Carbon County’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program is providing valuable rides to those on medical assistance and without transportation.

On Thursday, the county commissioners approved the fiscal year 2016-2017 participation grant agreement and assurance of compliance for the program.The tentative allocation is $1,160,446, a decrease of $32 from last year.The funding comes from a mix of state and federal funds.The MATP program, which is operated through Carbon County Community Transit and overseen by LANta, is designed to help people on medical assistance or with the ACCESS card by providing a free ride to medical appointments.Commissioner William O’Gurek said that last year, the program provided over 34,000 trips to just over 400 clients.Eligible clients can use either the Lynx bus, a routed bus; the door-to-door van service; or the reimbursement program, which reimburses private parties who drive MATP-eligible people to doctors appointments.One surprising fact in those figures, O’Gurek said, was with the premium trips, which are outside the coverage area to medical facilities in area like the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia or Hershey.There were 5,433 premium trips in the 34,000 trip figure and of those trips, 70 percent were serving people with a drug problem, taking them daily to methadone clinics for treatment.“It’s a valuable program,” he said.In other matters, the commissioners approved three actions related to various human services.The first was for a $77,187 Emergency Solutions Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development for use in the rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention services by the Carbon County Action Committee for Human Services and for emergency shelter and HMIS services provided by Family Promise.The second agreement authorized the Carbon County Action Committee to continue the Homeless Assistance Program case management and rental assistance services beyond June 20 until an official agreement between the agency and county is finalized and signed.The last agreement authorized the Carbon County Action Committee to continue the Human Services Development Fund supported home assistance programs beyond June 30.The Human Services Development Fund program encompasses a number of programs to help low- to moderate-income people, such as seniors or those who are disabled in their homes.Any expenses incurred after July 1 will go toward the fiscal year 2016-2017 block grant costs.