MTM Health in Texas: Joining the Network for Medicaid Plan Rides (2027)

In Texas, MTM Health works for Medicaid health plans, not for the state. Each plan picks its own ride vendor, and each plan covers only certain counties. So the first question is which MTM plans have members where you drive. The second is whether your company can clear the Texas Medicaid enrollment step and MTM’s credentialing.

Which Texas health plans use MTM Health

On September 30, 2026, the state’s ride vendor list names MTM for seven plans. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas becomes the eighth on October 1, 2026, when it moves its Medicaid rides from Modivcare to MTM. The plan says MTM will be its sole ride provider and will take over recurring trips and trips already booked for after that date.

Health plan	Programs with MTM rides	Service areas, September 2026	Member ride line
Aetna Better Health of Texas	STAR, STAR Kids	STAR in Bexar and Tarrant. STAR Kids in Dallas and Tarrant.	866-411-8920
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, from October 1, 2026	STAR, STAR Kids	STAR in Travis. STAR Kids in Travis and MRSA Central.	877-831-3148
Community Health Choice	STAR, STAR+PLUS	STAR in Harris and Jefferson. STAR+PLUS in Harris.	STAR 844-572-8194, STAR+PLUS 833-502-0131
Cook Children’s Health Plan	STAR, STAR Kids	Tarrant	844-572-8195
Dell Children’s Health Plan	STAR	Travis	844-867-2742
El Paso Health	STAR, STAR+PLUS	El Paso	STAR 844-572-8196, STAR+PLUS 855-584-3530
Parkland Community Health Plan	STAR	Dallas	833-931-3844
Wellpoint	STAR, STAR Kids, STAR+PLUS	STAR in Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Jefferson, Lubbock, Tarrant, and all three rural areas (MRSA Central, Northeast, and West). STAR Kids in Dallas, El Paso, Harris, Lubbock, and MRSA West. STAR+PLUS in Jefferson, Lubbock, MRSA West, and Nueces.	STAR 833-721-8184, STAR Kids 844-864-2443, STAR+PLUS 844-867-2837

Members book on these lines, and MTM schedules rides around the clock. Two plans also send extra rides through MTM that Medicaid itself does not cover. Parkland gives STAR members one free ride a month per household to a grocery store, food bank, WIC office, or Medicaid renewal appointment, booked two workdays ahead on the same 833-931-3844 line. In the Harris area, Community Health Choice offers rides to WIC and food bank appointments through MTM, and extra riders may come along if they can ride safely.

All seven plans MTM serves today came to it through Access2Care, which MTM now owns: the state’s list from October 2025 names Access2Care as the ride vendor for each of them. MTM says Access2Care moved to the MTM Health name with the same booking numbers and the same transportation companies, and the Access2Care member app stopped working for Texas Medicaid plans on May 14, 2026. El Paso Health’s own STAR and STAR+PLUS ride pages still name Access2Care, on the same 844-572-8196 and 855-584-3530 lines MTM lists. If you drove for Access2Care in Texas, ask your vendor account manager what changed in your agreement. The MTM Health guide covers the purchase itself.

Which Texas service areas MTM covers

The state groups counties into 13 managed care service areas, and each area has its own set of plans. HHSC’s map of the plans serving each area in September 2026 shows how much of each area MTM reaches:

• Tarrant (Denton, Hood, Johnson, Parker, Tarrant, and Wise counties). All three STAR plans, Aetna, Cook Children’s, and Wellpoint, and both STAR Kids plans use MTM. STAR+PLUS there runs through Molina and UnitedHealthcare, which use SafeRide Health.
• Dallas. Parkland and Wellpoint use MTM for STAR, and both STAR Kids plans, Aetna and Wellpoint, use MTM. Molina STAR and all three STAR+PLUS plans use SafeRide.
• Travis. Dell Children’s, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas from October 1, use MTM. Superior HealthPlan, the third STAR plan, uses SafeRide.
• El Paso. El Paso Health for STAR and STAR+PLUS, and Wellpoint for STAR Kids.
• Harris and Jefferson. Community Health Choice and Wellpoint. The other plans in the Houston and Beaumont areas use SafeRide.
• Rural Texas. Wellpoint is the one MTM plan for STAR in Lubbock and the three Medicaid Rural Service Areas. FirstCare and RightCare Scott and White left STAR on August 31, 2026, and since September 1 Superior and Wellpoint are the only STAR plans in those four areas.

Hidalgo, which covers the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo, has no MTM plan in any program. In Nueces, only Wellpoint’s STAR+PLUS members ride with MTM.

HHSC’s preliminary count for May 2026 put about 1.3 million Medicaid members in the eight plans MTM serves from October 1, out of about 3.6 million in Texas Medicaid managed care. Wellpoint alone had about 489,000. Where your counties mix MTM and SafeRide plans, plan on both contracts. See our SafeRide Health in Texas page and working with several brokers.

How to join MTM Health’s Texas network

1. Enroll in Texas Medicaid through TMHP. The state handbook bars a plan or its vendor from signing an agreement with a transportation company that TMHP has not enrolled. Apply in TMHP’s PEMS portal, and call the TMHP Contact Center at 800-925-9126 for help. The Texas guide walks through enrollment and timing.
2. Apply on MTM’s Join Our Network page. MTM’s 2025 form has a Texas rule: an application without a valid NPI is voided. It also asks for your EIN, Medicaid ID, counties, fleet, and insurance.
3. Work through the three phases. MTM’s Texas page describes application, credentialing, and contracting, each handled with a designated MTM representative. Its onboarding page puts training on the trip process before your first trip.
4. Buy insurance to the Texas floor. MTM’s Texas page says insurance details are set during credentialing. The state handbook requires plans and their vendors to make sure every transportation company carries $750,000 combined single limit business auto and workers’ compensation with $1 million in employer’s liability, so buy at least that and ask MTM in writing for any higher limits.

Texas plans pass the state’s driver, vehicle, and training rules down to MTM’s network, from 7-year DWI and criminal lookbacks to company lettering at least six inches high and a “How is my driving?” sticker on every vehicle. The full list, with every training deadline, is in the Texas guide.

How MTM sends and pays Texas trips

Trips arrive in the MTM Link Provider Portal and driver app. The tip sheet MTM links from its Texas provider page sends every ride as an A leg and a B leg, so each update must show on the right trip leg. Same-day turnbacks are not allowed, so review future trips daily and turn back what you cannot cover as early as you can. For real-time help with the portal or app, call MTM’s dispatch line at 888-597-1180.

MTM tells Texas members to be ready 90 minutes before the appointment and to call if a ride is more than 15 minutes late or a return ride takes more than an hour. Community Health Choice tells its members the driver may arrive up to 90 minutes early so they reach the appointment 15 minutes to an hour ahead. For a will-call return, MTM’s Texas facility page promises a ride within one hour of the call, and facilities can set up recurring trips instead of booking each one.

MTM sets Texas rates one provider at a time, and it pays nothing for a no-show. As a yardstick when you negotiate, the state’s fee-for-service program pays a flat $33.83 to $79.63 per one-way leg from September 1, 2026, by county type (Texas’s MTP rate update). The state handbook gives you 95 days from the ride to file a claim and gives MTM 30 days to decide it.

Proof of the visit matters in Texas. Chapter 16.4.1 of the managed care manual (version 2.1, April 1, 2024) holds each plan to matching at least 85 percent of its ride records to a health care claim, encounter, or pharmacy sale, and HHSC can seek corrective action plans or liquidated damages when a plan falls short. When no visit record exists, the handbook tells the plan or vendor to get other evidence that the member kept the appointment, so keep signatures and trip times on every ride.

What changed for MTM in Texas in 2025 and 2026

Date	What changed
April 1, 2025	Community First Health Plans moved its rides from MTM to SafeRide Health
December 15, 2025	Texas Children’s Health Plan moved from MTM to SafeRide Health
April 1, 2026	Molina Healthcare of Texas moved from Access2Care/MTM to SafeRide Health
May 14, 2026	The Access2Care member app stopped working for Texas Medicaid plans, replaced by MTM Link
August 31, 2026	FirstCare and RightCare Scott and White left STAR
October 1, 2026	Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas moves its Medicaid rides from Modivcare to MTM

If you drove Community First, Texas Children’s, or Molina members through MTM, those trips now come from SafeRide. If you drove Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas members for Modivcare, only MTM’s network gets them after September 30, 2026, so finish your Modivcare billing and get into MTM’s network. Our broker transition checklist covers final claims and standing orders.

Who to contact at MTM Health in Texas

For	Contact
Joining the network	The online application at mtm-inc.net/service-providers
Texas program questions	Texas program director, ehowarth@mtm-inc.net
Portal or driver app help, in real time	MTM dispatch line, 888-597-1180
Drivers, rosters, and trip issues	Your MTM vendor account manager
Clinic and facility outreach in Texas	CO-TX@mtm-inc.net
Texas Medicaid enrollment in PEMS	TMHP Contact Center, 800-925-9126
Mail	MTM Health, 16 Hawk Ridge Circle, Lake St. Louis, MO 63367

What to do first

1. Find your service area. Match your counties to the table above and to the state’s service area map, and note which plans use MTM there.
2. Start TMHP enrollment now. It comes before any MTM agreement, and you need your NPI for both.
3. Apply to MTM. Ask your representative which Texas plans need more capacity in your counties and which levels of service are short.
4. Insure to the state floor of $750,000 combined single limit auto and workers’ compensation.
5. Travis County and Central Texas rural companies: ask about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas trips, which move to MTM on October 1, 2026.
6. Apply to SafeRide too if your area mixes plans. For the plan side of the contract, see contracting with Medicaid health plans, and read the Wellpoint, Community Health Choice, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas pages.