Louisiana Medicaid NEMT fee schedule: the rate floor for Healthy Louisiana and fee-for-service rides

The October 1, 2025 schedule

Louisiana pays non-ambulance NEMT as a base rate for each leg of a trip plus a rate per mile, and the mileage starts counting at mile zero. A round trip is two legs, so it earns two base rates. The Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) posted the current schedule in September 2025, effective October 1, 2025.

Medicaid will not pay a member to drive themselves, so A0090 is only for a separate driver. The lodging and meal codes are A0180 (member lodging), A0190 (member meals), A0200 (escort lodging), and A0210 (escort meals). The ancillary codes entry explains them in more detail.

The schedule is a floor, not your price

Louisiana’s fee schedule sets the minimum a broker pays you, not a fixed price. Under the state plan, the published fee-for-service rate for the date of service is the lowest amount a broker can pay, and the only way below it is a lower rate written into your provider agreement. Chapter 10 of the Medicaid Services Manual repeats the rule, and LDH’s provider page says NEMT providers may negotiate rates individually and that a plan’s broker may pay more than the minimum but not less.

In practice, read the rate exhibit in every broker agreement before you sign. A clause that sets a rate below the schedule is the one situation in which the floor stops protecting you, because you agreed to it.

Who pays the trip

Ground NEMT claims do not go to LDH. The broker that arranged the ride pays it.

You can contract with MediTrans, Verida, or both, and LDH sets no limit on how many broker agreements a provider holds. No broker must accept every provider that applies. Brokers must schedule the least costly option that fits the member’s level of service, and they may not dispatch a trip to a provider outside the member’s LDH region unless no willing, available provider in that region can meet the time standards or the outside provider costs less. The MediTrans guide and the Verida guide cover each broker’s enrollment.

ELOC: the new door-through-door wheelchair rate

ELOC is Louisiana’s short name for a higher level of wheelchair care, meant for members who need help beyond their own capacity. The state plan says it is often called door-through-door transportation. CMS approved it in State Plan Amendment 24-0017 on March 24, 2025, effective October 20, 2024. The fee schedule gave it its own base rate of $31.50 per leg from October 1, 2025, which is $10 more than a standard wheelchair leg. Mileage stays at $1.30.

Three conditions attach to the higher rate:

1. Extra prior authorization. ELOC wheelchair services need an additional authorization beyond the ordinary trip approval.
2. A completed form with the claim. The state plan says ELOC claims are paid only when accompanied by the completed prior approval form documenting medical necessity.
3. Qualified providers. ELOC uses fully credentialed NEMT providers who have met any advanced training and insurance LDH requires.

Standard trips carry a lighter duty. If a member asks, the driver helps between the vehicle and the building’s main entrance. Physical contact is allowed only when the passenger asks for moderate help getting in or out of the vehicle, with the seat belt, or to and from the entrance.

What the schedule does not pay for

Several common charges have no line on the Louisiana schedule, and the manual says so directly:

• No-shows. Scheduled trips in which no member is transported are not billable. There is no dry run or late cancellation fee.
• Extra riders. You may not charge the member, or anyone, for additional passengers, and the broker will not pay a claim for them either. You may refuse to carry children who come along.
• Attendants. When the broker decides an attendant is required, the attendant rides with the member to and from the appointment as part of the member’s trip. The state plan makes no separate payment for anyone who accompanies the member.
• Stretcher vans. They are not an allowed NEMT vehicle type. A member whose condition rules out every other vehicle goes by non-emergency ambulance.
• Certain destinations. The manual’s list of places brokers are not paid to serve, which it says is not exhaustive, includes pharmacies, nursing facilities, hospice care, and WIC appointments at the Office of Public Health.
• Meals and lodging on short trips. These are covered only for long-distance travel, which the manual defines as more than 12 hours counting the appointment and travel both ways.

One charge can go the other way. The state plan lets LDH add a per-mile amount when a provider must travel far outside its service area because no willing, available provider exists in the member’s region.

Gas reimbursement providers

A0090 pays $0.36 a mile to friends or family who drive a member, and the schedule dates that rate to October 1, 2015. The driver must be at least 18, hold a valid Louisiana license, and not live at the member’s address. Across Verida and every health plan combined, one driver can be paid for up to five members, or more when all of them live in one household. Payment covers everyone in the car as one trip, and the broker issues the driver an IRS Form 1099. A member is not eligible for NEMT at all, gas reimbursement included, if anyone living at the same address owns a working vehicle.

Documentation that gets you paid

Before paying a for-profit or non-profit provider, the broker must find a matching entry in your daily trip log. The log is kept electronically, sorted by date, and lists for each trip:

1. Trip ID.
2. The member’s name, Medicaid ID, address, and signature.
3. The destination address and, where it applies, the provider or facility name.
4. Departure and arrival dates and times.
5. The driver’s name and the vehicle’s VIN.
6. Any comments about the trip.

MediTrans expects the paperwork for a completed trip within 24 hours and the claim within 365 days. It puts clean-claim processing at 7 to 14 business days, with pay runs on alternate Fridays. The manual sets the same 365-day limit for all ground claims and requires brokers to accept electronic claims. A leg with no matching trip log entry is not paid, even though you drove it.

The ARPA bonus ends September 30, 2026

LDH used American Rescue Plan Act funds for a monthly NEMT bonus: $500 per credentialed vehicle for up to three vehicles, or $1,500 a month per provider. The provider had to be fully credentialed and run at least one Medicaid round trip, meaning two consecutive legs, on 20 or more days in the month.

The program terminates effective September 30, 2026. Submissions for September 2026 are due October 5, and LDH will issue the final payment on October 31, 2026. LDH says the end of the bonus does not change any other transportation requirement or contract obligation. For a provider that collected the full amount, that is $18,000 a year of revenue to replace with trips or rate talks.

How Louisiana NEMT rates got here

The 2014 schedule also paid standing orders as a flat monthly amount divided across the authorized trips, such as $366.33 a month for a for-profit ambulatory member riding five days a week. That model is gone. Today every leg is priced the same way whether it is a one-off or a standing order.

State law now points to a higher floor, but it is not in force. Act 969 of the 2026 Regular Session (House Bill 1028), which became law without the governor’s signature, tells LDH to write rules that pay no less than $14.50 for every trip plus $2.10 for every mile, and it names wheelchair-accessible rides as covered. It also asks for a way to price a trip by how many passengers ride. A third part would stop rides to a service outside the member’s home parish or a bordering parish unless the health plan or LDH decides the trip is medically necessary. None of this applies until a law that specifically funds it takes effect. LDH then gets 90 days to carry it out, including a state plan amendment. LDH’s posted schedule still carries the October 1, 2025 effective date.

A worked example

Here is a hypothetical round trip of 8 miles each way, priced at the fee schedule floor.

Because mileage starts at zero, a short 2-mile leg still earns its full base plus $2.20 to $2.60 of mileage. The NEMT billing codes guide explains each code, and how much Medicaid pays for NEMT puts Louisiana next to other states. The Louisiana state guide covers licensing, insurance, and driver rules.

Keeping the trip log complete with HealthRide

Louisiana brokers pay a leg only when it matches a trip log entry. HealthRide’s driver app captures the member’s signature on the phone and stamps each leg with GPS-recorded miles and times as the driver goes. The trip log exports to CSV or PDF, ready to compare against what the broker shows before a claim runs out of time.