NEMT software for taxi companies adding medical rides
A taxi company adding medical rides needs software built for pre-booked trips, not street hails. It should record pickup and drop-off times, GPS miles, and a signature on every leg, repeat standing rides without retyping, warn before driver and vehicle credentials expire, and bring broker trips onto the same board as the rest of the day's work.
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Medical rides run on a different clock
Medicaid pays for taxi rides to medical care. Federal rules list the taxicab alongside the ambulance and common carriers as a way to get members to treatment (42 CFR 440.170), and the section on broker programs includes taxis in the transportation a broker may arrange. The national code for these trips is A0100, non-emergency transportation by taxi.
What changes is how the work arrives and how it gets paid. A taxi dispatch system is built to find the nearest car right now. Medical work is booked days ahead, runs on appointment times, and pays only when a record backs up each leg.
| Taxi work | Medicaid and broker rides | |
|---|---|---|
| How trips arrive | Hail, app, or phone call, for now | Assigned days ahead by a broker, plan, or facility |
| Timing | As soon as a car is free | A pickup window and an appointment to meet |
| Who pays | The rider, at the end of the trip | The broker, plan, or state, after the trip |
| Proof of the ride | A meter receipt | A record for every leg, kept for years |
| Repeat riders | Occasional | Standing rides several times a week |
MTM Health’s Virginia Medicaid handbook shows how tight the timing is. A pickup counts as on time only if the driver arrives within 15 minutes of the scheduled time, early or late, and the rider must be dropped off by the appointment time. For a will-call return, the vehicle has 45 minutes from the moment the rider is ready.
For a taxi company, the software has to do two things a meter system never did: back up every ride with a record, and keep a week of booked trips straight. The guide to adding NEMT to a taxi business covers the permits and enrollment side.
The record behind every leg
Medical payers pay against records, and they take money back when a record is missing. New York’s Medicaid manual is a clear example. Each leg needs its own record with:
- the rider’s full name and Medicaid ID,
- the trip date,
- the starting address and time of pickup,
- the ending address and time of drop-off,
- the plate of the car used,
- the license number of the driver,
- the driver’s printed name and signature, and
- the driver’s attestation that the ride happened, or a no-show mark if the rider never came out.
Keep each record for six years from the payment date. If one turns out incomplete, the state recoups what it paid. Since May 24, 2018, New York has also denied taxi and livery claims that leave out the driver’s license number or the plate.
Paper is not the only option. A driver can replace the written signature with a unique electronic one. The completion tap must capture GPS coordinates at pickup and again at drop-off, and each of those events needs a date and time set by the system and locked against edits. A separate rule, in force since April 3, 2023, makes every provider send the broker each trip’s full GPS trail: start point, end point, and the breadcrumbs between.
Brokers track trips the same way. Under MTM Health’s Virginia handbook, location tracking must run from pickup through drop-off on every trip, and providers are scored on the share of trips tracked by GPS. Software for medical work should capture all of this at the driver’s tap, with nothing typed in afterward. For what other payers ask for, see NEMT documentation requirements.
Standing rides need their own tools
A rider on dialysis three times a week is steady, predictable work. Payers set these up as standing orders: New York grants a standing order approval when a rider needs regular trips for extended treatment, at the same location, with the same provider. Moving a ride to a new place or day needs approval first, and skipping that step can cost you the payment.
New York City’s ordering guidelines keep a standing order on the broker’s schedule for six months and ask for routine trips at least three business days ahead. MTM Health’s Virginia process sends standing trips straight to their designated provider and wants the regular driver kept on them whenever the schedule allows.
A taxi system that treats every ride as new makes this hard. Look for software where you set the pattern once, change a single date without breaking the series, keep the regular driver on it, and end the series cleanly when treatment stops.
Driver and vehicle rules you now have to track
Medical work adds a credential file to every driver and vehicle. The federal floor comes from Section 209 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and it has four parts. Neither the company nor any driver can be on a federal health care exclusion list. Every driver holds a valid license. The company has a set procedure for violations of state drug law, and a method for reporting drivers’ histories behind the wheel to the state’s Medicaid office.
Brokers build on that. Here is what MTM Health’s Virginia handbook asks for:
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Driver age and experience | 21 or older, with two years of driving |
| Driving record | Looking back three years, two chargeable accidents or moving violations at most |
| Background | Criminal record checks through the state police or national databases, plus a sex offender registry search, before the driver’s first trip |
| Training | Passenger assistance, HIPAA, and defensive driving; first aid and wheelchair securement when the job calls for them |
| Taxi drivers | Passenger assistance training for any who assist riders door-to-door or hand-to-hand |
| Taxi plates | Current local taxi licensing wherever a taxi authority exists |
| Vehicles | Inspected before the first trip, then twice a year |
The broker keeps enforcing this list after signup, trip by trip. The same handbook scores two points for each expired credential used on a trip. At three points, the provider loses access to the broker’s trip marketplace until the points come off.
Vehicles bring one more federal rule. Under the ADA rule for taxi service (49 CFR 37.29), a taxi company does not have to buy accessible cars. If it buys or leases a vehicle other than an automobile, such as a van, that vehicle must be accessible unless the company can show equivalent service. The same rule bars refusing riders with disabilities who can use the vehicle, refusing to help stow a mobility device, and charging them higher fares.
Broker trips on the same board
In broker states, Medicaid rides reach a taxi company through the broker, on the broker’s schedule. MTM Health’s Virginia schedule offers each trip to eligible providers seven days out and opens it to any provider serving the area at five days. A trip you accept but cannot run goes back to the broker no later than 24 hours before pickup. Each trip comes with a manifest that lists the rider, both addresses and their times, the approved mode, how much help the rider needs, whether an escort rides along, and any special instructions.
The trouble starts when those trips live in the broker’s portal and your taxi work lives in your own system. Someone retypes every trip, and every retyped address is a chance to send a driver to the wrong door. MTM Health lets providers use its free driver app or compatible routing software connected to its system, and it sends manifests straight to that software. Pick software that puts broker trips on the same board as the rest of your work, and see our guide to getting NEMT broker contracts for the application side.
What to look for
- Pre-booked scheduling. Trips booked days ahead, with pickup windows and appointment times on the board.
- Per-leg records from the driver’s phone. Times, GPS miles, signatures, and no-show waits captured at the tap.
- Standing rides. Set a pattern once, change one date, and keep the same driver.
- Credential reminders and guards. Warnings before a license, inspection, or training lapses, and a stop before an expired driver or car is assigned.
- Broker trips without retyping. New trips arrive on your board on their own.
- Vehicle matching. Wheelchair riders go only to vans with a lift or ramp.
- Exports for audits. A trip log you can hand a broker as a spreadsheet or PDF.
Adding medical rides with HealthRide
MTM, Alivi and Sentry are among the brokers HealthRide connects with, and new trips from them show up on your board without anyone retyping them. Standing rides are set once as recurring trips, and credential reminders go out before a license, registration, or insurance policy lapses. Drivers capture signatures on screen in the driver app, and GPS-recorded miles and timestamps are saved on every ride.
Frequently asked questions
- Taxi dispatch system for Medicaid rides: keep it or replace it?
- Keep it only if it records everything the payer checks on each leg. New York, for example, wants the rider's name and Medicaid number, where and when each ride started and ended, the car's plate, the driver's license number, and the driver's signed attestation that the ride took place. If your system cannot produce that for every leg, someone ends up keeping a second record by hand.
- Does a taxi company need wheelchair vans to do NEMT?
- Not to start. Federal Medicaid rules list the taxicab as a way to get riders to care, and ambulatory riders can ride in a sedan. The ADA rule for taxi service (49 CFR 37.29) does not make a taxi company buy accessible cars. Any van it buys or leases, though, has to be accessible unless the company can show equivalent service. Riders who stay in their wheelchair need a lift or ramp vehicle.
- What billing code do Medicaid taxi rides use?
- A0100, which the national HCPCS code set describes as non-emergency transportation by taxi. Each state sets its own rate and mileage rules. South Dakota, for example, pays $5.20 per one-way trip from July 1, 2026, and adds S0215 mileage only for trips of at least 21 miles one way outside the city. Broker trips pay what your broker agreement says; New York's statewide broker negotiates fee-for-service rates with each provider.
- What do brokers require of taxi drivers who carry members?
- At least the federal minimums: a valid license, a clean record on the federal exclusion lists, and a driving history the provider can disclose to the state. Brokers usually add more. MTM Health's Virginia Medicaid handbook requires drivers to be 21 or older with two years behind the wheel, and a taxi driver who helps riders door-to-door or hand-to-hand must also finish passenger assistance training.
- How do broker trips reach a taxi company?
- Through the broker's portal or through connected software. MTM Health's Virginia schedule sends each trip to eligible providers a week before the appointment, and five days out any provider in the area can claim it. MTM Health lets providers use its free driver app or compatible routing software that connects to its system, and it sends trip manifests to that software directly.
