Introduction letter to a facility: a one-page NEMT template that earns a meeting

How to use this template

An introduction letter has one reader and one ask: fifteen minutes to hear what rides cause that facility the most trouble. Keep it to a single page, send it to a named person, and put in only what you can document.

• Write about one problem you know of. Dialysis chairs that start at 5:30 a.m. or discharges that bunch up in the late afternoon work better than a list of everything you do.
• Fill every bracket with a true fact. Delete a line you cannot back. A claim you cannot show makes the whole page weaker once the facility asks for proof.
• Keep the rest for the second document. Prices, a service plan, and references go in the facility proposal template after the facility says yes to a meeting. Attach a one-page rate sheet only if it asks.

Finding the facilities and the people who book their rides is covered in how to get NEMT facility contracts. This page is the letter itself.

The letter

Your letterhead: company name, postal address, phone

[Date]

[Name], [Title], [Facility], [Street address]

Subject: Wheelchair and stretcher rides for [Facility]‘s patients, [Company], [City]

Dear [Name],

Paragraph 1. [Company] drives wheelchair and stretcher patients between [homes, clinics, dialysis centers, or hospitals] in [area]. I am writing because [one specific reason you know to be true].

Paragraph 2. Here is what we can show you today: [number] wheelchair vans and [number] stretcher vans, each with a working [lift or ramp]; a certificate of insurance from our agent; drivers who pass [background and driving record checks] and a monthly exclusion-list search; and an on-time result of [percent] for [quarter], measured from recorded arrival times.

Paragraph 3. We would like to offer [one specific thing]: for example, return rides picked up within [minutes] of your call, a named dispatcher at [direct phone], and a one-page monthly report of on-time rides and problems. You can try us on [the rides you choose] at the rates on the enclosed sheet.

Paragraph 4. May I take 15 minutes on [day or week] to hear which rides give your staff the most trouble? I will call on [day] to find a time. You can reach me at [direct phone, email].

Sincerely,

[Name, title, company, postal address]

Enclosed: certificate of insurance; one-page service summary

If you send the letter by email, add one line telling the reader how to stop further messages from you, and see the rules below.

What each paragraph does

1. Who you are, and why this reader. It names the rides you carry and one problem you have reason to believe the facility has.
2. Proof. Each item is something the facility can check: insurance, vehicles, screening, a measured on-time number. If you do not record arrival times, leave the percentage out and say what you can show, such as a three-month sample trip log.
3. One offer. A will-call response time, a named dispatcher, a monthly report. Part of the offer should be something the reader can test.
4. The ask. A short meeting and a date for your call, so the next step is yours.

An example, with made-up details

This example uses an invented company and invented numbers. Replace every detail.

Dear Ms. Reyes,

Harbor Medical Rides drives wheelchair and stretcher patients between homes, clinics, and dialysis centers in Lakeview County. I am writing because your morning chairs start at 5:30 a.m., and early pickups are where most companies run short.

We run six wheelchair vans and two stretcher vans, each with a working lift. Our insurance certificate is enclosed, our drivers pass background and driving record checks, and we search the federal exclusion list for every driver each month. Last quarter 94 percent of our pickups arrived within a 30-minute window, measured from recorded arrival times.

We would like to cover your 5:30 a.m. rides for one month at the rates on the enclosed sheet. You would have one dispatcher, Mr. Ortiz, on 555-0142, and a one-page report at the end of the month.

May I take 15 minutes next week to hear which rides give your staff the most trouble? I will call Tuesday to find a time.

Sincerely, Dana Brooks, Owner

Who gets the letter

Address the person who books outside rides, not the main desk. The federal rules for each type of facility point to a likely title.

• Hospitals. Each discharge plan has to be developed by, or under the supervision of, a registered nurse, a social worker, or other appropriately qualified personnel (42 CFR 482.43(a)(5)). Case management or social work is the usual door.
• Dialysis facilities. 42 CFR 494.140 requires a social worker, usually one with a master’s degree in social work, so the clinic has a named person to write to.
• Nursing homes. A facility with more than 120 beds must employ a qualified social worker full time (42 CFR 483.70(o)). A smaller home may route rides through an activities or scheduling coordinator.
• Assisted living and clinics. No single federal rule names the role. Call the front desk and ask who arranges outside appointments.

The table in how to get facility contracts lists who to ask for at each type. If the facility is a hospital that also runs a formal vendor process, the hospital vendor guide explains it.

Mail, email, or fax

The channel you choose brings its own rules.

• Mail or hand delivery. Put the letter and enclosures in one envelope, or leave them at the front desk for the named person.
• Email. The FTC says the CAN-SPAM Act (compliance guide) “makes no exception for business-to-business email.” The sender and subject lines must be accurate, the message must say clearly that it is an advertisement, it must carry a valid physical postal address, and it must explain how to opt out. An opt-out request must be honored within 10 business days.
• Fax. Do not fax a first letter. 47 CFR 64.1200(a)(4) bars an unsolicited advertisement by fax unless the sender has an established business relationship with the recipient, obtained the number as the rule allows, and puts an opt-out notice on the first page. A first letter has no relationship behind it. If the facility replies and a relationship starts, ask counsel before sending marketing material by fax.

What the letter cannot offer

A facility or its staff may steer riders whose trips a federal program pays for, so what you offer them is weighed under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b(b)). Our anti-kickback guide covers it in full. Four points matter for a letter.

• No free or cut-rate rides tied to referrals. OIG’s November 2024 guidance for nursing facilities tells them to look for any link, explicit or implicit, between discounts (or free items and services) for business the facility pays for and its referral of business billable to a federal health care program. It lists below-cost arrangements and prices below those offered to similar-volume customers among the examples. Offer a pilot at your regular rates, and make the offer about service.
• No gifts or meals in the first contact. Our guide shows where nominal ends. Many readers also work under their own ethics codes. The NASW Code of Ethics, standard 1.16(c), bars a social worker from paying for or accepting payment for a referral made without any professional service of the social worker’s own.
• No referral fees, to a person or a department.
• No rider information. The letter is marketing. Leave out names, dates of birth, and appointment details.

After the letter

Call on the day the letter promised. Ask who decides on outside rides, which trips go wrong most often, and what paperwork the facility needs from a new company. Be ready to send the same items real requests ask for. University Hospital’s 2026 request for non-emergency transportation, for example, requires monthly screening against exclusion lists and asks for at least three references, preferably five, from customers with similar ride volume.

After a meeting, send the proposal. If the facility sends its own RFP, answer it in its order, with help from the RFP template and the guide to case manager referrals, which covers what waiver, hospital, and health plan case managers can and cannot do.

Making the offer real with HealthRide

The offers in paragraph 3 work only if you can keep them. A flexible return trip in HealthRide holds its place on the board, then activates the moment the passenger is ready, and a facility’s staff can ask for rides, follow each vehicle on a live map, and pay invoices in the facility portal. The on-time report and trip log give you the monthly numbers to send. See reports.