A rider filed an ADA complaint: how DOJ, FTA, and HHS complaints work for NEMT companies

Most ADA complaints against a private NEMT company land at the Justice Department, which can send them to free mediation, open an investigation, or, in serious cases, sue. A rider whose trip was paid by Medicaid can also complain to the Office for Civil Rights at HHS, the federal health department. Service you run for a transit agency can draw a complaint to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). A complaint is not a finding. How you answer it, and what your records show, decides most of what follows.

The rules the complaint will be measured against are in our guide to ADA requirements for NEMT vehicles and service. When a complaint is about a refused ride or a service animal, the guides on when you may refuse a ride and service animals in NEMT cover the rules in detail.

Which agency handles an ADA complaint against a NEMT company?

The agency depends on who pays for the ride and who you work for. DOT’s ADA rule says private companies, whether or not they get federal money, are enforced under the Justice Department’s Title III rules, and companies that receive DOT funds also answer to DOT’s own enforcement process (49 CFR 37.11). HHS reaches you through the money: its 2024 Section 504 rule explains that state Medicaid programs receive federal funds and are covered, and that the obligations pass down to the plans and contractors who carry out the program.

A rider can use more than one door. FTA’s ADA circular lets it close a complaint when another agency has investigated and its resolution meets DOT’s standards, or when the same allegations are already in litigation.

Courts are a separate path. A rider who sues under Title III can win a court order and attorney’s fees, but not damages, because the statute borrows the “preventive relief” remedy of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. 12188 and 12205). State law can change that math. California makes every ADA violation a violation of its Unruh Act, which sets damages of at least $4,000 for each offense, plus attorney’s fees (Civil Code 51(f) and 52(a)).

What happens after a rider files with the Justice Department

The Justice Department can do one of four things with a complaint: refer it to the ADA Mediation Program, refer it to another federal agency, investigate, or take no formal action. Its complaint page warns that review can take up to three months and that it cannot investigate every complaint.

If the Department picks mediation, the process runs like this, according to its program questions and answers (last updated January 26, 2026):

1. The rider agrees to mediate and signs a release form within 30 days.
2. You get a letter saying a complaint was filed and offering mediation. The Department does not investigate while mediation is pending.
3. A case manager from the Key Bridge Foundation, the program’s contractor, sets a date. Most sessions happen by teleconference, and neither side pays.
4. A trained ADA mediator helps both sides talk. The mediator decides nothing. Either side may bring a lawyer or withdraw at any time.
5. A successful mediation ends in a binding agreement, which can include policy changes, training, a payment, or an apology. The file closes only after both sides confirm the terms were carried out.

If you refuse to mediate, the complaint goes back to the Department, which may open an investigation. The program reports more than 5,000 complaints mediated since 1994, with over 75 percent resolved.

An investigation is more serious. The Attorney General may sue when there is reasonable cause to believe a company has a pattern or practice of discrimination, or when a single case raises an issue of general public importance (28 CFR 36.503). In that suit, a court can order changes, award damages to the people harmed when the Attorney General asks, and assess a civil penalty. For penalties assessed after July 3, 2025, a first violation is capped at $118,225 and each later one at $236,451 (28 CFR 85.5). Punitive damages are excluded, and the court must consider any good faith effort to comply.

Medical transportation has been on the receiving end. On January 30, 2014, the U.S. Attorney in Detroit announced settlements with LogistiCare Solutions, the broker now called Modivcare, and Michigan Green Cabs after riders with service animals were refused rides. One Michigan provider had turned a rider away because a LogistiCare customer service representative wrote a memo saying no animals were allowed in the cab. A Missouri rider was told by a LogistiCare employee that its providers would take service animals for blind riders and no others. Both companies agreed to update their policies and training materials. LogistiCare paid each complainant $750, and the cab company paid its complainant $500.

How HHS and FTA investigate

HHS and FTA both start with your policies and the circumstances of the trip, then push for an informal fix before anything formal. Their procedures come from the same Title VI model.

HHS Office for Civil Rights. Section 504 complaints follow HHS’s Title VI procedures (45 CFR 84.98), and Section 1557 uses the same enforcement mechanisms (45 CFR 92.301). An investigation reviews your pertinent practices and policies and the circumstances of the alleged discrimination (45 CFR 80.7). You must give investigators access to books, records, accounts, and facilities during business hours, and privacy or confidentiality concerns cannot be used to block them (80.6(c)). Matters are resolved informally whenever possible. If that fails, HHS can seek to cut off federal funding after a hearing, or use other means such as a Justice Department referral after at least 10 days’ notice (80.8). For a Medicaid provider, that funding is the Medicaid work itself.

FTA. FTA takes complaints online within 180 days of the incident, and its page (updated July 2, 2026) says it encourages riders to try the transit provider’s own complaint process first. When FTA investigates, it notifies the agency, asks for a response to the allegations with supporting information, and issues a decision letter. Its ADA circular says FTA usually asks for a corrective action response within 30 days. If you hold a transit agency contract, the agency answers to FTA and will need your records, and the circular warns agencies against handing complaints to their contractors to resolve.

What investigators will ask you for

Expect a written response to each allegation, the policy that applied, and the records of the trip. Answer every point, attach the evidence, and ask in writing for more time if you need it before the letter’s deadline.

Gather these before you write a word:

1. The trip record. Booked and actual pickup times, the vehicle, the driver, the route, and the trip notes.
2. Phone and message records. Call recordings, dispatch notes, and texts with the rider or the broker.
3. Video, if the van has a camera. Pull it before the system records over it.
4. The written policy that applied: service animals, mobility devices, boarding help, refusals, and how you handle reasonable modification requests.
5. Training records showing the driver was trained to proficiency, as 49 CFR 37.173 requires of every demand responsive operator.
6. Your complaint file, including how you answered the rider before the agency got involved.
7. Vehicle records, such as lift or ramp inspections, when equipment is part of the story.

FTA’s circular lists the same kinds of sources for transit agencies running their own investigations: camera footage, call recordings, written messages, location tracking, dispatch records, manifests, and interviews with staff and witnesses. If you are a DOT recipient, keep every complaint on file for a year and a summary of each for five years (49 CFR 27.121).

A complaint with civil penalties or a federal funding threat attached is worth an hour with a lawyer who handles disability cases before your response goes out.

Retaliation turns one complaint into two

Every one of these laws bans punishing a rider for complaining. The Justice Department’s rule bars coercing, intimidating, threatening, or retaliating against anyone who files a charge or takes part in an investigation (28 CFR 36.206). HHS’s rule and DOT’s Section 504 rule say the same, and both keep a complainant’s identity confidential during an investigation, with limits when the investigation needs it.

In practice, retaliation looks like ordinary dispatch decisions made at the wrong moment: turning back the rider’s trips, letting standing orders lapse, sending the oldest van, or telling the broker the rider is difficult. If a real safety problem arises after a complaint, the refusal rules still apply, but write down the conduct in detail and involve the broker before acting.

Fix the policy behind the complaint

The best answer to a complaint is a corrected policy, a trained team, and a working complaint process of your own. DOT’s rule already requires that process of every covered company, large or small (49 CFR 37.17):

• Name a coordinator. At least one person coordinates ADA compliance. FTA’s circular accepts a job title such as “ADA Coordinator” in place of a name, as long as messages reach that person.
• Publish how to complain. Advertise the process, with the coordinator’s address, phone number, and email, on your website and in rider materials.
• Make it accessible. The process must be usable by riders with disabilities, and FTA’s circular adds that complaint materials come in alternative formats when a rider needs them.
• Answer with reasons. Tell the rider your response and why, promptly, and keep a record of it.

Then fix the cause. Rewrite the policy that failed, retrain drivers and dispatchers, and log the complaint and its outcome in your complaint log. A written complaint procedure makes the next one faster to close. If HHS money pays for your rides and your staff numbers 15 or more, Section 504 also requires a coordinator and grievance procedures (45 CFR 84.7), and the Section 1557 duties are covered in the language access guide. Complaints about race, color, or national origin follow a parallel track, explained in the Title VI plan guide.

Pulling the trip record in HealthRide

An ADA response stands or falls on the trip record. HealthRide saves each ride’s scheduled and actual times, its GPS-recorded miles, the rider’s on-screen signature, and any recorded no-show wait, and it records every change made to the trip. Export the trip log to CSV or PDF, leg by leg with the driver and van, and the records an investigator wants are ready that day.