Sentry Management Solutions provider guide: joining its New York metro network

Who Sentry Management Solutions is

Sentry Management Solutions, LLC (Sentry MS) is a transportation broker in the Bronx that has managed non-emergency medical transportation in the New York area since 2016. It contracts directly with the organizations that pay for rides and passes those trips to companies in its local network.

Sentry’s clients are health plans and their members, insurance companies, care providers, hospitals and medical facilities, city agencies, and schools. It reports more than 7 million completed trips for the MTA and 50,000 for the Department for the Aging. In 2021 the MTA Board approved Sentry as one of the broker companies adding capacity to Access-A-Ride, the city’s paratransit service.

A few numbers set the scale. Sentry says it serves more than 120,000 passengers through over 1,400 institutions, insurers, and clinics, and it works with more than 200 transportation companies across livery, ambulette, and ambulance service. Its multilingual call center handles scheduling and rider support. New York State has certified it as a minority-owned business enterprise since 2020.

Where Sentry sends trips

Sentry’s service area centers on New York City and covers parts of three states.

Inside the city, Sentry keeps a separate routing team for each borough.

How Sentry fits next to New York Medicaid

New York Medicaid rides run on a different track. The state Department of Health contracts with Medical Answering Services (MAS) to schedule them, and on March 1, 2024 it handed MAS the rides for people in managed long-term care plans as well. Sentry’s trips come from the plans, insurers, facilities, and agencies that contract with Sentry.

For a fleet owner, the two are separate doors. Medicaid enrollment and MAS get you state Medicaid trips. A Sentry account gets you trips from Sentry’s clients. The New York NEMT guide covers Medicaid enrollment step by step.

Licenses to hold before you register

Register with Sentry only after you can operate legally where you drive. The license depends on the vehicle and the place. New York Medicaid’s enrollment rules name the license behind each vehicle category, which makes them a useful checklist.

Vehicles that carry passengers under NYSDOT authority get a state safety inspection at least twice a year. NYSDOT runs no inspection stations, so the operator supplies the site. Keep each inspection certificate current in your broker file.

How to join Sentry’s network

Sentry takes new transportation companies through an online portal.

1. Open the registration page. Go to nemt.sentryms.com/register/index and choose “Transportation provider” rather than “Insurance company.”
2. Create the account. The form asks for a first and last name, username, email, phone number and extension, a password, and a security question.
3. Clear credentialing. Sentry has a network credentialing department that handles provider files. Expect to send company, insurance, driver, and vehicle documents. Build the file ahead of time with our broker credentialing checklist, and see NEMT broker credentialing for what each document proves.
4. Settle the agreement. Confirm the rate for each vehicle type, the payment schedule, and how you submit completed trips before you sign.

Drivers get access to a Sentry training website with lessons and exams. Budget time for each driver to work through it.

How a Sentry trip runs

Each trip follows the same path from booking to follow-up.

1. A reservation enters Sentry’s platform by phone, website, app, or an automated feed.
2. Sentry’s support team checks the details against the passenger’s needs.
3. Routers and dispatchers pick the transportation company in the network best placed for the trip.
4. Your company assigns a credentialed driver and vehicle, and the trip details flow back to Sentry’s system.
5. The passenger is notified when the vehicle arrives.
6. Sentry’s live monitoring team follows the trip by GPS and geofence until drop-off.
7. Customer service contacts the passenger, driver, and facility for feedback.

Drivers work from the Sentry driver app. It pushes ride details each time a trip is dispatched, lets the driver contact the passenger, and shows booking changes and special requests. Fleet owners can review driver performance in the same app.

Sentry says network companies can reroute trips at any time, and its team watches for late arrivals so it can find another vehicle. It reports 1.5 complaints per 1,000 trips and says it resolves 94 percent of complaints the same day. Riders can also ask for a preferred company in the passenger app.

Sentry contacts

Sentry work on your HealthRide board

HealthRide connects with Sentry, as it does with MTM and Alivi. New Sentry trips appear on your board by themselves, with no retyping and no copying from a portal. Dispatchers then place them on the dispatch board beside your private-pay and facility rides. Broker connections explains the setup.