Guides.How medical transportation actually works in Minnesota, written out plainly — what the words mean, what a plan pays for, and what you are buying when you pay for a ride yourself. Written by the people driving the vans, not by a marketing department.
7 guides, so far.
Answer first, in the order most people need them. More as they are written — and nothing is listed here before it exists, which is the same rule the footer and the sitemap hold to.
- What is NEMT?Non-emergency medical transportation is a scheduled ride to and from a medical appointment for someone who does not need an ambulance but cannot drive or take a bus alone. Almost everything written about it online describes the Medicaid-funded version — this explains that one, the private-pay one, and how to tell which you are looking for.
- The ride home after a colonoscopyThe sedation used for a colonoscopy means you cannot drive for the rest of the day, and most clinics will not discharge you to a bus. A Wait & Return booking is one ride rather than two: the driver takes you in, parks and waits the whole procedure however long it runs, then walks you back to your own door — $100 an hour flat, pickup to drop-off. Escort policies differ from clinic to clinic, so ask yours before your prep day.
- No ride home after surgery?If a clinic has told you that you cannot be discharged on your own and there is nobody obvious to ask, there are five real answers in Minnesota — and the first one is free. This sets all five side by side: who each suits, what each costs, and where each one falls down, including the two that will not work at all after sedation.
- What wheelchair transportation costs in MinnesotaA private wheelchair ride is priced as a base fare plus a rate for each loaded mile — nationally the base runs about $50 to $100 and the mile about $3 to $5. Ours is $75 plus $3 a mile in the ramp van and $50 plus $2.50 if you walk, published rather than quoted. This explains what each part of a fare is, what can move it, and what Medicare and insurance actually pay toward one.
- When Metro Mobility is not the answerMetro Mobility is public, shared-route paratransit. For a great many trips it is the right answer and it is far cheaper than we are, so this does not tell you to stop using it. It is the wrong answer on the mornings that cannot slip — a dialysis chair time, a procedure with a prep behind it, an appointment ninety miles away — and this is how the two differ, which trips belong to each, and what a booked private ride costs instead.
- Getting to dialysis, three times a weekDialysis is the ride that repeats: three mornings a week, often before six, for years at a time. If the rider has Medical Assistance the county or their health plan arranges it and it costs them nothing, so start there. If not, a standing private slot is booked once and held — the same driver, the same chair time, priced off the ordinary card rather than a contract.
- Getting a parent to their appointmentsWhen a parent stops driving, the appointments do not stop. Two questions decide what to do: is this one trip or a pattern, and do they need somebody with them or only a way to get there. This walks through the five ways families in the Twin Cities actually solve it, what each costs, and what to have ready if you are booking on somebody else's behalf — including the fact that you can ride along at no charge.
Or skip the reading.
If you came for a number, a city or a straight yes, these three pages hold all of it — no explanation required.
- Every rate, printedThe whole card and everything that can move it — $75 base plus $3 a mile, in full.
- 93 questions, answeredEvery question we are actually asked, written down once. Searchable, none of it behind a form.
- Where we drive16 cities on the daily schedule, the seven-county metro on request, and anywhere in Minnesota.
Or just ask the question out loud.
A person answers, quotes the fare off the same card this site prints, and holds the slot before you hang up. Nobody here talks you into a ride you do not need.
Have these ready
- The pickup address, and the clinic or building you are going to.
- The date and the appointment time.
- Wheelchair or ambulatory, and whether the chair is yours.
- Whether the driver should wait, or come back for you later.