Holiday schedule notice for facilities and riders: a fill-in letter for closures and changed hours
Overview
A holiday closure notice tells facilities and riders, in this order: the dates you are closed or running changed hours, the last day to book, the number for urgent trips, how dialysis and chemotherapy rides will run, and who to call to move a repeating ride. For rides a broker authorized, the change has to reach the broker too.
On this page
Send this notice after you have settled the holiday plan, not before. The planning itself, which means asking each dialysis center for its dates, adjusting standing orders, covering the shifts and telling brokers your hours, is laid out in the guide to planning NEMT around holidays. This page holds the two documents that carry the result: a letter for facilities and a short notice for riders and families. Fill in the brackets, read both once as a rider or a front-desk nurse would, and send them together.
How to use the notice
- Fill the holiday grid first. One row per holiday. Mark each as open, closed or changed hours, and write the hours when they change. Modivcare asks facilities the same thing on its own forms. Its New Jersey standing order request form has them mark New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day as open, closed or schedule change, with a line for others. Its Oklahoma facility registration form asks for the facility’s observed holidays.
- Print calendar dates for every deadline. Never write “two days before.” The section on closed days shows how to count.
- Name the dialysis, chemotherapy and radiation plan. Each center confirms its dates in writing, and the notice repeats them. The rider should not have to guess which Thursday moved.
- Say who changes a repeating ride. Rides you book are changed with you. Rides a broker authorized are changed with the broker as well. See the section on standing rides below.
- Send it twice. Once when the plan is settled, and again a week before the first closed day to anyone whose rides changed.
The holiday grid
Fill this in first. It goes into the facility letter, and its dates feed the rider notice.
| Holiday | Date we observe | Open, closed or changed hours |
|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | ||
| Memorial Day | ||
| July 4 | ||
| Labor Day | ||
| Thanksgiving | ||
| Christmas Day | ||
| Other: [name] |
Letter to facilities
Subject: [Company name] holiday schedule, [holiday period]
Hello [name],
Here is our schedule for [holiday period]. We are closed on [weekdays and dates]. On [weekdays and dates] we run [reduced hours]. Every other day runs as usual.
[Paste the holiday grid here.]
Booking. To book a ride on or after a closed day, send the request by [time] on [date]. After that, we can take it only as an urgent trip, if a driver is free.
Urgent trips. For hospital discharges and same-day needs, call [number]. It is answered on [dates and hours].
Dialysis, chemotherapy and radiation. We will run these rides on the dates [center name] confirmed to us in writing on [date]: [list each moved date and chair time]. If the center changes a date, please tell us by [date] so we can change the ride.
Repeating rides. For rides we book, tell us by [date] which dates to skip or move. For rides authorized by [health plan or broker], please send the change to [broker] as well as to us.
Questions: [name, phone, email].
Thank you, [name and title]
Notice to riders and families
Keep this one to a single page with large type. It is the version to post at a facility front desk and mail to riders who have no email. Put the answer first, and write it to the reader.
Our holiday schedule
Our office is closed on [weekdays and dates]. Rides run on [dates]. Rides do not run on [dates].
To book a ride for a holiday week, call [number] by [date].
If you ride to dialysis, chemotherapy or radiation, we will call you by [date] to confirm your rides.
To cancel or move a repeating ride, call [number]. If your health plan arranges your rides, call [health plan number] too.
For an urgent ride, call [number]. Someone answers on [dates and hours].
Federal plain language guidance gives the reasons for that layout. It says to put key information at the top, use clear headings and lists that are easy to scan, and mark important points in bold or italics, because capital letters are harder to read and come across as shouting online (Digital.gov). It describes the active voice as the one that makes clear who should do what, and its own examples speak to the reader as “you” (Digital.gov). Where riders read another language, send a translated copy. The language access plan template covers which documents to translate.
Print the day you are really closed
A holiday on a weekend is observed on a different day. The Office of Personnel Management says that for most federal employees a holiday on a Saturday is treated as the Friday before, and one on a Sunday as the Monday after (5 U.S.C. 6103(b) and Executive Order 11582). In 2027 three holidays move off their calendar date: Juneteenth, a Saturday, is observed Friday, June 18. Independence Day, a Sunday, is observed Monday, July 5. Christmas Day, a Saturday, is observed Friday, December 24. OPM’s 2028 list also puts New Year’s Day, a Saturday, on Friday, December 31, 2027. The holiday planning guide has a table of dates through July 2027 with the dialysis days each one hits.
Your facilities may not follow the federal calendar, so ask each one which days it closes and write those days. Then count the booking deadline from your own closed days. Two examples:
- A Thursday closure. Suppose you take two business days of notice and close on Thursday, November 26, 2026. For a ride on Friday, November 27, count back through open days: Wednesday is one, and Thursday is skipped, so Tuesday, November 24 is two. That is the last day to book.
- A Friday closure. Suppose you close on Friday, December 25, 2026 and want two business days of notice for a ride on Monday, December 28. Count back from Monday: Friday is closed, Thursday is one and Wednesday is two. Wednesday, December 23 is the last day to book.
Both are examples, not rules. Your own notice period sets the count, and the notice should carry the date it produces.
Standing rides: who needs to hear about the change
A standing ride has an owner. If your company books it, you change it. If a broker authorized it, the broker has to hear about the change too. Modivcare’s Florida facility page puts the risk plainly in its answer to who gets notified of a standing order change. It says it must be notified of any temporary or permanent change, that its system continues to carry the original information unless it is notified, and that a facility or member who only tells the transportation provider risks a missed appointment if the trip is assigned to a different provider. The page adds that network providers build their schedules from the daily manifest Modivcare sends, and it offers a separate Hurricane - Holiday Schedule Change Form that facilities use when a storm or a holiday changes a standing order for a single occasion.
Write that into both notices. A facility letter should name the broker and say the change goes to the broker as well as to you. A rider notice should name the health plan’s ride line. The standing order guide and the standing order form cover how a series is set up and changed, and chair time explains the dialysis times the notice repeats.
Closed dates in HealthRide
Handle the closed dates in the system before the notice goes out, so the notice and the board agree. In HealthRide you skip or move one date of a recurring trip and the rest of the series is untouched, so the weekly pattern carries on afterward. See recurring trips.
Frequently asked questions
- What should a holiday closure notice say first?
- The dates you are closed or running different hours, written as a weekday and a date. Federal plain language guidance says to put the key information at the top, use clear headings and lists, and not to emphasize with all capital letters, which read as shouting online. Follow with the last day to book, the number for urgent trips and the plan for recurring rides.
- Which date do I print when a holiday falls on a weekend?
- The day you are really closed. For most federal employees a Saturday holiday moves to the Friday before it and a Sunday holiday to the Monday after it (5 U.S.C. 6103(b) and Executive Order 11582, as the Office of Personnel Management lists them). In 2027 that moves Juneteenth to Friday, June 18, Independence Day to Monday, July 5, and Christmas Day to Friday, December 24. Facilities set their own days, so ask each one.
- Who changes a standing order for a holiday, the ride company or the broker?
- Both, when a broker authorized the rides. Modivcare's Florida facility page says it must be told of any temporary or permanent change to a standing order, that its system keeps generating the original schedule until told otherwise, and that a member who tells only the transportation provider risks missing the appointment. Tell the broker and your own dispatch.
- How do I work out the last day to book before a holiday?
- Count back from the ride day through the days you are open, skipping weekends and the holiday. As an example, with two business days of notice and a closure on Thursday, November 26, 2026, a ride on Friday, November 27 must be booked by Tuesday, November 24. Print the calendar date in the notice instead of writing two days before.
