Pictured is Fancee Transportation’s headquarters located at 1 E. Main St., Falconer. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

Several times each month, Betsy Heimbuch relies on Fancee Transportation to get to her medical appointments. She’s been utilizing the Falconer-based business for years, happy with the curb-to-curb service and help from its drivers to ensure she makes it safely inside her Jamestown home.

However, Heimbuch will soon be forced to find alternative modes of transportation after Fancee notified her and others last week it was closing after more than 27 years in business.

“How do I get to the doctors?” asked Heimbuch, who depends on Fancee and its non-emergency medical transportation services after her husband passed away.

In a statement Monday to The Post-Journal, Fancee confirmed it was “regrettably” closing, providing only limited transportation services through March 15 before its fleet is eventually sold off and its downtown Falconer location is vacated.

Jeff and Lisa Daversa, who established Fancee Limousine Service Inc. in 1995, laid blame for the closure largely at the feet of New York state. Specifically, the pair cited the state Department of Health and the “drastically reducing” of Medicaid payments to providers beginning in 2020 along with other state mandates such as minimum wage increases and paid sick leave.

Medicaid transportation is a billion-dollar-a-year program in New York that ensures members can get to and from medical appointments at no cost.

“This business means a lot to me and my wife when we started the limo service,” Jeff Daversa said in a phone interview Monday. “We knew nothing of running a business, but we bought a limo and started. It is our whole life, and we’ve enjoyed working with the people and the riders — being good to them. … This business has been our life.”

In September, the Daversas sent the state Department of Health an email stating that they would be forced to close unless their Medicaid fee for services were increased. They sought a bump in the base rate per trip provided and in mileage — both of which were reduced in 2020.

“The Medicaid Fee for Service rate increases that our company is requesting are necessary for our company to remain in compliance with New York State Labor Laws and Mandates, such as minimum wage, paid sick leave, Covid-19 paid sick leave, NYS DOH GPS mandate and NYS pension mandate,” they wrote in an email that was shared with the newspaper.

On average, Lisa Daversa said Fancee transports about 475 people per week to and from a range of medical-related appointments. Between 95% and 98% of transports qualify for Medicaid reimbursement.

Most recently, the company employed 32 drivers.

The Daversas sought base and mileage rates just above the 2020 levels. “These fee increases are needed to address inflation and to retain our drivers, which are demanding pay increases,” the pair wrote the state last September.

Heimbuch, too, wrote to state health officials after learning that Fancee was shuttering its operation. She said she was given a list of available transportation providers, though because she’s not enrolled in Medicaid, her options are limited.

She has used Chautauqua Area Regional Transit System (CARTS) in the past, but she noted that she has a hard time making it up the stairs. With Fancee, Heimbuch said drivers would “bring in all my bags and make sure I’m in (my home) OK.”

Jeff and Lisa Daversa also questioned the handling of a contract to manage non-emergency medical transportations in New York that was awarded to Medical Answering Services. The Syracuse-based company serves as a broker to arrange rides to medical appointments for Medicaid patients.

As numerous media outlets reported last year, Medical Answering Services’ owner was a campaign donor to Kathy Hochul. A spokesperson told the Albany Times Union that the governor was not involved in awarding the five-year contract.

The Daversas claim payments to providers such as Fancee have been slashed as a result of the contract, which allows Medical Answering Services to manage medical transportation for Medicaid enrollees in New York.

“Unfortunately, Fancee Transportation is one of the NEMT (non-emergency medical transportation) providers that are not able to accept the 20.5 percent slashed rate(s),” the company said in its statement.

Fancee said it notified local representatives, the state Health Department and Medical Answering Service that the slashed rates were not sustainable.

“Fancee Transportation is/was the primary for-profit medical transportation provider in the rural Chautauqua County,” the company said. “Although Fancee’s current daily volume of trips was/is large, the severe reduction in Medicaid rates were not sustainable to the format of the business. For instance, the company does not have much private pay opportunities to make up for the large reduction in Medicaid payments due to the rural nature of Chautauqua County, a county currently without an airport or large corporations.

“Since then, the corporation has grown and is recognized as an experienced and reputable transportation company. Fancee Limousine started out as a limousine service that transitioned into providing Non-Emergency Medical Transportation service starting in 1998, doing business as Fancee Transportation.

“Fancee Transportation’s success was due to its dedicated and professional drivers and office staff. The drivers would go above and beyond for their passengers, often assisting them to their door, even though the company is a curb-to-curb taxi service company.”