Knoxville couple claims TennCare transport provider repeatedly did not show up

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A Knoxville couple is trusting that a state-operated medical transportation program keeps its promise. Since March, they’ve had to cancel four trips to doctors’ offices because the special vans didn’t show up. They couldn’t miss the appointments so they had to hire a private service.

A state program called Tennessee Carriers provides free nonemergency medical transportation to TennCare members, riders who are either in wheelchairs or on stretchers. While Tennessee Carriers, a division of Tenncare, is a brokerage service, the independent vendors they hire to transport people are not.

Norm Shipley has been caring for his wife Lisa for four years. She fell, severely injuring her back, and then a second fall led to her inability to walk or stand. Married for 46 years, she had been in good health before her injuries.

Norm has been transporting Lisa in their wheelchair-equipped van, but now she needs special transportation. TennCare is Lisa’s primary health care provider. Because she is not able to transfer to her wheelchair, she has to be transported on a stretcher.

For the last two and a half months, Norm has been dealing with Tennessee Carriers, a non-emergency medical transportation service for TennCare and Medicaid members.

“Whenever I called I was always given a confirmation number from Tennessee Carriers. And I always called the day before to make sure that we had transportation,” said Norm.

However several trips were unexpectedly canceled at the last minute.

“The gentleman told me you don’t have a carrier, a vendor, for that date,” said Norm.

“We had a vendor, but when we called them early in the morning, they said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry you don’t have a vendor.’ We had no one to pick us up. So, we had to cancel our appointment,” said Lisa.

Norm said he called Tennessee Carriers to find out what was going on.

“They said there was no vendor that accepted the transport,” said Norm. “The other four that we tried were unsuccessful.”

He’s kept a calendar for when Lisa was scheduled for a stretcher van.

“March 21. It was confirmed and no one showed up, nobody came. Then on April the third, we had an appointment with a specialist to do a test. They did not show up. Nobody called, I had to call them to find out if they were coming. They said no one had accepted the transport,” said Norm.

“I’m surprised that these doctors have not charged us for not showing up,” said Lisa.

“I don’t want anybody else to go through what we have. It has been a real nightmare. What I would like to see is for her to get to a specialist that she needs to see because we have the insurance,” said Norm.

On his own dime, Norm paid one private carrier $534 on April 16 to transport Lisa. He paid even more a week later.

“The second transport cost us $676 out of pocket,” said Norm.

WATE contacted Tennessee Carriers. The company agreed to pay the two out-of-pocket bills.

“She was highly apologetic and said they will endeavor to do better in the future,” said Norm.

“That sounds good. I hope they stand up to their word,” said Lisa.

Tennessee Carriers told the Shipleys the company’s “aim is to provide timely, safe, and efficient transportation with professional transporters.” Norm said he was told if there was another foul-up, no one showed up to transport Lisa, he was told to call Tennessee Carriers immediately and they would take care of it.

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