What is NEMT?NEMT stands for non-emergency medical transportation: 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. Most of what is written about it online describes the Medicaid-funded version. TrueStar is the private-pay version — the same category, billed directly, with no broker and no approval to wait for.
- Not an ambulanceno clinical care on board, and nothing dispatched by 911
- $75 + $3/mia private-pay wheelchair ride, one way, printed before you call
- No brokerno eligibility check, no county approval, no waiting list
NEMT is not an ambulance.
That is the whole meaning of the word non-emergency, and it is the question asked more than any other about the term.
An ambulance is a mobile treatment room with a crew in it, dispatched in minutes to somebody who may get worse on the way. NEMT is a booked ride: a vehicle, a driver, and the help getting from a front door to a clinic desk. The rider is stable, the appointment was on the calendar, and nothing clinical happens between the two addresses.
The practical difference is what you are allowed to need during the drive. If the answer is nothing — no oxygen we supply, no monitoring, no medication, no lying flat — then an ambulance is an expensive way to make a trip a van makes better. If the answer is anything else, we will say so on the phone rather than send a van that cannot take you.
| What is being compared | An ambulance | NEMT |
|---|---|---|
| For | An ambulanceA medical emergency, or a transfer where the rider needs care during the drive. | NEMTA booked appointment, or the ride home from one. |
| On board | An ambulanceEMTs or paramedics, with oxygen, monitoring equipment and medication. | NEMTA driver — first aid, CPR, wheelchair securement and defensive driving, all current. No clinical care of any kind. |
| How you get one | An ambulanceCall 911, or the hospital arranges the transfer for you. | NEMTCall and book it, usually days ahead. You choose the pickup time. |
| How you travel | An ambulanceOn a stretcher, or seated under supervision. | NEMTIn your own wheelchair, secured before the van moves — or in a seat, if you walk. |
| What it costs | An ambulanceHundreds to thousands of dollars, billed after the fact. Medicare covers it only when it is medically necessary. | NEMT$75 base plus $3 a mile in the ramp van, $50 plus $2.50 if you walk. Quoted before you hang up. |
| Wrong one when | An ambulanceThere is nothing to treat and nothing to monitor — which is most appointment travel. | NEMTChest pain, a fall, trouble breathing. That is 911, and waiting for us is the wrong call. |
In an emergency, call 911. Chest pain, a fall, trouble breathing — we are registered with the federal government as a motor carrier, USDOT 4471059, not as an ambulance service, and no amount of waiting for us is the right call.
Two kinds of NEMT, and which one you are looking at.
The word covers a government benefit and a service you can simply buy. They are the same ride and completely different arrangements, and almost nothing written about NEMT says so.
Medicaid NEMT — the benefit
Every state Medicaid program is required to cover non-emergency medical transportation for enrollees who have no other way to reach covered care. That requirement is why the term exists in public writing at all, and why searching it returns federal and state agencies rather than companies.
In Minnesota the program is Medical Assistance, and the ride is arranged through your county agency or your health plan’s own ride service. It costs the rider nothing. It also arrives with the machinery of a benefit attached: eligibility to establish, a trip to request in advance, a broker who assigns whichever vehicle is free, and a pickup window rather than a pickup time.
If Medical Assistance is your coverage, start there. The ride is already paid for, and knowing that before you book one is worth more to you than our fare is to us.
Private-pay NEMT — what we are
Same category, no program. You call, you are quoted a figure off a card published on this website, and the slot is held before you hang up. Nobody checks whether you qualify, because there is nothing to qualify for.
What the money buys is the part a benefit cannot promise: the pickup time you chose instead of a two-hour window, the same driver every week on a standing route, a fare you can read at eleven at night without filling in a form, and a person answering the phone who knows where the vans are.
Original Medicare does not pay for a van to a routine appointment — only for an ambulance, and only when one is medically necessary. Some Medicare Advantage plans add a limited ride benefit, which is worth asking yours about before you pay for a run as frequent as dialysis.
Why the internet thinks NEMT means Medicaid
Because for most of the country it does. The pages with the authority to define the term — the federal Medicaid agency, state health departments, policy institutes — are writing about the benefit they administer, and the rest of the results are dispatch software sold to operators. Almost nobody in that set is talking to a rider paying for their own trip.
So the term reads as a program, and the people it does not cover conclude the whole category is closed to them. It is not. It is a service, and this is what one costs.
Where paratransit fits
Metro Mobility is the third thing people mean by this. It is public, shared-route transit: several riders, a route built around all of them, and a window you wait inside rather than a time you were given. For a great many trips that is the right answer and it is far cheaper than we are.
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. That is when a booked, private trip is worth paying for, and it is most of what we drive.
The 6 kinds of NEMT we drive.
The category splits by what the rider needs, not by what the appointment is called. All six run on the same vans, the same drivers and the same published card.
- Wheelchair transportationRamp van, secured chair, door to door.
- Ambulatory transportationWalking riders, arm to arm.
- Wait and returnThe driver stays for the appointment.
- Long distance and MayoRochester and anywhere in Minnesota.
- Recurring ridesDialysis, chemo, infusion, therapy.
- Errands and outingsGroceries, family, anywhere you like.
What private-pay NEMT costs.
Two numbers and a distance. No operator in this market publishes theirs, which is the only reason this is worth a section.
- $75wheelchair, one way, plus $3 a mile
- $50ambulatory, one way, plus $2.50 a mile
- $100an hour, flat, when the driver waits the whole appointment
Miles are counted by road from your pickup address to where you are going, not from our garage, and there is no zone map — the fare is the same in all 16 cities on the daily schedule. Up to 3 people ride along at no extra charge. Cancelling is free until an hour before pickup, and inside that hour it is 10% of the fare, printed here rather than discovered afterwards.
Asked about the term.
What NEMT covers, what it does not, and who pays for it. Open a row for the rest — none of it changes when you dial.
12 answers
What does NEMT stand for?Non-emergency medical transportation.
It is the industry's term for a scheduled ride to a medical appointment that does not need an ambulance. You will see it on state benefit pages and dispatch software far more often than on an operator's own site, which is why the phrase is worth spelling out: it describes what the van does, not a program you have to qualify for.
What is the difference between NEMT and an ambulance?Treatment, and who is watching.
An ambulance carries paramedics, oxygen, monitoring and drugs, and it is dispatched to an emergency in minutes at a cost usually measured in four figures. NEMT is a booked appointment ride: a driver, a ramp or a steadying arm, no clinical care on board, and a published fare. If the rider needs care during the drive, or needs to travel lying down, that is an ambulance and we will say so on the phone.
Who is NEMT for?Anyone who cannot drive there.
Wheelchair riders, people who walk but cannot manage a bus or a parking ramp, anyone going home after sedation, and anyone whose treatment leaves them too tired to drive afterwards — dialysis, chemotherapy, infusion. There is no diagnosis to prove and no eligibility to establish; if driving yourself is not the plan, the ride is a phone call.
Is NEMT only for people on Medicaid?No. Private pay counts.
Medicaid is required to cover non-emergency medical transportation for the people it enrols, which is why almost everything written about NEMT describes a benefit rather than a service. It is not a definition. The same ride can be bought outright: no eligibility check, no county approval, no broker assigning the trip — you call, you get a figure, and the van is booked. In Minnesota, if you do have Medical Assistance, that ride is already paid for through your county or your health plan, and it is worth starting there.
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 rideDoes Medicare cover a ride to the doctor?Not Original Medicare.
It does not pay for a car or a van to a routine appointment — only for an ambulance, and only when one is medically necessary. Our printed card is $50 base plus $2.50 a mile, paid direct. Some Medicare Advantage plans add a ride benefit; ask yours.
What does a ride actually cost?Base fare, plus the miles.
$75 to put the ramp van at your door or $50 if you walk to it, then $3 a loaded mile in the chair and $2.50 if you walk, one way. A ten-mile wheelchair appointment run is $105; the same trip walking is $75. There is no booking fee, no surge and no fee for calling to ask.
Every rate, printedHow is this different from Metro Mobility?Your ride, not a route.
One booking, one rider, straight there — you pick the pickup time and it is held for you, rather than a window you wait inside while the van collects other stops. It is private pay instead of a public program, and that is what buys the direct trip.
Where Metro Mobility fits, and where it does notWhat does ambulatory mean?You can walk.
With a cane, a walker, or a steadying arm — if you can get to and into the van on your feet, the ride is ambulatory. Everything else is the driver's job.
How the walking ride worksCan you carry someone on a stretcher?No. That is an ambulance.
We seat wheelchair and ambulatory riders only. Bring your own oxygen and that is fine; we do not supply it. If a stretcher is what you need, we will say so on the phone rather than send a van that cannot take you.
What if it is an emergency?Call 911.
We are non-emergency transportation: scheduled rides, booked ahead, no medical care on board. Chest pain, a fall, trouble breathing — that is an ambulance, and no amount of waiting for us is the right call.
While you are working it out.
The next questions people ask after this one — same plain answers, same published figures.
- The ride home after a colonoscopyWhy the sedation, not the procedure, is what stops you driving — and what the morning looks like hour by hour.
- What wheelchair transportation costs in MinnesotaWhat a base fare and a loaded mile actually are, and what Medicare pays toward one.
- When Metro Mobility is not the answerWhere public paratransit is the right answer, and the three mornings it is not.
Not sure which of these you need? Say the appointment.
We will tell you whether it is a ride we drive, a benefit you already have, or an ambulance — on the call, before anything is booked.
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.