Ambulette: New York's name for a wheelchair and stretcher van

What counts as an ambulette

In New York, an ambulette is a special-purpose van for nonemergency trips. It can carry a rider in a wheelchair, a rider on a stretcher, or a rider with another disability. The state’s Medicaid manual lists it as its own mode, sitting between the ambulance and the taxi or livery car, and enrolls ambulette companies under category of service 0602.

Two kinds of service run under that one category:

• Wheelchair ambulette. A lift or ramp van where the rider stays seated in their own chair, with staff helping from door to door.
• Stretcher ambulette. For a bed-bound rider who is unable to sit up in a wheelchair but stable enough to travel without monitoring. At least two employees work each trip, and the assistant rides in back with the rider.

New York’s fee schedule sets ambulette fees county by county. The base codes are A0130 for a wheelchair trip and T2005 for a stretcher trip, and mileage goes on S0209 or T2049.

New York’s rules for ambulette companies

Medical Answering Services (MAS) is the state’s Medicaid transportation broker, and providers sign a service agreement with it to receive trips. Some new applicants also post a surety bond before enrollment. That covers applicants with service addresses in Nassau, Westchester, Monroe, Erie, Orange, or Suffolk counties, and companies enrolling after a change of ownership in New York City.

An ambulette company may also take curb-to-curb trips for riders who can use a car. Those bill at taxi-level codes, and the sedans and minivans used for them fall outside NYSDOT’s inspections. The livery vehicle entry explains that level in New York City.

Ambulette vs ambulance

The line is medical care. A New York ambulance service is certified by the Department of Health to give emergency care and carry sick or injured patients. An ambulette provides transportation and physical help only.

• An ambulette may never stand in for an ambulance at an emergency.
• A stretcher ambulette may not carry a rider who is sedated or needs monitoring or treatment.
• A stretcher ambulette carries no oxygen equipment, and its crew may not handle a rider’s oxygen. Riders who manage their own oxygen can still travel.
• The state calls the Star of Life emblem inappropriate on a non-medical van, because it marks emergency vehicles.
• An ambulance company may run ambulette trips, but its ambulance must still meet full ambulance staffing and equipment rules while doing so.

For the medical-necessity side, see NEMT vs ambulance.

Where else the word is used

Ohio writes it into law. Section 4766.01 of the Revised Code defines an ambulette as a vehicle built or modified for riders who rely on a wheelchair or a similar mobility aid. A company whose business is carrying those riders between places such as hospitals, dialysis centers, nursing homes, memory care centers, and doctors’ offices needs a license to provide ambulette service from Ohio’s State Board of Emergency Medical, Fire, and Transportation Services. The board also issues a permit for each van. It inspects a van before that first permit and once a year from then on, and each permitted van shows the board’s decal in its rear window.

Other states tend to use other names. New Jersey licenses a mobility assistance vehicle (MAV) under N.J.A.C. 8:40, and the Medicaid rules in Colorado and Virginia speak of wheelchair vans and stretcher vans. Enrollment steps for New York are in the New York state guide.

In HealthRide, each trip keeps the rider’s wheelchair or stretcher need, and the dispatch board matches it to a van equipped for it. The trip log records the driver, the vehicle, and GPS miles for every leg, so the records a broker asks for are one export away. New York operators can read more on ambulette software.