State lawmakers are considering a bill that would increase oversight of the private vendors who transport MaineCare clients to medical appointments following years of complaints from users.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services currently pays more than $70 million a year in state and federal funds to help MaineCare patients who lack access to transportation get to the doctor, to the pharmacy or to other non-emergency appointments.

But MaineCare patients have complained for years about the difficulty of arranging rides. And they say the private contractors sometimes show up late or not at all, causing them to miss appointments or leaving them stranded far from home.

“It is our duty not only as stewards of taxpayers dollars but as servants of the public to ensure the system is working as it should,” Republican Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford told members of a legislative committee on Friday. “LD 1835 is about keeping that promise. It’s about oversight, accountability and transparency.”

Bennett’s bill, LD 1835, would require DHHS to create a publicly accessible dashboard that tracks the performance of transportation brokers. His bill would also establish an independent ombudsman to receive and investigate complaints about the network and to create advisory groups in each of the state’s eight transportation regions.

Advocacy groups as well as clients of MaineCare — the state’s Medicaid program — told lawmakers about transportation requests being denied for no apparent reason and about language barriers experienced by people with disabilities when trying to use the automated phone system. Multiple people spoke about drivers showing up late, leaving before they could get outside because of their disability and about being stranded at doctor’s offices afterward because no one came.

Zoe Miller, executive director of the advocacy group Moving Maine Network, said her organization has heard “an overwhelming number of stories” from people who have experienced issues with the MaineCare non-emergency transportation program. Miller also said an evaluation of the program conducted for DHHS about five years ago recommended multiple changes.

“We’ve been really honestly waiting to see if the department would implement these recommendations and make progress and have been just frankly forced to take this avenue to make something happen after many, many efforts,” Miller said.

DHHS opposed the bill, however.

In written testimony submitted to the committee, the department said it already collects and reports many of the performance metrics proposed by Bennett. For instance, the department provided statistics from March 2025 showing that 95% of calls were answered within 60 seconds and 91.6% of trips were performed on-time.

“If the intention of LD 1835 is to reduce the number of missed and late trips and improve member experience by providing more transportation options to members, this bill does not increase general public or private transportation system capacity or workforce; these important factors are outside of the department’s control,” Michelle Probert, director of the Office of MaineCare Services, wrote to the committee.

Probert also said more staff would be needed to gather additional data and to work with a new ombudsman.

Last year, DHHS sparked controversy by awarding a 10-year, $750 million contract to a private vendor, Colorado-based Modivcare, to provide MaineCare transportation services statewide. Modivcare already serves parts of the state but some MaineCare clients and advocacy groups have criticized its service.

The transportation division of the community action program Penquis, which primarily serves Penobscot, Piscataquis and Knox counties, contested the contract and eventually filed a lawsuit. Waldo Community Action Partners is an interested party in the lawsuit.

Asked about the controversy during Friday’s committee meeting, Miller with Moving Maine Network said LD 1835 was not a response to that contract controversy.

“This bill is representing years of work and listening to our members and really feeling that if we did not come forward to do something on their behalf, we would be irresponsible as an organization,” Miller said. “We simply need to do better for the people who are being left behind.”