Wheelchair damaged during transport: who pays, and the coverage that actually responds

A rider’s wheelchair damaged during a ride is the transportation company’s problem when its driver caused the damage, and the company’s standard insurance usually will not pay for the chair. The business auto policy and the general liability policy both exclude property you are carrying or holding for someone else. Unless you bought coverage built for that gap, the repair or replacement comes out of your own pocket, and the broker still expects an incident report on its deadline.

Where these exclusions sit in a policy, alongside the others that leave NEMT claims unpaid, is laid out in NEMT insurance exclusions. This guide covers what to do about the chair: who pays, the coverage that does respond, what a chair costs, and how to document and report damage.

Who pays when a driver damages a rider’s wheelchair?

The company whose driver had the chair, in most cases, and its auto and general liability policies are written to say no. ISO’s business auto form, CA 00 01, refuses property damage claims for things the insured owns or is carrying, and for anything else in its care, custody or control. The commercial general liability form has its own version, excluding personal property in the insured’s care, custody or control, and its auto exclusion removes anything arising out of the use of the van anyway; the guide to general liability for NEMT explains that line.

How far “care, custody or control” reaches is not settled everywhere. IRMI, a risk management publisher, notes that some decisions have required physical possession of the property, while others count any party with a legal duty to look after the property. A chair strapped into your van or riding your lift meets either test.

Two things do not shift the cost:

• Broker member rules. MTM’s 2026 Virginia provider handbook lists, among member responsibilities, keeping responsibility for all personal items brought into a vehicle, mobility devices included. That rule describes what members are asked to do. It does not make a driver who drops a chair off a lift any less responsible.
• A curbside release. Releases a rider must sign before being driven to care rarely hold up, as the guide to liability waivers for NEMT riders shows.

Coverage that does respond

Coverage for property in your hands comes from more specific forms, not from liability policies. IRMI points to forms such as motor truck cargo and garagekeepers for this exposure, and a ride company needs the equivalent for riders’ devices. Four places to look:

1. Inland marine coverage. California’s insurance department calls inland marine a kind of property insurance written mainly for business property in transit, and says it also covers your liability when someone else’s property is damaged while you are carrying it. Virginia’s insurance regulator describes inland marine as written for property in transit and for property in the custody of bailees.
2. Bailee coverage. IRMI defines bailee coverage as inland marine coverage on property entrusted to the insured for storage, repair or servicing, bought by businesses such as dry cleaners and repairers. Ask your agent whether an insurer will write it for riders’ wheelchairs, scooters and walkers carried on your vans, and get the wording to name mobility devices.
3. Third-party property or fidelity coverage. Some contracts already require it. home52’s transportation insurance requirements in Ohio call for third-party fidelity or similar insurance that pays clients back when an employee or volunteer steals or damages their property or money.
4. An umbrella that covers care, custody and control. Hamilton County Job and Family Services in Ohio requires its transportation providers’ umbrella policy to include care, custody and control among nine listed features. California’s insurance department explains that an umbrella paying a loss with no underlying policy beneath it starts only after a self-insured retention, commonly $10,000 or more, so this route fits an expensive power chair better than a scuffed armrest.

Whichever you choose, ask three questions before you buy: does it cover property of riders while it is on a lift or ramp as well as inside the van, what is the limit per item and per occurrence, and does it pay on actual cash value or replacement cost.

What a damaged chair can cost

Medicare’s October 2026 fee schedule gives a sense of the money involved. The amounts below are Medicare’s allowed amounts outside Alaska, Hawaii and the territories:

• A manual ultralightweight chair (K0005) has a purchase amount between $2,590.67 and $2,634.76, depending on the state.
• A standard Group 2 power wheelchair base (K0823) rents for $328.10 to $353.74 a month in non-rural areas for each of the first three rental months, and $559.39 where the rural amount applies.
• A Group 3 power wheelchair base (K0856) rents for $1,045.09 a month for each of the first three rental months.

Medicare’s capped rental rule pays monthly for no more than 13 continuous months, after which the supplier must transfer the chair to the beneficiary. For power wheelchairs, the monthly amount drops to 40 percent of the first-three-month rate from the fourth month on, so a Group 3 base alone comes to about $7,316 in Medicare-allowed rent over the 13 months. Medicare also lets beneficiaries buy complex rehabilitative power wheelchairs outright when they are first furnished.

Two more costs do not show on a fee schedule. The rider may be without a usable chair until it is repaired, which can mean missed treatment and a complaint to the broker. And when Medicare or Medicaid covers the replacement, the cost can be passed back to you. Under 42 CFR 414.210(f), a Medicare beneficiary may elect a new item when the contractor finds equipment irreparably damaged. Under 42 CFR 433.139, a state Medicaid agency that finds out about a responsible third party after it has paid has 60 days from the end of that month to start seeking the money back, unless the agency decides recovery is not worth the cost. The third-party liability entry explains how Medicaid recovery works.

Recording the chair’s condition at pickup

A damage claim usually turns into an argument about whether the damage was already there. Settle that before the chair rolls onto the lift:

1. Keep a device record for every regular rider. Make, model, manual or power, approximate weight with the rider, and any existing damage such as a cracked armrest or a missing footrest. The rider profile form includes a section for the rider’s mobility device.
2. Look before loading. The driver checks tires, brakes, armrests, footrests, the joystick and visible cables, and notes anything new on the trip record before the chair moves.
3. Take dated pictures of existing damage the first time you carry a chair and whenever you see something new.
4. Secure the chair the way its maker and the rules intend. The securement steps for occupied power chairs, and when to recommend a transfer, are in transporting power wheelchairs and scooters.
5. Check again at drop-off, with the rider or a family member present when possible, and ask the rider to tell the driver right away if something is wrong.

Reporting the damage to the broker

Treat a damaged chair as an incident, report it by the broker’s deadline, and keep your report factual. CareOregon’s transportation provider manual (Version 1.3) lists “damage to a member’s mobility device during loading and/or securement” as an example of a reportable incident. Its rules show the kind of deadlines to expect:

• Incidents with no injury must reach the brokerage within 24 hours of the event.
• Any injury or death, or an allegation that the driver was abusive, calls for written notice right away.
• The brokerage reports to CareOregon, and incident reporting to the Oregon Health Authority must follow within 2 business days of that notice.
• Your written response to a routine grievance is due in 3 business days, and for a more severe incident the brokerage may require it within one business day. The manual asks for objective documentation: what the driver saw or heard and what can be measured, not impressions.

Missing a report costs more than the chair. Under the Virginia handbook MTM approved on August 10, 2026, not reporting an incident or accident sits in the most serious infraction level and costs 3 points each time. Reaching 3 points takes a provider off MTM’s marketplace until the points are removed, and points expire one year after the date they were given.

Use your incident report template for every damaged device, even when the rider says not to worry about it.

When the rider is hurt too

An injury changes which policy is in play, but not for the chair. If the chair tips off a lift and the rider is injured, the injury goes to your auto policy as a bodily injury claim. In a 2017 Louisiana case, a resident whose wheelchair rolled off a van lift on the way to dialysis was paid through a settlement with the facility’s auto insurer, and the court held its general liability policy did not apply. The chair itself still falls under the auto form’s exclusion for property you were transporting.

So one incident can mean two claims: the injury to your auto insurer, reported the same day, and the device to whatever property coverage you carry or to your own budget. For the first hour after a crash and the calls to insurers, see after a NEMT van accident.

Trip records when a chair comes back damaged

When a rider says the chair was fine before your pickup, the trip record is your timeline. HealthRide stores the pickup time, the drop-off time and any on-screen signature for each trip, and every change is recorded. Wheelchair needs are matched to vans equipped for them when a trip is assigned, so the right vehicle is on the ride from the start. The dispatch board page shows how assignment works.