Mifflin County MATP: Call A Ride Service, the County Grant, and Where Carriers Fit

In Mifflin County, one office in Yeagertown books Medicaid rides for two counties. Call A Ride Service (CARS) registers riders, schedules shared rides, and pays mileage for both Mifflin and Juniata, while Mifflin County holds the state grant and signs off on the terms each year. A ride company looking at Lewistown, Burnham, Reedsville, and the Big Valley deals with both.

Who runs Mifflin County MATP

Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) gives Medical Assistance members free rides to covered care when they have no other way to go. The Pennsylvania guide explains how the state funds county programs and what a carrier needs to be licensed.

CARS started in 1984 as the transportation department of the Mifflin-Juniata Area Agency on Aging. In 2005 the agency’s board created Mifflin-Juniata Regional Services Corporation (MJRSC) as a parent organization, and CARS was incorporated as a separate affiliate under it. Since 2018 the three groups have used one name, MJRSC The Care Network, and they share the office at 25 Rothermel Drive. The state’s June 25, 2026 MATP broker study lists Mifflin and Juniata as county vendor counties, where one outside organization runs both the rides and the paperwork.

What the county keeps for itself

Mifflin County’s MATP page lists the duties the county takes on under its state grant, and two matter to a carrier:

• “Authorize transportation services, schedule and dispatch trips.”
• “Recruit, maintain and monitor an adequate transportation provider network.”

The same page names CARS as the service provider and says “the County is not an agent of the Department,” so the county, not the state, answers for rider safety. In practice, CARS does the daily booking and the county approves the money and the yearly terms. As of October 2026, the Care Network’s board list shows one county commissioner as MJRSC’s president and as CARS’s treasurer.

When the commissioners act on MATP

The board meets at 9 a.m. on the first and third Thursday of each month and posts its minutes online once they are approved. It handles MATP in several votes through the year:

• July 3, 2025. The MATP participation grant agreement and assurance of compliance.
• February 19, 2026. The final 2024-25 allocation of $476,080 and the initial 2025-26 allocation of $589,609, both presented by the CARS director of transportation.
• August 20, 2026. The MATP conditions of funding and participation, which the human services director called “an annual renewal” with CARS and “step one in the process for renewal.”

How CARS gives MATP rides

CARS is a shared ride, door-to-door bus service for any registered resident of Mifflin or Juniata County, and every bus has seat belts and a wheelchair lift. The state’s June 18, 2026 contact list gives its ride hours as weekdays 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its rules for riders:

• Booking. By 12 noon the day before, by phone or online through Find My Ride. No same-day trips, and no changes on the day of the appointment.
• Cancelling. By phone at least 3 hours before the appointment time. Drivers cannot take a cancellation, and a third no-show within 30 days can bring a suspension.
• Mileage. $0.25 a mile from home to the appointment and back. Out-of-county trips need a signed note from the local doctor that the care is not offered in the county, and claims are due within 60 days.
• Long trips. Overnight stays, trips beyond the service area, and out-of-state appointments go to the County Assistance Office.
• Short trips. The county’s MATP page bars funding for trips of a quarter mile or less, unless the rider’s condition would keep them from care.
• Ages 60 to 64. New applicants are referred to the Area Agency on Aging, as the county’s MATP page sets out. See Area Agency on Aging transportation.

Volunteers also drive out-of-county medical trips. The 2023-24 annual report credits them with those rides for 222 people that year.

How big the program is

MATP paid for 36% to 39% of CARS’s shared-ride trips in the two latest yearly counts. CARS’s annual report and PennDOT’s yearly report count the same service, both for Mifflin and Juniata together:

Shared-ride trips	2023-24 (CARS report)	2024-25 (PennDOT)
All trips	35,791	32,715
MATP	14,019	11,759
Riders 65 and older (Lottery)	18,147	17,651
Persons with disabilities	3,613	3,295

PennDOT puts the average cost of a CARS shared-ride trip at $32.18 in fiscal 2024-25, against an average fare of $22.42, with 10 vehicles in peak service and a fare structure in place since July 2023. In 2023-24, CARS took in $579,038 from the Department of Human Services and $830,890 from PennDOT, and it added 5 vehicles in June 2024 through PennDOT’s capital grant program. Its public participation plan, posted in July 2026, counts 656 Mifflin County clients and 127 in Juniata County for fiscal 2025-26.

Where a NEMT company fits in Mifflin County

1. Line up your license early. Apply to the Public Utility Commission for paratransit authority before you approach CARS, since the PUC estimates three months or longer, and clear every driver for MATP. The Pennsylvania guide has the steps.
2. Know how much CARS buys. Its 2024 rider rules mention “contracted carriers” and “subcontracted carriers,” but contracted services came to $76,390, about 5% of its $1,473,476 in 2023-24 spending. CARS runs its own buses, 10 of them in peak service in 2024-25, so ask CARS at 717-242-2277 which trips it sends out and on what terms. The subcontracting guide covers what to read before you sign.
3. Cover the gaps. CARS gives no rides on Sundays, after 6 p.m. on weekdays, after 4 p.m. on Saturdays, or the same day. Evening hospital discharges and Sunday appointments fall there; see same-day trips.
4. Look at long-distance work. CARS buses do run to out-of-county appointments, and volunteers drove such trips for 222 people in 2023-24, but anything overnight or out of state is referred to the County Assistance Office. See long-distance medical transport.
5. Watch the summer grant votes. The county’s MATP grant papers came up on July 3, 2025 and August 20, 2026, and the August 2026 renewal with CARS was only step one. Check the posted minutes each summer to see when the terms are being set.
6. Ask the plans about stretcher rides. The state’s February 13, 2026 list of non-covered MATP services excludes stretcher trips, and MATP refers those requests to the rider’s HealthChoices or Community HealthChoices plan. Mifflin is in the Northeast zone, with UPMC for You among its four plans.

Juniata County shares CARS, its phone line, and its hours, so one conversation with CARS covers both counties. Next door, Centre County is its own MATP transportation provider, and Snyder and Union counties are served by rabbittransit under a state agreement.