How to Provide BlueRide Trips for Blue Plus in Minnesota in 2027

Blue Plus is the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota HMO that serves members of Medical Assistance, Minnesota’s Medicaid program, and MinnesotaCare. Its ride benefit is called BlueRide. Blue Plus takes each ride request, decides whether the member gets a bus pass or a ride, and assigns the ride to a transportation company. There is no outside broker to join: transportation companies contract with Blue Cross itself.

Minnesota has no statewide broker. Counties and tribes arrange most fee-for-service rides, often through coordinators such as MTM Health and SmartLink, and each health plan arranges its own members’ rides. The Minnesota guide explains the whole system.

Who rides with BlueRide

As of September 2026, Blue Plus lists four plans whose members can use BlueRide when they have no ride of their own:

• Blue Advantage Families and Children. Medical Assistance for families and children.
• MinnesotaCare. Pregnant members and members under age 19 only.
• Minnesota Senior Care Plus (MSC+). A Medical Assistance plan.
• SecureBlue (HMO SNP). A dual eligible plan that contracts with both Medicare and Medical Assistance.

Rides go to covered medical, dental, mental health, and pharmacy visits with network providers, and to pick up or repair medical equipment. Fitness center visits are for SecureBlue members only. Blue Plus also lists health and wellbeing classes and Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, with conditions.

Not every request becomes a van trip. A member who lives where public transit runs gets a bus pass, and a member outside a transit area gets a scheduled ride. Blue Plus says it finds another type of ride for members with a disability or other special needs, and that is where wheelchair and stretcher companies come in.

Members in 11 counties may also get rides to a grocery store or food pantry: Benton, Blue Earth, Carlton, Clay, Kandiyohi, Mower, Pine, Rice, Sherburne, Stearns, and Winona. The request form takes pickup and drop-off addresses in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, so border trips can come to you.

How BlueRide books a ride and what reaches your company

Members book through BlueRide at 1-866-340-8648 (TTY 711) or (651) 662-8648, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. These are the rules on the BlueRide page as of September 2026:

1. Notice. At least two business days ahead by phone, or at least five business days ahead on the online form.
2. Limits. The online form takes no ride more than 31 days out, and none on weekends or some holidays.
3. Scheduling. For an online request, Blue Plus allows 48 hours to set up the ride, then emails the member your company’s name, your phone number, and the ride details.
4. Confirming. Members are told to call the ride company two days before the ride to make sure it was received.
5. The trip home. The member calls the transportation company for the return ride. On every round trip, expect a call when the visit ends, so read up on will-call trips.
6. Pickup and waiting. Pickup can be up to 60 minutes before the appointment, and the driver waits five minutes.
7. Cancellations. Members must cancel at least four hours before pickup, and members who do not cancel rides they no longer need may lose BlueRide for a time.

The request form tells you what each rider needs. It asks whether the member needs help walking, a wheelchair, or a stretcher. It also asks the wheelchair type (standard, extra wide, electric, or power scooter), the stretcher type (standard or bariatric), and the combined weight of the member and the equipment. It lists extra adults and children riding along. The form says the transportation company can provide one car seat and one booster seat, and families bring any others. See children in NEMT for securing them.

A child under 18 riding alone needs a parent or guardian consent form before Blue Plus schedules the ride. It lasts one year unless the parent picks a different end date.

The Level of Need form for special transportation

The BlueRide Level of Need form (X20956R07, April 2021) opens with the rule that matters most to a wheelchair or stretcher company. It says state law bars payment for special transportation for Minnesota Health Care Programs members without a current, approved Level of Need form. The member’s attending physician, nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist signs it, or a physician assistant working under the physician.

The form asks:

• Duration. Temporary, through a set date, or one year.
• Home. Living alone or with family, a nursing facility, a group home, assisted living, or a residential rehab facility.
• Transit. Whether the member can use a bus or light rail, and why not.
• Equipment. Cane, crutches, walker, portable oxygen, service animal, manual or electric wheelchair, stretcher, or an extra wide wheelchair with the member’s weight.
• Help. Whether the member needs trained personnel for safety, can self-propel, and can transfer from the wheelchair alone.
• Senses and thinking. Vision, hearing, the ability to communicate, confusion, alertness, and memory.

The signer certifies that the member has a physical or mental impairment that keeps the member from safely using a bus, taxi, other commercial transportation, or a private car. The form goes to Blue Plus by fax at (651) 662-2844 or by email to BlueRide.Exception.Request@bluecrossmn.com. Blue Plus does not accept incomplete forms or forms the provider has not signed. Before you run a new wheelchair or stretcher rider, ask whether an approved form is on file. For how these forms work in general, see medical necessity forms.

What your company needs before it drives BlueRide trips

A MnDOT special transportation certificate

State law applies the special transportation service (STS) operating standards in Minnesota Statutes sections 174.29 to 174.30 and Minnesota Rules chapter 8840 to every NEMT company serving health plan members (256B.0625, subdivision 18h). Publicly operated transit, volunteers, and not-for-hire vehicles are exempt. MnDOT says you cannot legally provide STS rides until your certificate of compliance arrives. Each vehicle is inspected at least once a year and carries a decal that costs $45 a year (174.30). The Minnesota guide walks through the MnDOT steps.

Minnesota Health Care Programs enrollment

Under 42 CFR 438.602, the state must screen and enroll every provider in a Medicaid health plan’s network. Blue Cross goes further: it will not consider a contract request until MHCP has enrolled you, and it tells you to wait for your MHCP enrollment or welcome letter before you send one. DHS extended its moratorium on enrolling NEMT companies located in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington counties to January 27, 2027, in a notice of July 23, 2026. Companies located in other Minnesota counties can still enroll. See the metro enrollment freeze for what that means for you.

A contract with Blue Cross

Blue Cross’s Join Our Network page is where contracts start, and as of September 16, 2026 it lists non-emergency medical transportation, both common carrier and special transportation services, as a closed specialty. Blue Cross is not accepting contract requests from ride companies, and the page said the same for NEMT in December 2025. Blue Cross says it reviews its network against members’ access needs, so check the page again before you plan on BlueRide work.

When the specialty opens, the page sets the order:

1. Check the contracting area. Blue Cross contracts in Minnesota and in the border counties of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin that it lists.
2. Enroll with MHCP first. Send nothing until your MHCP enrollment or welcome letter arrives.
3. Send the contract request. Approved requests usually take 60 to 90 days, and Blue Cross tells you if credentialing is needed.
4. Wait for the signed contract. Claims for members you serve before then are denied or paid as out of network.

For questions, the DHS contact list for health plans, updated October 1, 2026, gives the Blue Plus Provider Service Center at 866-518-8448 and MHCPProviders@bluecrossmn.com, the same line for claims. Have your STS certificate, MHCP enrollment letter, NPI, insurance certificates, vehicle list by type, and the counties you cover ready. Contracting with Medicaid health plans explains what to check in the agreement.

How Blue Plus pays

Your rate comes from your Blue Cross contract. State law tells health plans to add a fuel adjustment to NEMT rates when gas tops $3 a gallon, a rule that lapses if federal approval is not received (256B.0625, subdivision 18h). A 2026 law keeps that rule in force until the statewide administrator starts. Ask how your contract handles it.

The state’s fee-for-service rates are a useful benchmark when you review an offer. Since July 1, 2026, DHS pays $19.80 plus $1.80 a mile for a lift or ramp ride and $60 plus $2.54 a mile for a stretcher ride. The base rates are set in state law, and DHS adjusts the mileage each quarter when Minnesota gas costs more than $3 a gallon. Rides for members who live in rural areas pay more. The Minnesota guide has the other modes.

What changes when Minnesota hires one NEMT administrator

Minnesota Statutes section 256B.0625, subdivision 18i, tells DHS to contract with a statewide or regional administrator for NEMT. That contract must include rides for health plan members, so it would reach BlueRide too. A law signed May 27, 2026 (Laws 2026, chapter 121) requires DHS to give counties and health plans six months of notice before the administrator starts. As of October 1, 2026, the DHS contact list still sends Blue Plus rides to BlueRide. The administrator delay story has the details.

Who to contact at Blue Plus

For	Contact
BlueRide ride line	1-866-340-8648 (TTY 711) or (651) 662-8648, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Level of Need forms	Fax (651) 662-2844 or BlueRide.Exception.Request@bluecrossmn.com
Minor consent forms	BlueRideSTS@bluecrossmn.com or fax (651) 662-2844
Provider service and claims	866-518-8448, MHCPProviders@bluecrossmn.com
Claim attachments	Fax 800-793-6928

Each Minnesota health plan lists its own transportation contact on the DHS contact list, including Medica and the county-based PrimeWest Health, which books rides itself and calls its contracted companies directly. Each plan is a separate contract.