In 2000, the St. Joseph Community Health Foundation made one of its first grants, a $160,000 grant, to help launch a new organization, the Community Transportation Network (CTN). The goal was to provide transportation for the elderly and people with disabilities to their medical appointments.   

Since then, CTN has provided transportation to our community’s most vulnerable populations for rides to routine medical appointments, ongoing therapies, dialysis, cancer treatments, and more. These rides are crucial for the health and well-being of low-income seniors and people with disabilities. Offering community-based support is also far cheaper than having repeated emergency room visits, re-hospitalizations, and institutional long-term care. St. Joe Foundation has provided ongoing support totaling over $1M to CTN to help ensure people in our community can get to their medical appointments. According to Meg Distler, executive director, most of the funding has been directed to make up the shortfall between Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements and the actual cost of providing transportation.  

The importance of this type of support was underscored when CTN recently released its findings from a region-wide transportation assessment they conducted with the help of consultants and area foundations, including St. Joseph Community Health Foundation. The assessment found that 23% of our region’s residents skip medical appointments because they do not have a ride.

This summer, a new challenge has arisen for Indiana seniors regarding their transportation needs. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration launched PathWays to Aging on July 1, which impacts Medicaid and Medicare programs, including some waiver programs. This, in turn, impacts CTN’s reimbursements and its ability to serve seniors. Support from local foundations and donors is becoming increasingly important to make medical transportation available for many community residents.

“That’s frightening for folks because if you’re not getting your regular check-ups, if you’re missing those early indicators for health concerns, you’re missing an opportunity to manage that concern quickly and maybe get healing much faster,” said Justin Clupper, Executive Director of CTN.

All of the findings from the study are available on CTN’s website: https://ridectn.org/about-us/regional-transportation-assessment/