Paratransit Services provider guide: Apple Health rides in western Washington

Who Paratransit Services is

Paratransit Services is a nonprofit based in Bremerton, Washington. It takes Apple Health ride requests for the Health Care Authority (HCA) from nine counties in the western part of the state, all through its Medicaid call center in Bremerton. The same organization operates public transit systems in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California, but its brokerage work is a separate line of business.

Its roots go back to 1980, when nursing homes, group homes, and social service agencies in Kitsap County donated vehicles to a shared transportation pool run by a local housing and transportation association. The name Paratransit Services dates from 1988, the year the company ran Washington’s pilot of brokered Medicaid rides in Pierce County. Washington adopted brokers statewide in 1990 and now has six regional brokers, each with its own set of counties. Our Washington state guide maps all six.

HCA’s contract forbids a broker to provide trips directly, so every vehicle trip Paratransit Services approves goes to an outside company. It subcontracts with more than 50 of them, and their fleets range from a single vehicle to more than 30. Subcontractors carry ambulatory riders and riders who use mobility aids such as wheelchairs.

The nine counties and how riders reach the broker

Riders call a different line depending on where they live, and your dispatchers will hear these numbers from riders and facilities.

The call center takes requests Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Rides have to be requested two or more business days before the appointment, and no more than 30 days ahead. Calls after 5 p.m. are treated as next-day requests, and the 2026 holiday closures move the cutoff back further. When a rider lives no more than three-quarters of a mile from a bus stop and the trip can be made by bus, the broker books bus fare, in line with WAC 182-546-6200. A rider who needs a van may be asked for a letter from a medical provider.

Qualifying through the Request for Qualifications

Paratransit Services brings in providers through a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) packet posted on its provider page. Packets that arrive incomplete, inaccurate, or illegible are not processed, so work through the checklist line by line.

The questionnaire asks for your UBI number, whether you hold a for-hire license, your federal tax ID, separate administrative, dispatch, and billing phone numbers, how long you have run medical transportation in western Washington, past subcontracting work, WMBE and veteran-owned status, planned driver count, and each owner’s share. It closes with a vehicle table (make, model, year, mileage, lift, and ambulatory and wheelchair capacity) and the counties and hours you want to serve.

The UBI or business license number you contract under cannot change during the contract without the contract administrator’s approval. The confidentiality agreement also makes you collect a separate confidentiality agreement from your employees and any contractors you use. Our broker credentialing guide explains how to assemble a packet like this without gaps.

Insurance

Paratransit Services spells out its insurance terms in a one-sheet attachment.

Your insurer must be admitted in Washington and hold at least a B++, Class VII rating from A.M. Best (A-, Class VII for a surplus lines carrier). Paratransit Services and HCA go on the general and auto policies as primary additional insureds, with a separation of insureds clause. Insurers owe Paratransit Services 45 days’ notice before any cancellation or material change, and you owe it notice within one business day of learning a policy is ending. The same sheet notes that for-hire providers regulated under RCW 46.72 must meet the insurance minimums set by law, so confirm with the brokerage which limits apply to your company type. Our NEMT insurance cost guide covers how these limits affect premiums.

Driver standards

Every driver clears the broker’s file review before carrying a rider.

• Age and license. At least 21, with a valid Washington license held for five years or more.
• Driving record. A complete DOL abstract covering three years, pulled within the last 30 days. Two or more moving violations or at-fault accidents in those three years rule the driver out. Drivers new to Washington in the past year also send an abstract from their prior state.
• Background. Fingerprint-based criminal history results from the Washington State Patrol before service, with a WATCH report allowed while those are pending. Any felony disqualifies, as does a DUI or DWI conviction in the last ten years, or two or more at any time (counting those reduced to negligent driving), and crimes listed under RCW 43.43.830. Paratransit Services can rerun criminal histories at any time.
• Work eligibility and language. An E-Verify check showing the driver may work in the U.S., and English the driver can read, write, and speak.
• Drug testing. A negative pre-employment test for drivers, dispatchers, and mechanics, sent to the broker before hire. Your company needs a drug-free workplace, membership in a testing consortium following 49 CFR testing procedures (or an equivalent program), and a written policy with sanctions. Adapt our drug and alcohol policy template instead of writing one from scratch.

Training comes from a broker-approved source, such as the Red Cross or the National Safety Council, and is finished before a new provider’s contract starts. The list covers ADAPTS or PASS passenger assistance, customer service, fire suppression, defensive driving (a course of four hours or more), CPR and first aid, drug and alcohol awareness (plus supervisor training), child safety seat installation, and bloodborne and airborne pathogens. Add a road test in the vehicle type the driver will use, a program briefing, and yearly HIPAA training for anyone who handles rider information.

Vehicle standards

Paratransit Services inspects and approves each vehicle before it carries a rider.

• Registration. A CAB or F/H use class, a DOL for-hire vehicle certificate, proof of insurance kept in the vehicle, and the company or its owner listed as the registered owner.
• Equipment. A fire extinguisher (UL approved), first aid and biohazard kits, three roadside reflectors, a flashlight, a seat belt cutter and extenders, reporting forms, and a spare tire and jack where it makes sense. Vans and buses add a sturdy step stool when needed.
• Fit and finish. A single main body color, heating and ventilation that reach the back seats, a hands-free phone or two-way radio, and a properly mounted GPS unit on the dashboard or windshield. Vehicles that carry eight or more passengers need a shoulder belt at every wheelchair position.
• Markings. Permanent lettering at least 3 inches tall on both sides gives your phone number, company name, and vehicle number, and the vehicle number is repeated on the back.
• Maintenance. Preventive maintenance on at least the manufacturer’s schedule, a maintenance file per vehicle, and written safety checks at the start and end of every workday.

The full RFQ packet adds an age cap (sedans and vans no older than 10 years, wheelchair vans and buses no older than 15) and requires preventive maintenance within 500 miles of the manufacturer’s schedule. The separate vehicle standards sheet on the resources page leaves both out, so confirm with the brokerage which terms your contract carries before you buy a vehicle.

A vehicle other than a current model year needs a certified mechanic’s inspection before the broker inspects it, and every wheelchair lift gets checked by an authorized dealer. A passed inspection from another Apple Health broker, or from a city or county with authority over the vehicle, may be accepted in place of Paratransit Services’ own. You cannot add or swap vehicles without approval. The RFQ states that trips run in an unauthorized vehicle are not paid, money already paid comes back, and a financial penalty can follow. Our vehicle inspection checklist works for those start-of-day and end-of-day checks.

Rates, shared rides, and how trips are assigned

Paratransit Services does not set provider rates. Each provider proposes rates on the broker’s rate sheet, labeled either regular or after-hours, and the brokerage negotiates when a proposal is well above what it can accept.

The rate structure document describes NEMT as shared-ride service and asks every subcontractor for a shared-ride rate, meaning a lower fee when two or more authorized riders travel the same way in one vehicle. HCA’s contract explains the push. Brokers can earn up to 5 percent more administrative pay by raising the share of low-cost modes such as bus and gas vouchers. A rising share of shared rides can add up to 1 percent on top of that, within the same 5 percent cap. Pricing a shared trip well puts your vans first in line. Our rate sheet template lays out these lines for your own costing.

Rides go out on cost, so no volume is promised. The rate sheet captures the counties you will cover, your office and service hours, any rider limits, and an after-hours phone, which also shape assignments. Under HCA’s subcontract terms, the broker has to pay you within 10 calendar days once its monthly HCA payment is in.

After-hours coverage

Outside call center hours (weekday evenings from 5 p.m. to 7:59 a.m., weekends, and most major holidays), riders phone a listed provider directly with their ProviderOne ID. These trips are mostly emergency room returns, hospital releases, and urgent care trips in both directions. Rides to an emergency room are not covered, even after hours. For urgent care and hospital discharge trips, WAC 182-546-5200 lets the provider follow the broker’s closed-hours directions and then ask the broker, within two business days, to approve the trip retroactively.

Most counties have one or two after-hours providers on the list, and Thurston and Pacific counties have none. A company that can staff nights and weekends there has an opening worth raising with the brokerage. See our after-hours NEMT guide for staffing and pricing that shift.

Contacts

Staying inspection-ready

Paratransit Services pulls any driver or vehicle that falls out of compliance, and the broker pays nothing for a trip run by a driver or vehicle it had not approved. HealthRide tracks license, certificate, and registration expirations for every driver and van, warns you before they lapse, and flags a driver whose credentials have expired before you assign them. Drivers complete a vehicle check in the app when each shift begins. See how it works on the fleet page.