Modivcare in North Carolina: Health Plan Rides and How to Join (2027)

Modivcare has booked rides for North Carolina’s Medicaid health plans since the plans took over transportation on July 1, 2021. Two Standard Plans left it for MTM Health in 2026, but it still carries every Tailored Plan and the statewide foster care plan, and those plans cover all 100 counties. County rides for NC Medicaid Direct members, NCTracks steps, and DMV rules are in the North Carolina guide. The company itself, including its 2025 bankruptcy, is on our Modivcare page.

Which North Carolina plans use Modivcare

As of September 30, 2026, seven health plans send their members’ ride requests to Modivcare, and six from October 1, when Vaya Health and Partners become Vaya Partners. The member calls the plan’s ride line, and Modivcare gives the trip to a company in its network.

Plan	Who it covers	Ride line
AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina	Standard Plan members	1-833-498-2262
Healthy Blue	Standard Plan members	1-855-397-3602
Healthy Blue Care Together	Children and youth in foster care, adopted children, and former foster youth, statewide since December 1, 2025	1-855-397-3615
Alliance Health	Tailored Plan members in 7 counties	1-855-759-9600
Trillium Health Resources	Tailored Plan members in 46 counties	1-877-685-2415
Vaya Partners	Tailored Plan members in 47 counties from October 1, 2026	1-855-397-3614

Tailored Plans launched July 1, 2024 for members with serious mental health needs, substance use disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, or traumatic brain injury. Each county belongs to one plan. NC DHHS lists Alliance for Cumberland, Durham, Harnett, Johnston, Mecklenburg, Orange, and Wake counties, and Trillium for 46 counties, from Currituck and Dare on the coast west to Guilford, Randolph, Montgomery, and Anson. Vaya Partners takes the other 47, from Buncombe and the mountains to Forsyth, Gaston, and Union. So a van company in Wake, Mecklenburg, or Buncombe County has Modivcare Tailored Plan riders near its garage.

The state’s policy lets Tailored Plans use rideshare companies for recovery trips only, such as a ride home from the hospital. Their other trips stay with network transportation providers. AmeriHealth Caritas and Healthy Blue, as Standard Plans, may send a trip booked less than two days ahead to a rideshare company first.

Healthy Blue Care Together trips come from a different set of callers. NC Medicaid’s December 2025 fact sheet says county DSS staff, foster parents, and caretakers book rides with Modivcare for children in DSS custody. A booking for one of your riders can come from a child welfare worker as well as a foster family. See children in NEMT for attendant rules.

What changed in 2026

• January 1, 2026. UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina moved its rides to MTM Health.
• April 1, 2026. WellCare of North Carolina merged into Carolina Complete Health, and Carolina Complete Health switched from Modivcare to MTM that day.
• October 1, 2026. Vaya Health and Partners Health Management merge into Vaya Partners. Both already use Modivcare. Their provider FAQ of September 25, 2026 says existing ride orders and reservations carry over automatically. Before the merger, Vaya members booked at 1-888-621-2084 and Partners members at 1-855-397-3611.

If you drove UnitedHealthcare or Carolina Complete Health members for Modivcare, those riders now book through MTM.

How to join Modivcare’s North Carolina network

You contract with Modivcare, not with each plan. AmeriHealth Caritas’s November 2023 NEMT training sends transportation companies straight to Modivcare for contracting.

1. Enroll in NCTracks. NC Medicaid’s managed care NEMT policy, amended January 1, 2025, requires every NEMT company in a plan’s network to enroll as a Medicaid provider. A van company uses taxonomy code 343900000X. The policy also lets plans use companies based within 40 miles of the state line. The fee, training, and site visit are in the North Carolina guide.
2. Reach the North Carolina network team. Send the Become a Transportation Provider form on modivcare.com, and email ncnetwork@modivcare.com, the contracting address in NC Medicaid’s April 29, 2022 bulletin. Name the counties you cover and your wheelchair van count.
3. Build each driver file. Modivcare asks for a PASS wheelchair certificate, first aid and CPR, a defensive driving certificate, a drug screen, a motor vehicle report, and a background check. North Carolina’s policy adds a state criminal check before hire and every three years, a driving record review every 12 months, and a random drug and alcohol program that meets Federal Transit Administration rules, paid for by you. See NEMT driver drug testing.
4. Insure and inspect each vehicle. Modivcare asks for current registration, a passed state inspection, auto liability, general liability, sexual abuse and molestation coverage, and workers’ compensation where the law requires it. The state policy names $1.5 million in liability for for-hire vehicles with 15 or fewer seats, driver included, and $5 million above that. Ask the network team which limits your agreement uses.
5. Read the agreement against the state policy. It must carry the two performance limits below, and it alone decides whether no-shows and waiting time are paid.

State policy also limits what the agreement can say. Modivcare may not add exclusivity or non-compete terms, require you to take part in running a provider-led entity, or bar you from contracting with another plan. NC Medicaid’s 2021 and 2022 bulletins strongly encouraged companies to contract with both brokers, so apply to MTM Health as well. See working with multiple brokers and how health plan contracts work.

Trip rules on Modivcare’s North Carolina plans

Each plan tells its members how Modivcare rides work, and those rules set your driver’s day.

Rule	What the plan says	Plan
Booking	At least 2 business days ahead, and no more than 30 days	Alliance, Trillium
Reservation hours	Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Sundays and seven national holidays	Trillium
Booking calls	Taken 24 hours a day, seven days a week	AmeriHealth Caritas
Urgent rides	Can be booked 24 hours a day	Alliance, Vaya Health
Before pickup	The driver calls the member with the pickup time and a phone number	AmeriHealth Caritas
Waiting at pickup	The driver waits up to 5 minutes after arriving	Alliance
Scheduled return	Within 30 minutes after the appointment ends	AmeriHealth Caritas
Will-call return	Less than 60 minutes after the member calls	AmeriHealth Caritas
Door help	The driver may come to the door, but not into the home	AmeriHealth Caritas
Long trips	Trips over 75 miles need plan approval	AmeriHealth Caritas, Alliance, Vaya Health
Missed rides	Three or more no-shows in three months can suspend a member’s rides for up to 30 days	Trillium
Wheelchairs	Members bring their own	Vaya Health

The state policy sets the outer limits for every plan. Hospital and emergency room discharges must be picked up within three hours of the request, and a return rider waits no more than one hour after treatment, or two hours on a shared or long trip. See hospital discharge transportation.

How Modivcare pays in North Carolina

NC Medicaid publishes no NEMT fee schedule. Its October 30, 2025 bulletin lists NEMT among services without one, so your rate is whatever your Modivcare agreement says.

On health plan trips, Modivcare is the billing provider and you are the rendering provider. The state policy has each trip leg reported separately, with a 9-character trip number and the times your driver arrived at the pickup, left it, and reached the drop-off. Put all three times on every trip log. If Modivcare agrees to pay for no-shows or waiting time, the policy says you invoice those charges separately from the ride.

The contract must also hold you to two numbers. You may miss no more than one quarter of one percent of your trips in a contract year, and no more than 5% of drop-offs a month may arrive after the appointment time.

Rates changed briefly in late 2025. On October 30, 2025, NC Medicaid said it intended to amend plan contracts so NEMT from October 1, 2025 paid 97% of the rates in effect on September 30. The state announced on December 10, 2025 that it was reversing the October cuts. Its December 19 bulletin gave plans 45 days after the corrected fee schedules posted January 5, 2026 to load them, and 30 more days to reprocess claims the cut had reduced. If a Modivcare payment for a trip from that period came in 3% short, ask the network team how it was corrected. See North Carolina’s rate reversal.

Who to call at Modivcare in North Carolina

For	Contact
Joining the network	The Become a Transportation Provider form on modivcare.com, and ncnetwork@modivcare.com
North Carolina network line	855-397-3604, given with ncnetwork@modivcare.com in NC Medicaid’s July 2021 bulletin
Billing, claims, and ride reservations	The links for current transportation providers on Modivcare’s Become a Transportation Provider page
NCTracks enrollment	800-688-6696
NC Medicaid Contact Center	888-245-0179, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Before you email, find the Tailored Plan for each county you serve in the NC DHHS directory, and count your wheelchair vans and drivers. Ask which counties and service levels Modivcare is short on, and which insurance limits its North Carolina agreement requires.