Lehigh County MATP: How LANtaVan Runs Medicaid Rides and Who Drives Them

In Lehigh County, Medical Assistance rides are booked and run by LANTA, the transit authority for the Lehigh Valley, through LANtaVan, its door-to-door shared ride service. The county does not hire carriers itself. LANTA does, and in fiscal 2026 it was sending some LANtaVan trips to outside carriers on top of its main contractor.

Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) is run county by county, with a broker only in Philadelphia, and any paid ride needs Public Utility Commission (PUC) authority. The Pennsylvania guide covers that authority, the driver clearances, and the statewide trip rules. What follows is how the Lehigh Valley does it.

Who runs MATP in Lehigh County

The state’s June 25, 2026 broker study counts Lehigh among 38 counties on the county vendor model: a vendor, usually a transit agency, handles both the rides and the administration, and county staff only oversee it. See what the study found. Lehigh’s vendor is LANTA, which runs LANtaVan as one service for Lehigh and Northampton counties.

LANTA’s unaudited statements for fiscal 2026, July 2025 to June 2026, show $2,585,223 in MATP reimbursement from Lehigh County and $1,679,711 from Northampton County. Together those exactly equal LANtaVan’s $4,264,934 in MATP costs for the year, so the MATP line broke even. Purchased transportation made up $2,923,427 of those costs.

Carbon County, to the north, is part of the same system. LANTA runs Carbon Transit under contract with Carbon County, Transdev drives it, and Carbon MATP calls go to the same 610-253-8333 line. Carbon Transit carried 5,277 MATP trips in fiscal 2026, 32% of its 16,378 trips, and LANTA’s fiscal 2027 Carbon Transit budget bases its MATP revenue on total cost reimbursement.

How Lehigh riders get a ride

• Screening. LANTA checks each rider and each medical service against DHS records and may ask for an interview. It then picks the lowest cost mode that works: mileage paid to the rider, LANtaBus fare, or a LANtaVan trip at no cost.
• Bus passes. A rider approved for the bus who cannot pay up front gets passes from LANTA’s finance department (610-435-5693, extension 137) and returns a form signed by the medical office.
• Booking. Riders call 610-253-8333 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., up to 14 days ahead and by 4:30 p.m. the day before. As of September 2026 they can also schedule and cancel online through PennDOT’s Find My Ride.
• Urgent care. A medical professional sends LANTA’s urgent care form, by fax to 484-633-3625 or by email, for a hospital discharge or an illness that needs treatment within 24 hours. LANTA needs three hours’ notice.
• Out of county. A physician fills out LANTA’s out-of-service-area form. LANTA allows at least 48 hours to process it, and each request covers either 3 or 6 months.

Who drives Lehigh County MATP trips

Transdev operates LANtaVan as LANTA’s paratransit service contractor, and the June and September 2026 agendas of LANTA’s Service Delivery and Accessibility committee each carried a Transdev update. LANTA replaces LANtaVan vans through its own capital program: its federal fiscal 2027 program of projects includes $2,341,290 for them. PennDOT’s fiscal 2024-25 report counts 72 LANTA shared ride vehicles in peak service across the three counties. See Section 5310 grants for how transit agencies pay for vans like these.

LANTA books the driving as purchased transportation: $9,403,938 for LANtaVan in fiscal 2026, unaudited, and $9,605,912 in the fiscal 2027 budget the board approved on June 9, 2026. Its draft fiscal 2026 budget, presented in May 2025, held the rates it pays for in-county trips and fixed costs flat and raised the rate for Medical Assistance out-of-county trips by 8.4%. For fiscal 2027, LANTA based its MATP costs on a projection sent to DHS that assumes a 3% rise in most categories.

The clearest opening for a small company showed up in fiscal 2026. LANTA’s monthly LANtaVan reports partly credit extra vendors, Regal Medtrans and YourWay Taxi, with keeping purchased transportation under budget. Regal Medtrans started in September 2025, and by April 30, 2026 it had handled 3,753 trips and saved LANTA $21,511, by LANTA’s count. If you can run trips for less than they cost LANTA now, that is your pitch.

How much MATP work LANtaVan carries

LANTA’s September 15, 2026 dashboard compares completed LANtaVan trips for Lehigh and Northampton by who paid for them:

Program	Fiscal 2025	Fiscal 2026	Change
MATP	50,206	54,403	Up 8%
Senior shared ride (Lottery)	96,453	95,650	Down 1%
ADA paratransit	41,073	37,284	Down 9%
Persons with Disabilities	6,054	5,133	Down 15%
Other sponsors	2,912	3,665	Up 26%
All trips	196,698	196,135	Down 0.3%

For April to June 2026, the same report shows:

• An average trip of 9.8 miles and 38.4 minutes.
• 2.45 passenger trips per revenue hour.
• 83% of pickups on time or early, and 17.1% late.
• 224 no-shows out of 80,596 scheduled trips.
• 194 out-of-county MATP trips for Lehigh riders, covering 5,608 revenue miles, close to 29 miles each.

LANtaVan prices trips by 4-mile zones. The posted full cost is $29.35 under 4 miles, $35.35 from 4 to 8 miles, $41.35 from 8 to 12, and so on up to $59.35 for 20 miles or more as of September 2026. MATP riders pay nothing. For a wider view, PennDOT’s fiscal 2024-25 report puts LANTA’s average shared ride cost at $64.11 per trip.

The rules LANtaVan drivers work under

Statewide, MATP picks riders up at the curb and gives door-to-door help only when a need is medically verified. LANtaVan is door-to-door for every rider, and LANTA’s paratransit policy manual (version 4, January 2025) spells out what that asks of the driver:

• Pickup window. Arrive up to 15 minutes before or after the scheduled time. The rider boards within 5 minutes. If you arrive early, wait until 5 minutes into the window.
• Door-to-door help. Drivers steady riders with a forearm between the vehicle and the outermost door, help wheelchair users over one step and on the lift, and carry up to three bags. They do not go through doors, lock them, or lift riders. See door-to-door service.
• Roads. Vans travel only on paved roads and drivers may not back out, so a rider meets the van at a safe spot when it cannot turn around.
• Hours. Non-ADA trips run 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 7:30 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. on Sunday. There is no service on Thanksgiving or Christmas.
• MATP no-shows. A rider who is not ready within your 5-minute wait, or cancels less than 2 hours ahead, is a no-show. MATP riders are not suspended. No-shows in a third and fourth month in a row each stop their standing trips for 3 days, a fifth month stops them for 5 days, and a sixth means booking every trip one at a time for at least a month.

How to get MATP work in Lehigh County

Cover all three counties in your PUC filing

Your PUC paratransit territory names the counties where your trips can start, and LANtaVan treats Lehigh and Northampton as one service area, with Carbon on the same ride line. Ask for all three in one filing, because changing your territory later takes a new application and another fee.

Register with LANTA and on PennBid

LANTA’s vendor registration form puts your company in the database it uses for procurement notices. It asks for your legal and trade names, a description of your services, your NAICS codes, and any certification, such as DBE or small business status. LANTA also posts and manages some requests for proposals on PennBid, so open an account there.

Know how LANTA buys

Under LANTA’s purchasing manual (revised August 20, 2019), purchases from $3,501 to $20,000, contracted transit services among them, go out as a request for quotes to at least three vendors. Larger purchases use formal methods, including public advertisement. Its DBE program requires prime contractors to pay their subcontractors within 15 days of each LANTA payment, which protects you if you drive under one of LANTA’s contractors.

Ask about the outside carrier work

Call Paratransit Services at 610-432-3200, or LANTA’s main office at 610-435-4052, and ask who manages the carriers that took LANtaVan trips in fiscal 2026. Ask which trips go out (wheelchair, out-of-county, early or late runs), what insurance and driver checks it requires, and how it pays. Read how to subcontract NEMT trips before you quote.

Follow the board

LANTA’s board meets at noon on a Tuesday each month, usually at 1060 Lehigh Street in Allentown and sometimes at 60 West Broad Street in Bethlehem, and meetings can be joined online. The next one is October 13, 2026, in Bethlehem. The packets carry LANtaVan’s monthly financials and, each quarter, its service dashboard and a Transdev update.

Get the Allentown license

Any business working in the City of Allentown needs its business license, $35 a year and good for the calendar year, from the Bureau of Revenue and Audit at City Hall, 435 Hamilton Street (610-437-7506). The city also taxes gross receipts through its business privilege tax, and its posted return lists a rate of 0.0030 for service businesses, or $3 per $1,000.

Stretcher trips, health plans, and nearby counties

MATP refers stretcher and non-emergency ambulance requests to the rider’s HealthChoices plan. Lehigh and Northampton are in the Lehigh/Capital zone with five plans, and Carbon is in the Northeast zone, whose plan list leaves out Highmark Wholecare. UPMC for You’s manual updated December 31, 2025 routes medically necessary ambulance and wheelchair van requests through UPMC Medical Transportation, except for providers in the Lehigh/Capital zone. Next door, Berks County books through BARTA, Bucks County through Bucks County Transport, Montgomery County through TransNet, and Schuylkill County runs a county hybrid program.

What to do first

1. File for PUC paratransit authority naming Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon counties.
2. Fill out LANTA’s vendor registration form and open a PennBid account.
3. Call LANTA Paratransit Services at 610-432-3200 and ask for whoever manages outside carriers.
4. Read the August 18 and September 15, 2026 board packets for LANtaVan costs and trip counts before you price your service.
5. Get your Allentown business license if you will work in the city.
6. Ask the Lehigh/Capital zone plans how they buy the stretcher and ambulance trips MATP does not cover.