TAMPA BAY, Fla. — Polk County resident Tammy Lenze can’t drive to her medical treatments due to her disability. She relies on medical transport services covered by her health insurer to get to and from weekly appointments.
What should have been another routine ride to the doctor on Dec. 28 turned into a harrowing experience. Lenze said the medical transport driver lost his temper after she got into the back seat of a car sent by Safe Choice Transport.
Minutes into the trip, Lenze told the I-Team that the man behind the wheel started speeding and driving erratically.
An app on Lenze’s phone clocked the sedan doing 92 miles an hour in a 50-mile-an-hour zone, then hitting nearly 100 miles an hour on I-4. Lenze said she knew she was in trouble and considered jumping out of the car at one point.
She asked the driver to slow down but said that seemed to enrage him. Lenze’s friend, who was in the back seat with her, called 911 for help.
The 911 call captured the driver yelling at the women as they were getting out of the car after it stopped at a Lakeland shopping center.
Police and paramedics arrived and sent her to the ER after checking her blood pressure. Lenze made a call for action after she said Safe Choice Transport ignored her complaints.
The story took a turn after the I-Team confirmed the man behind the wheel is a convicted felon.
He served time in prison for separate convictions on fraud and felony battery charges. And he racked up more than a dozen driving violations in Polk, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
The I-Team emailed and called Safe Choice Transport's Tampa office, but they did not respond.
We then contacted Modivcare, the company that contracted with Safe Choice Transport for Lenze’s rides. We wanted to know if the driver was still employed, whether his background was checked and what action is being taken to ensure that what happened to Lenze does not happen to another patient.
Modivcare confirmed that the driver is no longer employed by the transport company.
Saying in an email,
"Modivcare’s in-network transportation providers are contractually required to conduct background checks on all drivers used to perform trips brokered by Modivcare. However, it has been determined the transportation company did not comply with this requirement for this driver. Modivcare’s priority is safe and reliable transportation for the members we serve. As a result of this incident, we have initiated a Corrective Action Plan with the transportation provider to ensure compliance with driver credentialing requirements. Additionally, we will impose contractually defined financial penalties to reinforce the need and expectation for compliance with driver credentialing requirements and member service standards. Millions of health plan members rely on Modivcare to arrange non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) and we take that responsibility very seriously. We thoroughly investigate and address grievances and work to continually enhance our members’ experiences.”
Lenze said she is happy to hear something is being done so that no one else goes through what she did.
“We should have medical care as a right," she said. "We shouldn't have to worry about how we are going to get there safely.”
