Don't be surprised if you hear that question a lot more often in the coming months. Rhode Island's premier manufacturer of Carcieri blankets has alerted us to the news that federal Medicare officials, looking to cut costs, have finally noticed an accounting irregularity here in Rhode Island. (Funny; you'd think they'd look here first for that kind of thing.)
In this case, the sleazy tactic in question involved siphoning over $5 million in Medicare funds to RIPTA in order to provide free monthly bus passes to RIte Care members—this is how RIte Care provides non-emergency transportation to its members. Unfortunately, “non-emergency transportation is designed to assist beneficiaries in getting to medical appointments only, not to non-health-care related destinations,” according to Mary M. Kahn of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Since the monthly passes are valid for any travel using RIPTA, they can't be paid for using this subsidy. Those payments will stop, and state officials expect Washington to attempt to recoup $4-5 million.
Gary Alexander, the state DHS director, estimates that 18,000 people will lose their monthly bus passes as a result of the move.
This concerns the state transit authority, because it means “a continuing $5.6-million hole in RIPTA’s budget,” although Alexander claims that “Governor Carcieri’s proposed budget, to be presented today, ‘will make RIPTA whole’ for the fiscal year beginning July 1.” I can only wonder whether he misheard the Governor, who is not known exactly as a public transportation fanboy, and his main priority right now is cutting money from the budget anywhere he can. It also doesn't explain what he's going to do for those who are losing transportation benefits as a result.
