NEMT contracts with no experience: how new companies answer the track-record question

Every application a new NEMT company fills out asks, in some form, for proof that someone has already trusted it with riders. In the first year the honest answer is short, and how much that matters depends on who is asking. Each kind of buyer weighs a short history differently. Brokers mostly check documents. Federal buyers have written rules that protect a bidder with no record. Counties, facilities, insurers, and accreditors are where the lack of history bites, and each of those has a workaround.

Brokers grade the file, then the need

A Medicaid broker credentials your company, your drivers, and your vehicles. The published requirements read like a checklist, not a résumé review:

• Verida. The process has four stages. It opens with a Request for Qualifications form plus your driver and vehicle lists. If Verida moves you forward, it wants your business license, a certificate showing your liability coverage, each driver’s credentials and criminal background check, and up-to-date drug test results for owners as well as drivers. Vans then pass a safety inspection, drivers finish training, and the contract is signed when the owner completes Verida’s provider orientation.
• Modivcare. Its driver list covers background checks, clean driving records, drug testing, CPR and first aid cards, defensive driving, and PASS wheelchair training. Each van needs up-to-date registration, insurance, and an inspection in states that require one. On the company side it names commercial general liability, sexual abuse and molestation (SAM) cover, auto liability at state minimums, and workers’ comp, which most states require as soon as you hire.
• SafeRide Health. Its onboarding form collects your NPI and EIN, whether Medicaid has approved you, your liability limits, the states and counties you cover, your operating hours, your fleet by vehicle type, and the daily ride capacity you can give SafeRide. Credentialing then covers each driver’s national background check, sex offender registry search, motor vehicle report, drug screen before hire, and training proof.

None of those three lists sets a minimum time in business. What they do weigh is need. Verida screens each application for whether its region is short of providers, and nothing else happens until that answer is yes. A complete file in a full network still waits, which is why a full broker network is the more common obstacle for a new company than its age. Once you are in, volume is not promised either. MTM’s standard provider agreement promises no minimum trip count and leaves actual volume to MTM’s sole discretion.

The practical point is to make the file flawless. A new company with every certificate current and every driver trained looks like any other approved provider on the broker’s screen. The broker credentialing guide covers the documents in detail.

Federal buyers must treat a blank record as neutral

Federal contracting has the clearest rules about new bidders. The Federal Acquisition Regulation says an offeror without a record of relevant past performance, or one whose record is not available, “may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance.” The codified rule is FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iv). The overhauled Part 15, which the VA and many other agencies have adopted by class deviation, keeps the same sentence at 15.202(c)(1).

Three other rules work in a new company’s favor:

1. Responsibility. Before award, the contracting officer decides whether you can perform. FAR 9.104-1(c) says that decision may not rest solely on a lack of relevant performance history.
2. SBA review. If a contracting officer finds an apparent winning small business nonresponsible, the matter must go to the Small Business Administration, which decides whether to issue a Certificate of Competency for that contract.
3. What counts as experience. Solicitations must let offerors list similar federal, state, local, and private contracts. Evaluators may consider the experience of key personnel and of subcontractors who will do major parts of the work. For commercial buys, the overhauled Part 12 adds that contracting officers may consider an offeror’s experience as a subcontractor.

A real solicitation shows how this plays out. The Spokane VA Medical Center’s wheelchair transportation request for quotes (36C26027Q0022, posted September 1, 2026) evaluated the lowest-priced quote first for technical acceptability, with price as the deciding factor. Quoters could submit up to three past performance references for work done within the prior three years, and the apparent winner’s record was checked as part of the responsibility review. The capability statement asked how drivers are hired and qualified, how staffing meets response times, how many vehicles are available and dedicated to VA, proof of licenses and insurance “and/or ability to obtain” them with a timeline, the communication system, and a quality control program with sample documents.

Notice where experience was demanded outright: each driver needed at least one year as a licensed driver. The company itself could compete on price, capability, and a plan. For registration and bidding, see VA transportation contracts and the broader guide to government NEMT contracts.

Counties and facilities ask who has used you

Local buyers follow their own procurement rules, and many ask directly for history. Mahoning County Job and Family Services in Ohio is one example. Its August 2024 request for proposals for non-emergency transportation asked each bidder for:

• The date the business was established, its years of relevant experience, and its number of employees.
• A short history showing experience operating a demand-response transportation system.
• At least two references from other contracted work similar to the county’s, from companies rather than individuals, each with a contact person, the nature of the services, and the contract period.

The same section added a line that matters to new companies: “If references cannot be provided, please explain why.” A buyer that writes that sentence expects some bidders to be new. Leaving the section blank wastes that opening. A short, honest explanation followed by what you can show is the answer the line asks for.

Hospitals, nursing homes, and dialysis centers that buy rides directly set their own terms, and the same evidence answers them. The facility contracts guide covers how those deals start.

Two gates that run on the calendar

Two checks do depend on time in business, and no paperwork shortens them.

• Accreditation. An organization needs 12 months or more in service before NEMTAC will take its application, plus an NPI, an EIN, and whatever licenses its city and state require. NEMTAC’s advice to a company in its first year is to get its processes running and lean on NEMTAC education until then. See the NEMTAC accreditation guide for cost and process.
• Insurance pricing. Progressive’s NEMT program, for example, lists a discount for companies in business three years or more and another for prior livery experience. A first-year company starts without the first one. An owner or manager with prior experience transporting passengers should say so on the application.

Building a record in the first six months

The goal for year one is a set of people who will vouch for you in writing, plus numbers that back them up.

1. Take subcontract work from an established provider. Many broker agreements forbid subcontracting without written consent, so get it first; MTM’s standard agreement requires MTM’s express written consent. The subcontracting guide covers the agreement and the states that ban it. At the end, ask the prime company for a letter naming the services, monthly volume, and dates.
2. Serve private-pay riders and small facilities. Federal solicitations count private contracts, and county RFPs ask for contracted work of any kind. A senior living community that used you twice a week for four months, for example, is a reference.
3. Offer a defined trial. A facility that will not sign a contract may agree to a two-week trial on a few routes. Agree in advance on what you will report at the end, such as on-time pickups, late drop-offs, and complaints, then deliver that report.
4. Measure from the first trip. References get asked about reliability, so keep the numbers yourself: on-time percentage, no-shows by you and by riders, complaints, and incidents. SafeRide Health’s published standards, 95 percent on time and complaints under 1 percent, are a useful bar to hold yourself to.
5. Put experienced people in key roles. Federal evaluators may weigh key personnel experience, and at least one large insurer discounts NEMT policies for prior livery experience. A dispatcher or operations manager who ran trips for another company brings part of that history with them.

What to offer in place of references

When a proposal asks for references you do not yet have, fill the space with evidence a buyer can check.

• Key personnel résumés. Name the owner, operations manager, and lead dispatcher, with prior transportation or healthcare roles, dates, and employers.
• References from earlier roles. A former employer, or a facility your manager worked with at another company, can speak to that person’s reliability.
• Written plans with samples. A quality control plan with sample trip logs and inspection forms, a driver training plan with completed certificates, and an incident procedure. The Spokane VA request asked for exactly this kind of sample documentation.
• Proof of capacity. A vehicle list with make, model, year, and VIN, a certificate of insurance at the buyer’s stated limits, and a driver roster with training dates.
• A plain explanation. When the company started, what it has run so far, who can vouch for it, and how it will meet the buyer’s response times.

Proving performance with HealthRide

The numbers that replace a reference have to come from somewhere a buyer trusts. HealthRide’s on-time performance report tracks punctuality on every leg, overall and per driver, and the trip log shows scheduled versus actual times with GPS-verified miles. Export either as a spreadsheet or a print-ready PDF to attach to a proposal or send to a facility after a trial. See the reports page for what each report covers.