Connecticut fines Veyo $4,000 for failures in nonemergency medical transport

In the six months since the San Diego-headquartered company Veyo began operations as Connecticut”™s nonemergency medical transportation contractor, it has racked up $4,000 in fines from the state”™s Department of Social Services (DSS) for either failing to pick up patients or leaving them waiting for more than an hour.

According to a Connecticut Mirror report, Veyo”™s contract carries the penalty of a $500 fine if a Medicaid patient is left waiting for more than an hour for a pick-up; the fines are not to exceed $10,000 for a single month. The DSS determined that Veyo violated this aspect of its contract on eight occasions, with four no-shows and one case where a patient was left waiting for three hours. Veyo does not have its own fleet but relies on local private companies to provide transportation.

Veyo was hired last year by the state to run the nonemergency medical transportation program that had been operated for several years by LogistiCare, which had been the subject of many complaints by the patients using the program. Veyo, which has a three-year contract that includes $52 million from the state for its first year of Connecticut operations, took over the program in January and quickly became the subject of complaints from patients who were either stranded at medical facilities or missed arriving to appointments that involved dialysis, chemotherapy and mental health treatment. In February, Veyo received a $1,000 fine when an immunocompromised patient was mistakenly transported in a vehicle with other individuals.

Veyo President Josh Komenda defended his company, noting that it handles more than 300,000 trips per month. “At the end of the day, in that kind of volume, it”™s near impossible to be defect-free,” he said. “Our goal is always to try to make things better.”