Non-medical transportation (NMT) is a service that takes people to and from healthcare appointments, pharmacies, and other health-related destinations when they can’t drive themselves and don’t need an ambulance. It fills a gap that many people don’t think about until they face it: you need to get to the doctor, but you don’t have a car, can’t drive due to age or disability, and a 911 call would be wildly inappropriate. NMT exists specifically for that situation.
The term is a bit misleading. The trips themselves are medically related, but the transportation is “non-medical” because no medical care is provided during the ride. No paramedics, no oxygen tanks, no heart monitors. It’s simply a ride to a covered health service.
What NMT Covers
The specific trips that qualify as non-medical transportation vary by state and program, but the most common include rides to medical appointments (including mental health and substance use disorder treatment), dental visits, pharmacy pickups, and trips to get medical supplies or equipment. Some state programs also cover transportation to adult day programs, grocery shopping, and community activities when those trips are part of a care plan designed to help someone stay out of a nursing home or institutional setting.
California’s Medi-Cal program, for example, covers rides to family planning appointments and prescription pickups. Colorado’s program goes broader, including trips to non-medical therapeutic sessions and activities that encourage community integration. What counts depends entirely on where you live and which program you’re enrolled in.
How It Differs From Emergency Transport
Emergency medical transportation means an ambulance responding to a 911 call, with trained EMTs or paramedics providing care en route. Non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is the broader category that includes any pre-scheduled medical ride, and NMT falls within or alongside that category depending on the state’s definitions. The key distinction: NMT vehicles are regular cars, vans, or wheelchair-accessible vehicles. The driver is not a medical professional, and no treatment happens during the trip.
Types of Vehicles Used
NMT services match the vehicle to the passenger’s mobility level. For people who can walk on their own or with minimal help, standard sedans, SUVs, and minivans handle most trips. This covers things like dialysis appointments, routine checkups, and rides for seniors who no longer drive.
Passengers who use wheelchairs ride in vehicles fitted with ramps or lifts that allow them to stay in their chair during transit. These are common for people in assisted living, those with permanent mobility impairments, and patients being discharged from the hospital. For people who can’t sit upright but don’t need emergency care (post-surgical patients, for instance), stretcher vehicles provide a flat surface for the ride. These look like small ambulances on the outside but carry no emergency medical equipment inside.
Who Qualifies
Eligibility depends on the program. Medicaid is the largest source of NMT coverage, and federal law requires every state Medicaid program to ensure transportation for beneficiaries to and from covered services. If you’re enrolled in Medicaid and have no other way to get to a covered appointment, your state must provide or arrange a ride. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 codified this requirement into the Social Security Act and added minimum standards for drivers and transportation companies.
Beyond Medicaid, more than 130 federal programs can fund transportation for three main groups: people with disabilities, older adults, and individuals with low income. The Federal Transit Administration runs several of these, including dedicated grant programs for rural areas and for improving mobility among seniors and people with disabilities. Medicare Advantage plans increasingly offer transportation as a supplemental benefit too. In 2024, about 44% of traditional Medicare Advantage plans included non-emergency transportation, while 100% of Value-Based Insurance Design MA plans offered it. Among those plans, roughly half of the value-based plans provided unlimited trips to approved health locations, compared to about 19% of traditional plans.
Why Transportation Matters for Health
Missing medical appointments because you can’t get there is more common than most people realize, and it has real consequences. A systematic review published in BMC Public Health pooled data from seven studies and found that transportation interventions reduced missed appointments by 37% overall. One study of HIV clinic patients found that self-reported missed appointments dropped from an average of nearly two in a six-month period to less than one after a transportation program was introduced. Another study showed that while a control group’s missed appointment rate climbed from 25.5% to nearly 40% over time, the group receiving transportation held steady at about 24%.
The downstream effects matter even more than the appointments themselves. Regular visits to a primary care provider are linked to better medication adherence and improved blood sugar control in people with diabetes. Consistent access to preventive care means earlier diagnoses, better screening rates, and fewer emergency room visits for problems that could have been caught sooner.
How Rides Are Arranged
The process varies depending on your coverage. Medicaid beneficiaries typically call a transportation broker assigned by their state, sometimes 48 to 72 hours before the appointment. The broker matches you with a local provider based on your mobility needs and location. Some states let managed care plans handle this directly.
Rideshare companies have moved into this space aggressively. Lyft, for instance, partners with all ten of the largest U.S. health systems and all ten of the largest NEMT brokers. Their healthcare platform lets providers schedule rides on behalf of patients through a tool called Lyft Concierge, and patients don’t need a smartphone or the Lyft app to use it. For passengers who need extra help getting from their front door to the car, Lyft offers an “Assisted” option where the driver parks, meets the rider, and provides physical support like lending an arm or carrying small belongings. Health systems can also issue a Lyft Pass that covers the cost of rides with built-in budget controls.
What It Costs
If you qualify through Medicaid or a Medicare Advantage plan with a transportation benefit, rides are typically covered at no cost to you. For people paying out of pocket or organizations contracting with NMT providers directly, pricing varies by region and vehicle type. As a rough benchmark, a standard ride for someone who can walk starts at $25 to $30 as a base fare on weekdays, with an additional $3 to $5 per mile. Wheelchair-accessible vehicles run higher, starting at $45 to $50 before mileage. Stretcher transport costs more still. These aren’t standardized national rates, and prices differ significantly between providers and metro areas, but they give a general range for budgeting purposes.
Rideshare-based options through programs like Lyft Healthcare tend to cost less per trip for short urban rides, which is one reason health systems have adopted them. One study found the average cost of a rideshare-based medical trip was about $14.
Provider Requirements
Federal law now requires that state Medicaid plans include mechanisms to verify that NMT providers, including rideshare companies and individual drivers, meet specific minimum requirements. The 2021 legislation added this provision to ensure a baseline level of safety and accountability. States set their own specific standards on top of this, which typically include driver background checks, vehicle inspections, and insurance minimums. If you’re using a Medicaid-covered service, the broker or managed care plan is responsible for vetting the provider before assigning them your ride.