Ambulette software for New York wheelchair and stretcher providers

How New York regulates an ambulette company

New York treats the ambulette as its own Medicaid provider type, category of service 0602. The state manual defines the vehicle as “a special-purpose vehicle, designed and equipped to provide nonemergency transport, that has wheelchair-carrying capacity, stretcher-carrying capacity, or the ability to carry disabled individuals.” Enrolling in that category brings a set of rules, and most of them become dates, records, or scheduling limits your software has to handle.

Stretcher ambulettes have a narrower job. The rider is bed-confined and cannot sit in a wheelchair, yet stable enough that nobody has to watch over them medically during the ride. Two employees is the minimum crew, and the assistant sits in back with the rider. The vehicle needs a wheeled cot, the cot maker’s patient straps, and a cot retention device built by that same maker. The stretcher ambulette itself may not carry oxygen or oxygen delivery equipment, and staff may never offer oxygen or help with a rider’s supply. A rider who manages their own oxygen can still travel, with the tank secured during the ride.

Some ambulette companies also carry riders who can use a car. Medicaid lets the company run those curb-to-curb trips under its ambulette authority and bill them with taxi-level codes. Those sedans and minivans fall outside NYSDOT’s semiannual inspections. Where a local Taxi and Limousine Commission requires a license, proof of it is a condition of enrollment. For enrollment steps and county rates, see the New York state guide.

Where New York ambulette trips come from

All New York Medicaid transportation now runs through a single broker, Medical Answering Services (MAS). It began in all counties outside Nassau and Suffolk on August 1, 2023, and added those two on December 1, 2023. MAS signs providers directly, enforces the network’s driver and vehicle rules, and negotiates fee-for-service rates.

Managed long term care rides go through MAS as well. MLTC Policy 24.01 records that non-emergency transportation left the MLTC plan benefit on March 1, 2024 and is now paid fee-for-service through MAS. The policy does not apply to PACE plans. Rides to social adult day care work differently: since January 1, 2025 they remain an MLTC plan benefit, and each social adult day care must arrange its own transportation, with its own vehicles or through contracted vendors.

Other work comes from regional brokers and direct customers. Sentry Management Solutions, based in the Bronx, arranges rides for health plans, agencies, and medical facilities across the five boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland, plus Fairfield County in Connecticut and Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, and Union counties in New Jersey. Hospitals, nursing homes, and private-pay families can also book with you directly.

Each source sends trips its own way, and Medicaid trips from MAS carry the state GPS rule described below. When you compare software, find out which of your sources it can take trips from without retyping and which you will keep working in the source’s own system.

Standing orders

Dialysis and other repeat treatment run on standing orders. New York’s manual allows one approval to last an extended period when a rider travels to ongoing care like dialysis, always to one location and with one transportation provider. If the place or the day changes, get the change approved first, because an unapproved change can cost you the payment.

New York City’s ordering guidelines add the working details. A standing order stays on MAS’s schedule for six months, and requests should come in at least three business days before the first appointment. Near the end of each six-month period, MAS sends the facility a roster to recertify that the rider still attends on the ordered days and still needs the same vendor and mode. If a rider’s mobility changes, such as a patient who rode by ambulette and now needs a stretcher after a stroke, the facility must ask MAS to change the mode.

Software should mirror that. Set each series once with the approval’s days and end date, change a single date without touching the rest, and flag the series when the rider’s level of service changes. The standing order form shows what to collect at the start.

Signatures and the record behind every leg

New York pays ambulette claims only when records are contemporaneous, complete, and verifiable. Each leg needs eight items, in four groups:

Records are kept for six years from payment. Incomplete, unacceptable, or false records lead to recoupment, and the provider can face sanctions. Dispatch sheets and manifests, prior authorization rosters, and attendance logs from day programs only count as backup. None of them proves a trip by itself.

Drivers can sign on a screen instead of paper. The state takes a unique electronic signature when the driver’s completion tap also logs the GPS position at pickup and at drop-off. Each of those two moments needs a timestamp the system creates on its own and nobody can alter later, retrievable for the whole six-year period.

Claims carry some of this too. Every ambulette claim must include the driver’s license number and the plate of the vehicle used. If a different driver or van brings the rider home, report the driver and vehicle from the trip’s first leg.

GPS breadcrumbs for every trip

The GPS rule took effect on April 3, 2023, for every Medicaid transportation provider in the state. It comes from the state Department of Health, which alone can grant an exemption, and the data goes to the broker, which for Medicaid trips is MAS. To count as compliant, a trip’s data must reach MAS with its first point, its last point, and the breadcrumb trail between them.

The manual puts the work on the provider. Every vehicle needs GPS capability and must send coordinates to the broker as required. Providers using outside routing or billing software must make sure every driver has GPS and that each trip’s data is routed correctly. The manual sends providers to the broker for the list of compliant systems, so ask MAS before you sign with a software vendor.

Accidents and incidents within 48 hours

Since January 1, 2022, New York providers have reported every accident and incident on the NYSDOH NEMT Accident and Incident Report, sent to the broker within 48 hours. An accident is a collision with a vehicle, structure, object, person, or animal. An incident is anything that interrupts the trip and makes the driver stop, such as a breakdown or a rider who becomes ill or unruly. Every van keeps a packet on board that holds its registration, the insurance card, and the written accident procedure with its forms.

Drivers and vans on a calendar

An ambulette company runs on dates. These are the recurring ones:

Missing one is expensive. When Article 19-A records are incomplete, DMV can call the carrier to a hearing, suspend it, and fine it $500 to $2,500 for each violation, or up to $5,000 each for a repeat offender.

What to look for in ambulette software

1. Per-leg records at the driver’s tap. Times, places, plate, driver, signature, and attestation, with every change recorded.
2. GPS on every trip. Recorded from pickup to drop-off, with miles taken from the route actually driven. For MAS trips the breadcrumbs must also reach MAS, so ask MAS whether a product is on its compliant list before you buy.
3. Standing orders that match the approval. Days, end date, and a flag when the rider’s mode changes.
4. A plain answer on broker connections. Which brokers send trips straight to the board, and which you still work in the broker’s own system.
5. Wheelchair and stretcher matching. Stretcher trips only on stretcher-equipped vans, and wheelchair trips only on vans with a lift.
6. Credential dates with reminders. Article 19-A checks, NYSDOT inspections, registrations, and insurance.
7. A trip log you can hand an auditor. Exported as a spreadsheet or PDF, going back as far as you need.

Running an ambulette company in HealthRide

HealthRide connects with your brokers, like Sentry, MTM and Alivi, so their new trips show up on your board on their own. Each standing order becomes a recurring trip you schedule once, and signatures are captured on screen during each ride in the driver app, which also saves GPS-recorded miles and timestamps. Every change to a trip is recorded, and expiration reminders go out ahead of time for driver licenses and for van registrations and insurance.