What wheelchair transportation costs in Minnesota.A 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, and $2.50 on a $50 base if you walk. What follows is what those parts are, what a plan pays toward them, and what to ask whoever you call.

$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.

Nothing is charged before that and no minimum is added on top, so a two-mile ambulatory run is $55 — the $50 base plus $5 in mileage. A short trip is a short bill.

The dispatcher works the figure off the same published card the website prints, quotes it, and reads it back before anything is held. Nobody here quotes a range and settles up afterwards.

The base fare never doubles and the per-mile rate never changes. Each loaded mile past the first 15 simply adds $1 on top. Rochester and Mayo Clinic are regular runs — $420 one way in the chair.

The base fare — $50 walking, $75 in the chair — is charged once for the day, not once per leg. The mileage runs both ways: $2.50 a mile walking, $3 in the chair, for the whole there-and-back distance. If you would rather the van did not leave at all, Wait & Return prices the whole morning as one figure instead.

Inside that hour it is 10% of the fare. We would rather print that here than surprise you with it.

Holidays add 50% to the whole fare, mileage included: a $105 wheelchair run becomes $157.50 on Christmas. Weekends and anything outside 7am–7pm daily add 25% the same way. The two never stack — a holiday that lands on a Sunday takes the 50%, not both.

A pharmacy, a meal, a second address: additional stops are agreed before the ride begins and priced individually, so the figure you are told on the call is still the figure at the end of the day.

A spouse, a daughter, an aide — up to 3 additional riders travel at no extra charge, in the same van, on the same booking.

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.

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.

Original Medicare does not cover a wheelchair van to a routine appointment; some Medicare Advantage plans do include a ride benefit, so ask yours what it covers. Medical Assistance — Minnesota's Medicaid — does cover non-emergency medical transportation, arranged through your county or your health plan's ride service. Our own published card is private pay: $75 base plus $3 a mile.

You are quoted a figure and you pay it — no prior authorisation to file, no broker assigning the trip, no waiting on an approval. If your plan does reimburse transportation, ask what documentation it needs and we will put it on the receipt.

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.