to reach a 5 a.m. weekday chair, or 6 a.m. on Saturdays.

ACTS full fares run from $13.25 under 2 miles to $50 for 30 miles or more. Its September 14, 2026 notice asks PennDOT to raise passenger fares by about 25% from January 1, 2027, the first rise since January 1, 2019. The proposed table keeps the no-fare category at $0.

How a transportation company gets Lawrence County work

1. Get your PUC authority. Every paid ride needs it. The state guide walks through the application and the $350 fee.
2. Call the MATP office. The vendor agreement puts provider networks and provider contracts in the hands of Lawrence County Social Services. Ask at 724-658-7258, option 4, how it adds a carrier, what it pays, and which trips go unfilled.
3. Watch for solicitations. LCCAP posts its requests for proposals online, and the commissioners approved the MATP agreement in July 2025 and again in June 2026.
4. Fill the hours ACTS is closed. Sundays, the seven holidays, weekday trips before 5 a.m. or after 7 p.m., and Saturday trips outside New Castle all fall outside ACTS service. Hospital discharges on those days are one example.
5. Take what ACTS turns away. Stretcher trips are outside MATP, so they go to the rider’s HealthChoices plan, such as UPMC for You. Out-of-county trips that ACTS cancels for lack of a second rider are another.

Neighboring counties run MATP differently. In Mercer County to the north, the Area Agency on Aging manages MATP and a council of governments runs the shared ride. In Butler County to the east, the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources runs both, and Beaver County lies to the south.