Excuses and more excuses. Duplicitous. Scheduling is a joke. Pickup times are a crap shoot; be prepared to waste your entire day for something that should be easy. Excuses that they are a shared ride and can't follow their own schedule. Meanwhile sitting at a Doctors appointment and watching 3 more of their vehicles role through as I am waiting.
This company has never provided me with satisfactory service. Because it is a monopoly, this explains why. The Stockholm Syndrome that has captured PA medical transportation recipients ensures their future, too.
For public health, New York and New Jersey are compelled to work within the same fiscal constraints as Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, they manage to have 30–40 medical transport businesses from which a beneficiary might choose. Why does Bucks County limit medical transportation to only one provider?
Dispatchers have been outright hostile in my experience. The dictatorial, patronizing tone might be distressing for someone suffering from a mental health issue like anxiety.
The hours they operate are perplexingly limited for serving an entire county. Getting an appointment with a specialist as a public insurance recipient can take months. However, if that 4-month appointment with the dental expert, hematologist, immunologist, oncologist, or rheumatologist at 3:30 pm is not within the narrow window of hours, days, or distance of the 10–1 pm time period, it must be adjusted to meet BCT's rules. It's bass-ackwards. Disabled and physically challenged clients are restricted by the rigid requirements of medical transportation.
The first available appointment for your raging tooth infection clashes with the BCT's three-hour time frame. Change it. The dentist's office contacted you to say they had a cancellation and could see you sooner. That's too bad. They demand at least 48 hours' notice. With no alternative, save an ambulance (quadruple the cost to taxpayers) and try clove oil.
Be prepared to set aside your entire day for a doctor's appointment. If it's at 11 a.m. and is 20 minutes away, arrive at 8:30. The return is at 12 p.m. They'll arrive at 12:30. You might get home around 2 p.m. Unless you've irritated the dispatcher, then they'll make sure you're the last person to leave. At 5.
There are punitive events. "At 9:55, the driver arrived."You weren't at the end of the driveway." "So, he left."
"I was at the end of my driveway at 9:59, and he'd already pulled away!" "What about the 5-minute window?"
"You should be expecting us."
"Since 8:30? It's five degrees outside! I see him coming back! ""Can you please have him stop?"
"No. "
"But I'm right here!"
"He has a schedule to keep." "You'll have to call back." WTAF?
I once asked a manager what someone who needs dialysis or chemotherapy on a weekend does for transportation. "Get a relative." Unacceptable.
The risk posed to the elderly, handicapped, those in physical pain, or those in a mental health crisis because of this company's stranglehold on the county cannot be understated. The free market has taught us that competition raises standards. Donors are more likely to supplement a company's positive impact on the disadvantaged, the elderly, and their families.
However, this community, provider, and local insurance firms' resentment for the ungrateful wretches who must utilize the service assures users they will never advocate for anything better.