Somerset County, Pennsylvania MATP: Tableland's Transportation System, Its Trip Rate, and Where You Fit

Somerset County’s Medicaid rides run through a community action agency, not a transit authority. Tableland Services, based on East Main Street in Somerset, operates the Somerset County Transportation System (SCTS), which registers MATP riders, schedules them, and drives them in vans fitted with wheelchair lifts or ramps. The county commissioners set what they pay Tableland for each MATP trip, and their minutes record the changes.

Who runs MATP in Somerset County

Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) gets Medicaid members with no other ride to covered care. In 53 counties the county runs it, alone or through a vendor such as Tableland, while the state contracts with transit agencies in 13 counties and a broker serves Philadelphia; statewide rules, Public Utility Commission licensing, and driver clearances are in the Pennsylvania guide.

Tableland was incorporated in March 1966 by the county commissioners and local citizens as Somerset County’s anti-poverty agency under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. SCTS began in November 1981 to use transportation money the Commonwealth had made available, and it follows guidelines set by PennDOT. The state’s June 25, 2026 broker study lists Somerset as a county vendor county, where an outside organization runs the program and the county oversees it.

Two county agreements carry the work. On June 30, 2026, the commissioners approved both for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027: one for shared-ride service paid for with PennDOT funding, and one for MATP, which says the county elected to provide the rides by accepting state MATP funding. On August 25, 2026, they approved the state’s MATP Conditions of Funding and Participation and Assurance of Compliance. Their office is at 300 North Center Avenue, Suite 500, Somerset (814-445-1400), and they usually meet every other Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in the Commissioners Board Room there.

What Somerset County pays Tableland per MATP trip

The commissioners’ minutes track the rate the county pays Tableland:

Meeting	What the commissioners approved
May 20, 2025	The MATP trip rate through Tableland raised to $55.00 from $47.46, effective April 1, 2025
July 29, 2025	The 2025-26 MATP agreement, July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026, at $55.00 per trip
August 26, 2025	Paragraph 7 amended so the trip rate is reconciled in a quarterly true-up, instead of “whenever necessary”
September 9, 2025	The cost per trip amended from $55.00 to $55.19
June 30, 2026	The 2026-27 MATP agreement, July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, with no rate in the minutes

That is the rate in the county’s agreement with Tableland, not a price list for other carriers. PennDOT’s report for fiscal year 2024-25 (July 2024 to June 2025) shows the rest of SCTS:

SCTS, fiscal 2024-25	Figure
Trips for riders 65 and older	13,533
MATP trips	13,008
Other shared-ride trips	5,237
Persons with disabilities program	3,344
All shared-ride trips	35,122
Vehicles in peak service	23
Average cost per trip	$23.62
Average fare per trip	$17.69

MATP made up 37% of SCTS trips that year, across a county of 1,075 square miles and 74,129 people, 23.1% of them 65 or older. Read rural NEMT and run your own numbers through the cost per mile calculator before you quote Tableland a rate.

How SCTS schedules rides

SCTS sets these rules for riders:

• Hours. Weekdays, first pickup at 8 a.m. and every pickup finished by 4 p.m. No service on weekends or county holidays, and limited service when bad weather closes the schools.
• Booking. At least one day ahead, and two business days ahead by noon for trips out of the county. Trips are scheduled each day before 2 p.m.
• Enrollment. MATP riders register in person at the office first, and SCTS can drive them there. MATP pays the full fare for trips to medical appointments and pharmacies, and riders who drive can claim mileage instead.
• Vehicles. Every SCTS vehicle has a wheelchair lift or ramp.
• Weekends. Urgent weekend trips go to MedVan at 814-535-8880.

Vans follow set travel lanes, many on fixed days:

From	Where and when
Somerset borough	In town every weekday, drop-offs 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., pickups until 4 p.m.
Windber	To Johnstown, drop-offs 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., last appointment 2 p.m., last pickup 3 p.m.
Hollsopple	To Johnstown weekdays, drop-offs 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Boswell, Berlin, Stoystown, Jennerstown, and within 10 miles of Somerset	Weekday drop-offs 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Rockwood	Weekday drop-offs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Meyersdale area	To Somerset Tuesday and Thursday (drop-off 9:30 a.m., pickup 2 p.m.) and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (drop-off 11 a.m., pickup 3 p.m.)
Confluence	To Somerset on Tuesdays and the first and fourth Fridays, to Meyersdale on Wednesdays, and to the Uniontown area the second and third Fridays

How a NEMT company can get Somerset County work

1. License before you drive. No paid ride may run until the Public Utility Commission grants your paratransit authority, and MATP requires each driver to hold child abuse, State Police, and FBI clearances. The Pennsylvania guide walks through both.
2. Call SCTS about the gaps. Ask the Director of Transportation (extension 339) or the MATP Program Coordinator (extension 342) at 814-701-3691 whether Tableland buys trips from private carriers. Its own schedule leaves weekends, appointments after the lane cutoffs, and out-of-county runs beyond the lanes. See dialysis transportation and long-distance medical transport.
3. Know the county’s number. Tableland’s rate was $55.19 per trip in 2025-26, and the agreement comes up each June or July. Read the minutes to see the next one.
4. Serve the trips MATP leaves out. The state’s February 13, 2026 list excludes stretcher and door-through-door service, and stretcher trips go to the rider’s HealthChoices plan. In Somerset’s Southwest zone, UPMC for You coordinates medically necessary wheelchair van and ambulance trips through UPMC Medical Transportation at 1-877-521-7433.
5. Look past MATP. SCTS also carries Area Agency on Aging riders aged 60 to 64 for $1.25 a trip and Human Services Development Fund riders aged 18 to 59, whose monthly funds are limited. See Area Agency on Aging transportation.

To the north, Cambria County runs MATP through CamTran, whose April 2025 booklet lets Cambria riders travel to Somerset appointments any weekday. Bedford, Westmoreland, and Fayette counties also border Somerset. Nearby Blair County runs its program through its Area Agency on Aging instead.