SEAT provider guide: Arkansas Medicaid NET rides in Region F

SEAT in brief

Southeast Arkansas Transportation (SEAT) is the transportation arm of the Area Agency on Aging of Southeast Arkansas, Inc. (AAASEA), a nonprofit headquartered at 709 East 8th Avenue in Pine Bluff. The same agency runs senior centers, home care, and Meals on Wheels. Its transportation work has three parts, by its own account in its 2025 bid to DHS:

• Medicaid broker. SEAT is the Department of Human Services’ NEMT broker for all 14 counties of NET Region F, a role it held before the 2018 regional restructuring and has kept since.
• Carrier. SEAT also carries Medicaid riders itself, with its own vans and drivers, in 10 of those 14 counties.
• Rural transit. It has run a demand-response public transit service under the federal Section 5311 rural program, through the Arkansas Department of Transportation, since 1993.

Region F stretches from Grant and Jefferson counties, south of Little Rock, to the Louisiana line and east across the Delta to the Mississippi state line. By trip volume, its counties are Jefferson, Ashley, Arkansas, Chicot, Desha, Phillips, Drew, Bradley, Lee, Lincoln, Monroe, Grant, Cleveland, and Prairie.

The statewide DHS terms for subcontractors (cameras, $1 million of insurance on each vehicle, driver checks, broker inspections, DHS-approved service agreements, and payment within 30 days of an invoice) apply here exactly as they do next door. The CADC guide walks through the service agreement steps, and the Arkansas NEMT guide covers the vehicle and driver rules.

How SEAT kept Region F in the 2025 rebid

SEAT kept Region F because four bidders tied on price and Arkansas procurement rules favor an Arkansas company in a tie. Region F drew five bidders, more than any other region. MediTrans, Modivcare, Verida, and AAASEA all bid $16.59 per member per month, the lowest price DHS’s actuary would accept, and MediDrive bid $17.23, the top of the range. DHS’s coin flip record of July 11, 2025 shows no flip was needed for Region F under procurement rule R8:19-11-229(3), because AAASEA was the only Arkansas bidder. A July 21, 2025 notice named AAASEA the anticipated awardee, and transportation under the new contract began January 1, 2026. Each contract year can be renewed, up to seven years in all.

For a transportation company, the result means continuity: the broker is the same local agency that drives Medicaid riders itself in most of the region’s counties.

SEAT’s one named subcontractor

SEAT has one named subcontractor: Mid-Delta Community Services, Inc., at 610 Biscoe Street in Helena, Phillips County. DHS’s ownership and control disclosure, posted on its NET page and created in June 2023, lists Mid-Delta as the only subcontractor under AAASEA, and the Proposed Subcontractors Form in SEAT’s 2025 bid names the same company.

That leaves room, but not much. In its written answers to bidders, DHS said a broker may sign further subcontractors during the contract, provided each agreement meets the subcontractor section. Region F has the highest share of wheelchair trips in the state and Delta trips of 45 miles or more, so those are the places an outside carrier could help. Whether SEAT needs either is a question only SEAT can answer, so ask before you invest. The guide to getting into a full broker network covers how to make that ask.

Why Region F’s rate is the highest in Arkansas

Region F members take far more rides per person than members anywhere else in Arkansas, and the 2026 rate follows that history. At $16.59 per member each month, Region F has the highest 2026 capitation rate of the seven regions, 35.1 percent above its 2025 rate of $12.28. The rate combines a $12.07 share for regular NET rides with $4.52 for day treatment. With 810,262 projected member months, the actuary estimated $13.4 million in 2026 payments. The contract sets a floor under the regular-ride part: SEAT must spend at least $10.88 per member per month on actual NET service costs or pay the shortfall back to DHS.

Three facts in the actuary’s report set Region F apart:

1. Heavy use. The 2023 data behind the rate counts 129,149 Region F trips over 954,171 member months, about 135 trips for every 1,000 member months. Region E logged 76 and the statewide figure was 44. Paid claims per trip were about $69 in Region F and $75 in Region E, so the rate is high because members ride often, not because each ride costs more.
2. Day treatment miles pay more here. DHS paid $6.06 a mile for Region F day treatment rides in 2025. The other six regions were paid $2.86 to $3.01.
3. The most wheelchair trips. In the same data, 16,050 of Region F’s trips were wheelchair trips, about 12 percent, the highest share of any region. Statewide it was 10 percent. No Region F trips were mileage reimbursement, taxi, or bus rides, the same as in Region E.

Where Region F’s trips come from

In state fiscal year 2024, which ended in June 2024, Region F recorded 55,976 trips, 108,558 legs, and 1,701,841 loaded miles, an average of 30 miles a trip. In June 2024 the region had 68,350 people eligible for rides. The patterns that matter for planning a fleet:

• Pine Bluff carries the load. Jefferson County produced 15,805 trips, 28 percent of the region, at about 16 miles per trip.
• The Delta runs long. Average trips ran about 48 miles in Phillips County, 46 in Desha, and 45 in Chicot and Lee.
• Use per member varies widely. Dividing each county’s trips by its average monthly enrollment, Chicot County members took about 1.4 trips a year and Ashley about 1.2. Phillips County, the second largest by enrollment, came in at about 0.5, and Prairie, Grant, and Cleveland were lower still. The region as a whole averaged 0.8.

Two borders shape longer trips. Grant and Jefferson counties touch Pulaski County, which is Region G, but SEAT books those trips anyway, because a broker arranges rides for its own members wherever they go. To the east and south, Chicot, Desha, Phillips, and Lee counties border Mississippi, and Ashley and Chicot border Louisiana. The DHS contract covers rides to providers enrolled in Arkansas Medicaid within 50 miles of the state line. For running those crossings legally, see the out-of-state trips guide; for making long, thin routes pay, see the rural NEMT guide.

Day treatment riders and children

Rides to adult and early intervention day treatment centers became part of the Region F contract in 2026. In calendar 2024, Region F had 31,672 of these trips covering 566,129 miles, about 18 miles each. SEAT told DHS it carried about 190 day treatment riders a day as the region’s separate day treatment broker, including children in the Kid’s First program. These runs follow the same DHS rules described in the CADC guide: separate trips from other Medicaid riders, and a limit of three children per attendant for EIDT riders aged three and under.

Other DHS rules for children and escorts come up often on these routes:

• Attendants are on the broker. When a minor or an incapacitated adult travels without a responsible adult, the broker must provide an attendant, and the attendant’s cost comes out of the broker’s monthly payment.
• Parents ride as escorts. A parent, foster parent, or guardian may escort a minor or incapacitated adult, and the pair counts as one encounter.
• Hospital visits for parents. A parent, foster parent, or guardian may get one round trip per episode of care to visit a minor who is a hospital inpatient, whether or not the parent has Medicaid.

How SEAT checks on drivers

SEAT’s 2025 bid describes a compliance coordinator who reports to the SEAT project director and helps log complaints from riders, subcontractors, and staff. The job includes:

• Unannounced ride-alongs, facility visits, and wheelchair and passenger securement checks.
• Reviewing random segments of onboard audio and video footage for policy violations.
• Watching telematics alerts for speeding, harsh braking, and route deviations, and checking them against manifests and trip logs.

If you carry SEAT trips, keep your footage, GPS records, and trip logs consistent with each other, because comparing them is part of that job.

The DHS contract also requires a broker that runs other transportation, as SEAT does with public transit, to keep the programs separate and give Medicaid members their own phone number.

Contacts

• AAASEA main office: 709 East 8th Avenue, Pine Bluff, AR 71601, 870-543-6300, weekdays 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• SEAT project director, as listed in the 2025 bid: 870-543-6229.
• Medicaid ride scheduling for Region F members: 1-844-683-2300.
• NET Help Line, run for DHS (members and families): toll-free 1-888-987-1200, then option 1.

Where software helps with Region F work

Region F pairs short Pine Bluff trips with Delta runs of 45 miles or more, and a broker that reviews footage and trip logs expects the records to match. HealthRide’s dispatch board assigns a trip in one motion, and the live map shows every vehicle at once. Every completed trip carries its GPS-recorded miles, timestamps, and the rider’s signature, which is what the trip log you send SEAT is built from.