How to Become a Cascades West Ride Line Transportation Provider in 2027

Cascades West Ride Line is a program of the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments (OCWCOG), an Oregon intergovernmental entity that runs local, state, and federal programs for Linn, Benton, and Lincoln counties and their cities. Ride Line is the region’s non-emergent medical transportation (NEMT) brokerage. It had 28 staff as of July 2026. Its advisory committee materials from that month say rides are arranged through locally contracted transportation providers and are limited by how many providers are available.

For a transportation company in Albany, Corvallis, Lebanon, Newport, or the towns between, that makes Ride Line the main source of Medicaid trips. This page covers who it books rides for, how much work it sends out, how to join its network, what your drivers need, and how its trips run.

Whose rides Ride Line books

Each Oregon coordinated care organization (CCO) picks its own ride service, and the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) contracts regional brokerages for open card members, Oregon’s name for fee-for-service Medicaid. In these three counties, Ride Line does both jobs. Its report to its advisory committee on July 16, 2026 splits the trips it completed from April through June 2026 by who paid for them.

Who pays	Members	Trips completed, April to June 2026
InterCommunity Health Network CCO (IHN-CCO)	IHN-CCO members in all of Benton, Lincoln, and Linn counties	46,115
OHA open card	OHP members in the three counties who are not in a CCO	2,223
Benton County Veterans Services	Veterans’ rides the county office funds	2

IHN-CCO’s member handbook, updated January 1, 2026, says the plan partners with Ride Line to manage and provide all of its members’ NEMT. OHA’s 2026 open card handbook lists Ride Line for Benton, Lincoln, and Linn counties. In April 2025, staff also named Samaritan Advantage Health Plan as one of Ride Line’s four main funding sources, but it does not appear in the April to June 2026 trip counts.

One group in the region books elsewhere. OHA’s brokerage map, effective July 1, 2023, sends Trillium members in western Linn County to RideSource, which serves Lane County. The Oregon state guide lists every ride service by plan and county.

A change is coming in January 2027, when OHA moves all Healthier Oregon members from CCOs to open card. Those members still ride through Ride Line in these counties, but more of its trips will be paid by OHA instead of IHN-CCO.

How much work Ride Line sends out

Ride Line reports its numbers to its advisory committee every quarter. These figures come from the July 16, 2026 packet and cover April through June 2026.

Measure	April to June 2026
Rides booked	65,289
Rides completed	48,340
Ambulatory rides completed	41,451 (85.75 percent)
Wheelchair rides completed	6,501 (13.45 percent)
Stretcher rides completed	311
Secure rides completed	77
After-hours trips	529: 243 wheelchair, 193 sedan, 56 secure, 37 stretcher
Top trip purposes	Substance use treatment (9,453), mental health (6,137), dialysis (4,252)

Pickup county	Trips completed	Miles driven	Average miles per trip
Linn	22,821	361,683	15.8
Benton	13,076	199,053	15.22
Lincoln	8,396	203,775	24.27

Pickups also came from outside the region, including 1,973 in Marion County and 848 in Multnomah County. In October through December 2025, Ride Line scheduled 71,891 rides and provided transportation in 21 Oregon counties and 3 Washington counties. From July to December 2025, it took 1,099 to 1,421 same-day requests and 1,864 to 2,245 next-day requests each month.

Those numbers point to where the work is. Most trips are ambulatory rides in Linn and Benton counties, Lincoln County trips run longer, and after-hours work leans toward wheelchair, stretcher, and secure rides.

How to join the Ride Line provider network

Ride Line calls the companies that drive for it subcontractors. On April 3, 2025, staff told the advisory committee there were 25 of them, with more than 130 vehicles across the three counties. Staff also said the contracts renew on a two-year cycle, and that a pre-delegation audit would come before the next round of renewals, to build better quality assurance for members.

1. Call the provider line. Call 541-924-8738 or 866-724-2975. In the phone tree Ride Line showed its committee in July 2026, option 4 goes to the provider queue. From April to June 2026, that queue took 2,382 calls and answered 1,963. Ask whether Ride Line is adding companies, which vehicle types and towns need capacity, and when the next contract round opens.
2. Get your numbers. Have an EIN and an NPI, and ask whether Ride Line needs your own OHA enrollment. Oregon’s CCO billing rule, OAR 410-141-3565, requires providers to be enrolled with OHA, as fee-for-service or encounter-only providers, before their encounter claims are accepted. See how to get an NPI number for NEMT.
3. Buy insurance. OHA’s 2026 CCO contract makes IHN-CCO verify that its ride subcontractors carry workers’ compensation, general liability, and automobile liability. The open card rules require workers’ compensation for any subcontractor with employees unless it is exempt (OAR 410-136-3060). Ask Ride Line for its minimum limits. See NEMT insurance requirements.
4. Equip for the weather. Ride Line tells members that every car has a working heater and air conditioner and carries snow chains for winter.
5. Screen and train drivers. The next section covers what each driver needs and where to get the training locally.
6. Prepare for the audit. Ride Line runs a pre-delegation audit before it renews contracts. Ask what it reviews, and keep your driver files, vehicle records, and insurance ready. The 2026 CCO contract requires every NEMT provider to meet the plan’s provider credentialing rules in OAR 410-141-3510 before it provides services. Use the NEMT credentialing checklist to gather them.

After-hours work

After hours at Ride Line means weekdays from 5:00 p.m. to 7:59 a.m., weekends, holidays, and office closures. Ride Line’s page sends after-hours callers to a short list of companies by county: two in Linn and Benton counties, one in Lincoln County, and one for secure transport in all three. IHN-CCO’s handbook says its after-hours line transfers urgent calls to the driving company serving the caller’s county. If your company can staff nights and weekends, ask Ride Line how a company gets on that list. See after-hours NEMT.

Join the advisory committee

The Transportation Brokerage Advisory Committee advises OCWCOG on Ride Line’s operations and meets at least once a quarter. Its bylaws allow up to 17 voting members, and providers of brokerage transportation services are one of the groups they list. The OCWCOG board appoints members to two-year terms. A Ride Line provider sat on the committee as a voting member in January 2026, and its minutes show driving companies raising scheduling issues directly with Ride Line staff. The next meeting is Thursday, October 15, 2026, in Albany or online, and the public may attend and comment.

Driver training and rules for Ride Line trips

Most Ride Line trips are IHN-CCO trips, which follow Oregon’s CCO rule for drivers and vehicles, OAR 410-141-3925. Open card trips follow OAR 410-136-3040, which allows more time for training. If your drivers carry both, train to the CCO deadlines. OCWCOG’s Cascades West Training Center offers the three required courses to the region’s transportation providers.

Course	Deadline for IHN-CCO trips	Deadline for open card trips	Cascades West Training Center, 2026
Red Cross first aid, CPR, and blood spill procedures	Before driving any member	Within 6 months of hire, kept current	Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., $168, valid 2 years
National Safety Council defensive driving	Within 3 months of hire, then every 3 years	Within 6 months of hire, then every 3 years	Friday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., $84, valid 3 years
Passenger Assistance Safety and Sensitivity (PASS)	Within 3 months of hire, then every 3 years	Within 6 months of hire, then every 3 years	Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., $192, valid 3 years
NEMT duties, fraud reporting, and the service area	Required training	At hire or contracting, then every year	Ask Ride Line how it trains its network

The center takes $44 off when you schedule all three classes together. Its remaining 2026 sessions are October 16 and 17 and November 13 and 14, both in Albany, with some other months held in Toledo. Registration is required, and classes may be postponed if too few people sign up.

Before a driver carries IHN-CCO members, OAR 410-141-3925 also requires a valid license of the right class, a clear OIG exclusion check, and a criminal background check under ORS 181A.195 and 181A.200. Drivers must disclose any state drug law violation and their driving history, and report later changes. OHA’s 2026 CCO contract also makes IHN-CCO keep records of each driver’s criminal history, driving history, sex offender status, and drug testing. See NEMT driver requirements and NEMT driver background checks.

Ride Line and IHN-CCO also set limits on what drivers do with members:

• Door to door only. Drivers may help a member into the main lobby but go no further into the building.
• No car seats. Drivers cannot install or remove car seats. A child 12 or under rides with an adult attendant, the attendant provides and installs any safety seat the child needs, and Ride Line cannot complete the ride without it.
• No paperwork for the member. Drivers cannot sign documents for a member or sign members in or out of appointments, and cannot stand in for a medically necessary attendant.
• No changes on the road. Drivers cannot change a pickup time without written permission from Ride Line, make extra stops, run errands, sell anything, or ask for or accept fares or tips.

How Ride Line trips work day to day

Members can book up to 90 days ahead. Ride Line’s member portal takes only trips at least three business days out, so same-day, next-day, weekend, and holiday requests come in by phone. For IHN-CCO trips, Ride Line gives the member your company’s name and the driver’s name and phone number during the booking call, or at least two days before the ride.

IHN-CCO’s 2026 handbook and Ride Line’s own page spell out what happens on the day:

Situation	What members are told
Your dispatch	The assigned driving company updates its drivers, monitors their locations, and solves pickup and drop-off problems
Waiting	Drivers wait 15 minutes past the scheduled pickup time and notify Ride Line before leaving
Late driver	If a driver has not arrived within 15 minutes of the pickup time, Ride Line sends another car
Drop-off	At least 15 minutes before the visit, no more than 1 hour early, and never at a closed facility
Will-call returns	A driver arrives within 1 hour of the member’s call
Bad weather	A driver who cannot reach a member safely tells Ride Line right away. For dialysis or chemotherapy, Ride Line calls the facility and sends a driver if it is open.

Rideshare fills gaps, not your trips. Staff told the committee in April 2025 that rideshare companies take rides only after the contracted driving companies are full, only for riders who can walk unassisted, and only with extra permission from the rider. From April to June 2026, Ride Line booked 239 rideshare trips and completed 207, at an average cost of $47.50 a ride, and 44 percent of them were booked for the same or next day. See NEMT vs rideshare.

Payment, audits, and records

Your rates for IHN-CCO trips come from your Ride Line subcontract, so ask for the rate schedule by vehicle type before you sign. For open card trips, OAR 410-136-3220 sets how any Oregon brokerage pays: a base rate per mode agreed with each company, half the base rate for each added rider on a shared ride, and only actual miles. The RideSource guide lays out that rule in full.

Every IHN-CCO ride needs Ride Line’s approval first, and so do mileage, meal, and lodging payments. From April to June 2026, Ride Line recorded 1,159 denials, and 557 of them were for rides or costs that were not prior authorized.

• Never bill the member. IHN-CCO and Ride Line cannot bill members for rides to covered services, even when the driver could not be paid, and OAR 410-141-3920 applies the same rule to every ride subcontractor.
• Expect checks from above. IHN-CCO stays accountable for Ride Line’s work under OAR 410-141-3920, and its 2026 CCO contract makes it audit a share of daily rides for claims data, pickup and drop-off times, the right level of transport, and member satisfaction. Ride Line’s own annual oversight audit was on the committee’s January 2026 agenda.
• Keep records 10 years. Oregon treats transportation providers as participating providers for its CCO record rule, which keeps records at least 10 years after the date of service. See NEMT trip documentation.

Who to call at Cascades West Ride Line

For	Contact
Ride Line call center	541-924-8738, toll free 866-724-2975, TTY 711
Provider line	Option 4 on the main number (July 2026 phone tree)
Hours	Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For shorter waits, Ride Line suggests calling Wednesday to Friday.
OCWCOG offices	1400 Queen Ave SE, Albany, OR 97322, and 203 North Main Street, Toledo, OR 97391
Cascades West Training Center	Register on OCWCOG’s training center page. Classes meet at 1400 Queen Ave SE, Suite 201, Albany, unless listed otherwise.
IHN-CCO provider customer service	888-435-2396 or 541-768-5207, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

IHN-CCO’s 2026 handbook lists the holidays the call center closes. The rest of 2026 brings Veterans Day on November 11, Thanksgiving on November 26 and the day after on November 27, Christmas Eve from noon on December 24, and Christmas Day on December 25. Plan driver coverage for those days with Ride Line ahead of time, and see how to contract with Medicaid health plans for the plan side of this work.