Logisticare Solutions, LLC Logisticare Providers plea for help! Logisticare is a Scam Edison, New Jersey

Let me start off by saying that I am writing this report as a last resort PLEA FOR HELP and will therefore make it as concise as possible
 
(please read the other reports on this site for more detailed information: http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/Logisticare-Solutions.aspx). 

I am an owner of a non-emergency medical transportation company in the state of NJ. I have independently owned and operated my company for the last 15 years.  I have built my company with honest, quality work in order to provide for my family.  I have invested my money and my soul into my business and now I, along with hundreds of other Medical Transportation Providers, am on the verge of bankruptcy.

When Logisticare "magically" (please see other reports) entered the state of NJ we were told that we would be able to keep our patients and that not only will our trip volume not decrease, but that now it will increase because they will get rid of all the "fraudulent companies" and we will get their business. We were FORCED to take a 10% pay cut and were furthermore forced to start paying for a $1,000,000 insurance policy and other useless and very costly compliance procedures.  Not only did they lie about our trip volume and keeping our patients that we've honestly earned with our blood, sweat and tears but our overall volume had significantly decreased. When patients would call to ask for our company Logisticare would say that we are booked to capacity when our cars were parked outside of our office with nothing to do.  The trips we did get to perform were never paid for on time every time with a reason that was not at all factually based. When our pay would arrive we would be shortchanged anywhere from 25-70%. When we called Logisticare they would tell us that we need to re-bill (another very costly and time consuming process) and that maybe they will pay on the next check.  Next check?? We have million dollar insurances to pay on top of payroll, taxes and other expenses of running the business.  I can't afford to wait for the next check I would yell, but no one would so much as sympathize. Once I was even told by one of their managers that providers already make enough money and I should be grateful to them for anything they give me.  So I began to take any jobs just to stay afloat, even when Logisticare would send me outside of my area to pick up patients who would inform that their appointment was for the next day or that they already went.  Sometimes we would drive 40 minutes only to find the patient in another provider's car because that provider also got the authorization to transport that patient.  Logisticare DOES NOT REIMBURSE ON WHAT IS CLEARLY THEIR MISTAKE--they called it a cost of business.  Needless to say, with my increase in costs and significant decrease in revenue I began to tap into my 401K, and then my savings, then my wife's 401K, and I have now maxed out my credit cards.  I have spoken to other providers who are in the same exact position as I am.  We have been forced to lay people off, sell our cars and be left in debt, all while Logisticare pockets the state's $300 million (and now more than that since NJ recently gave them more money) and sends these profits to their home state of Georgia.

Recently I was asked to take a meeting with one of the new Logisticare managers. Side note: managers and staff change there on a daily basis, no one knows their chain of command and no one will ever call a provider back unless they need something from us. 

The "manager" I met with told me that Logisticare needs to now cut my rates by another 15% but of course, he went on to promise, they would increase my volume of jobs.  In my shock I started telling him about my financial position "how can you cut my rates when I already don't make any money to even sustain my business? No! Logisticare can't force us (the providers) to do this.  I can't afford to do this, I will go out of business, I won't even make payroll with these rates" I replied.  After he was done smirking he told me that the providers are not being forced to sign, BUT THEY WILL STOP GIVING US JOBS. "Simply put, we are told to give the jobs to those providers who are going to take a lower rate" he assured me. 

So it's been a little over two weeks since my conversation with this manager and I am now down to SEVEN TRIPS PER DAY. Let me make sure I am being clear, prior to 2009 and Logisticare I was taking over 70 patients/ day, after Logisticare entered I was averaging 30 and now I am at 7. 

I have been in contact with over 90% of the companies in NJ and none have signed the contract for new rates.  Everyone's jobs have been taken away! So let me pose this question, if 90% of the companies did not sign then who is transporting the state's elderly and the disabled??? 

Here is the cold truth: Logisticare, under the guise of an independent company, has put hundreds of their own cars on the road, they have hired incompetents to drive the poor patients of NJ.  Simply put: Logisticare STOLE OUR BUSINESS FROM RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSE.  Once they monopolize the medical transportation business they will raise the rates to rape our state for more money.

But they do not know how to perform the jobs of providers and therefore thousands of patients are left without rides.  Patients are not being taken to such critical appointments as dialysis and surgeries.  When our patients call to ask for us, Logisticare representatives now tell them that they cannot give them our company because we are asking for too much money. 

We originally signed a contract with this company for lower rates than we could afford, but we were promised at least, if not more, of our prior to Logisticare volume.  Now they are forcing us to go out of business.  How could this possibly be legal?

I dare Logisticare to challenge my and any of the other countless patients, providers and facilities claims against them.  Shame on NJ's legislators for looking the other way.  This state is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars due to the inefficiencies of this so-called broker and it's about to lose millions more when hundreds of companies will be forced to go out of business and put the providers and their employees on unemployment.  This state will lose an exorbitant amount of money it receives every year in taxes and there are guaranteed to be foreclosures from providers not being able to make their mortgage. 

PLEASE HELP!!!