Getting to dialysis, three times a week.Dialysis is the ride that repeats — three mornings a week, often before six, for years at a time. That makes it a different transport problem from an appointment: what matters is not one trip going well but the two hundredth one going well, and the chair time not moving for a late van.
- 3 morningsa week, booked once and held until you change it
- Before 6amby arrangement — see the surcharge below, it is not free
- 12 unitsacross 11 cities already on the weekly schedule
Before you pay for any of these, check this one thing.
Dialysis is the ride most likely to be covered already, and the difference is hundreds of dollars a week rather than a few.
Medical Assistance — Minnesota’s Medicaid — covers non-emergency medical transportation through your county agency or your health plan’s own ride service, and it costs the rider nothing. Dialysis is exactly the kind of repeating, medically necessary trip it exists for. If that is the coverage, it is worth starting there before paying for a ride you may not have to.
Original Medicare does not pay for a van to a dialysis chair — it covers ambulance transport when it is medically necessary, which routine dialysis travel is not. Some Medicare Advantage plans add a limited ride benefit; on a run this frequent it is worth an hour on the phone to your plan to find out what yours allows before you budget for six legs a week. The longer version of all of this is on the rate page.
What a private standing slot sells against a covered ride is not the price. It is the time: a benefit ride is a window and whichever vehicle is free, and a booked one is a minute you chose and a driver who has run it before. On a chair time that does not move, some families decide that is worth paying for and some decide it is not. Both are reasonable.
The 5:30 chair time is the hard part.
Dialysis shifts start early, and an early shift is where most transport arrangements quietly fail. Here is how ours handles it, and what it adds to the fare.
- 7am–7pm dailythe published window — the hours the phone is answered and the ordinary card applies
- Before 6amarranged on request. Standing dialysis runs leave early, and a 4am pickup is a thing to ask for
- +25%on the total fare for a pickup outside the published window — which an early chair time is, by definition
That last figure is why this band exists. The site promises early pickups by arrangement in several places, and it would be easy to leave the reader assuming they are free. They are not: anything outside 7am–7pm daily carries the late-hour 25% on the total, and a 5:30am chair time means a pickup that is outside it. Weekends carry the same 25%, and it never stacks with the holiday rate — the higher one applies, not both.
So a standing early run is more expensive per leg than the same trip at ten in the morning, and it is better to know that from a website than from an invoice. Ask for the figure on the call and it will be quoted with the surcharge already in it, for the actual time your chair starts.
What does not cost extra: holding the slot, having the same driver each time, or a week you need to skip. Cancelling is free until an hour before pickup, and inside that hour it is 10% of the fare. Treatments get moved and people get admitted; the slot stays yours either way.
The units already on the weekly schedule.
12 dialysis units across 11 of the cities we drive every day — and any other one in the metro, which is the more useful half of the answer.
Brooklyn Park
- Fresenius dialysis, Brooklyn Center
Maple Grove
- DaVita Maple Grove dialysis
New Hope
- DaVita New Hope dialysis
Golden Valley
- Fresenius Golden Valley dialysis
St. Louis Park
- Fresenius St. Louis Park dialysis
Champlin
- Fresenius Champlin dialysis
Coon Rapids
- Fresenius Coon Rapids dialysis
Plymouth
- Fresenius Plymouth Creek dialysis
Blaine
- DaVita Central Avenue dialysis
- Fresenius Blaine dialysis
Eden Prairie
- DaVita Eden Prairie dialysis
Elk River
- Fresenius Elk River dialysis
These are destinations, not partners. We drive to them; we are not affiliated with any of them and do not speak for them. Give us the address and your chair time and the slot is built around it — including for a unit that is not on this list, which most of the metro’s are not. Everywhere we drive.
A week, in figures.
Priced as 3 ordinary round trips — the base fare once a morning, mileage each leg — rather than as a contract. There is no weekly rate, no package and no discount to negotiate — and no premium for the slot either.
- $99one leg, wheelchair, on an 8-mile run — $75 base plus $3 a mile
- $70the same leg walking — $50 plus $2.50 a mile
- $369a week in the chair: 3 mornings, there and back, at the published window
An early chair time adds the late-hour 25% to each of those legs, so ask for the figure with your actual time in it rather than working from the board. Up to 3 people ride along at no extra charge, which matters more on this run than most — after a treatment, having somebody in the van is not a luxury.
A facility arranging routes for several residents is set up the same way and pays the same card: how a facility route is set up. And if the treatment is chemotherapy, infusion or physical therapy rather than dialysis, it is the same standing slot — any run that repeats can hold one.
Asked about a standing run.
Early pickups, the same driver, skipped weeks, and who pays. Open a row for the rest — none of it changes when you dial.
13 answers
Can you take me to dialysis every week?Yes — a standing slot.
Booked once and held: the same days, the same time, the same driver. Standing dialysis runs leave before six in the morning by arrangement.
Standing weekly routesCan you make a 5:30 chair time?Yes, by arrangement.
The published window is 7am–7pm daily, earlier by arrangement — and the standing dialysis runs leave before six. If you need a 4am pickup, ask for one. A pickup outside 7am–7pm daily carries the late-hour 25%, so an early chair time is quoted with that in it.
Is it the same driver every time?Yes.
The same driver takes the same run. They learn your door, your building, and your chair time — which is the point of a standing slot.
Do I have to book every week?No. Once.
A standing slot is booked one time and held until you change it. No weekly phone call, no re-quoting, no losing the time you count on.
Standing routesDoes a standing slot cost extra?No. Ordinary rates.
Each leg is priced like any one-way: $50 ambulatory plus $2.50 a mile, or $75 wheelchair plus $3. Holding the slot costs nothing.
What if I skip a week?Tell us the day before.
Cancelling is free until an hour before pickup; inside that hour it is 10% of the fare. The slot itself stays yours either way.
I am wiped out afterwards — will the driver help?Door through door.
You are met inside, walked to the van, and walked to your own door at the other end. After a treatment that is the part that matters, and it is the same on the four-hundredth ride as on the first.
Which dialysis centers do you run to?Any of them.
The centers in Maple Grove, New Hope, Golden Valley, Plymouth, Brooklyn Center, Champlin, Coon Rapids, Blaine and Elk River are on the weekly schedule, and so is any other one in the metro. Give us the address and your chair time and the slot is built around it, not the other way round.
Is it only dialysis?No — any standing run.
Chemotherapy, infusion, physical therapy, a weekly specialist — anything that repeats can hold a slot. Dialysis is simply the run that repeats most, three mornings a week for years at a time.
Does Medicare pay for dialysis rides?Not Original Medicare.
It does not cover a van to a dialysis chair — only an ambulance, and only when one is medically necessary. Some Medicare Advantage plans include a ride benefit, which is worth asking about for a run this frequent. The standing slots we run are booked and paid direct, at the printed card.
Do you take Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance?The printed rates are private pay.
You or your family pay us directly, at the rates published on this page, and no broker schedules the van. If a plan or a county program is involved in your rides, say so on the call — we will tell you where you stand rather than let you guess at it from a website.
What Medicare and Medicaid pay toward a rideCan someone ride with me?Up to 3, free.
A spouse, a daughter, an aide — up to 3 additional riders travel at no extra charge, on every ride in the standing booking, not just the first one.
Do you work with nursing homes or group homes?Yes — facilities too.
Standing routes are set up the same way for adult day programs, group homes, assisted living and discharge planners as for a family: one call establishes the schedule, and the same driver runs it. A facility pays the published card — there is no separate facility price list.
How a facility route is set upWhile you are working it out.
The next questions people ask after this one — same plain answers, same published figures.
Tell us the chair time. We will build the week backwards.
A person answers, quotes the legs with your actual pickup time in them, and holds the slot before you hang up. Hours are 7am–7pm daily, earlier by arrangement — if you need a 4am pickup, ask for one.
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.