How to Become a Ride Health Transportation Provider in 2027

Ride Health, Inc. is a New York company that plans and books rides for health care organizations. As of September 2026, its site lists nine kinds of clients: PACE programs, agencies serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), California regional centers, health systems, senior primary care groups, long-term care health plans, Medicare Advantage plans, Medicaid health plans, and opioid and substance use programs.

Every client type on that list is a health care organization, not a state Medicaid agency. A client hires Ride Health to run its transportation. Ride Health fills the client’s own vans first when the client has them, and sends the overflow to outside companies in its network. Those outside companies include NEMT providers like you, taxis, and rideshare drivers. A 24/7 team Ride Health calls Ride Success watches every trip.

Who Ride Health arranges rides for

The client decides the rider, the rules, and the kind of vehicle. This is what each client type on Ride Health’s site means for a transportation company:

Client	Typical rides	What to expect
PACE programs	Participants 55 and older who qualify for nursing home care, going to the PACE center and appointments	The program’s own vans go first, and outside providers take the overflow
I/DD agencies and California regional centers	Daily rides to day programs on fixed schedules	Rider profiles cover mobility, behavior, sensory needs, and communication
Medicaid and long-term care health plans	Covered appointments such as dialysis, behavioral health, and prenatal visits	State Medicaid rules apply to the trip
Medicare Advantage plans	Supplemental rides to medical appointments	The plan’s benefit sets how many rides a member gets
Health systems	Hospital discharges and clinic appointments	Rides can be booked from the hospital’s patient record system, including discharge rides home
Opioid and substance use programs	Daily treatment rides	Ride Health says it keeps treatment visits private under the 42 CFR Part 2 rules

Its home page describes a 50-state network, as of September 2026. Its own announcements name these programs:

Announced	Client	Where	Rides
December 5, 2019	Harvard Pilgrim Health Care	Massachusetts and New Hampshire	Medicare Advantage members, 12 to 24 free rides a year, from January 1, 2020
March 17, 2021	ArchCare Senior Life (PACE)	Greater New York City	PACE participant rides from credentialed network providers, who also take PACE training
March 29, 2021	IMSNY, a joint venture of two behavioral health groups	New York City and the Hudson Valley	Rides for Medicaid members across 80 behavioral health agencies
February 7, 2023	Services for the UnderServed	New York City	Day habilitation and appointment rides for people with I/DD, since mid-2022

Ride Health’s site also has a ride request page for Harbor Regional Center in Los Angeles County, where service coordinators book rides to day programs in Long Beach, Torrance, Carson, and nearby cities.

The announcements are not a list of current contracts. Ask Ride Health’s network team which programs are running in your counties before you plan around them.

How to join Ride Health’s network

1. Gather your details. Have your FEIN, your Medicaid ID and NPI if you have them, owner names and contact details, your insurance limits and expiration dates, and a count of vehicles by type.
2. Fill out the application. The Transportation Provider Application sits at ridehealth.com/tp/application. It is one online form, and nearly every question is required.
3. Send questions to the network team at network@ridehealth.com. The form names that address for applicants.
4. Be ready for documents. The form says specific driver documents are not needed yet, so expect a request for them if Ride Health moves forward. Our broker credentialing guide lists what to prepare.

What the application asks

Section	Questions
Company	Name, phone, website, street address, headquarters city, county, state, and ZIP; FEIN; Medicaid ID and NPI if you have them; owner name and contact; certifications (DBE, WBE, MBE, HUB, disabled veteran business, or none)
Contacts	Point of contact name, title, phone, and email, plus an escalation phone number
Operations	Service levels; fleet and dispatch coverage for weekdays, Saturday, and Sunday (early morning 5 to 8 a.m., standard 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., late night 6 p.m. to midnight, 24 hours, or closed); dispatch phone; the dispatch system you use
Trip requests	Notice you need to accept a scheduled trip (same day, 1 to 2 days, 3 to 5 days, or 6 or more); whether you take immediate trips; states and counties you serve
Insurance	Carrier; general liability aggregate; auto liability combined single limit; workers’ compensation; each with its expiration date
Languages	English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Arabic, or other
Vehicles and drivers	Vehicles by type (for example, 5 sedans and 3 wheelchair vans); daily rides you can run (under 10, 11 to 30, 31 to 50, or over 50); number of drivers (under 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 15, or over 15)
Driver checks	Whether you can show each driver’s license, driving record, criminal background check, drug and alcohol tests, and training records
Driver training	Defensive driving, CPR, first aid, PASS, five-point wheelchair securement, and spill kit and bloodborne pathogen training

The form asks about Saturday and Sunday apart from weekdays, and early mornings apart from standard hours, so answer each one as it really is. Day program rides start early: Harbor Regional Center’s arrival windows, for example, begin at 6:30 a.m.

Service levels and insurance

The application lists these service levels, as of September 2026: ambulatory (sedan or taxi), minivan or SUV, wheelchair or ambulette, bariatric wheelchair, stretcher or gurney, basic life support, and advanced life support. See levels of service for what each one means on a trip.

The form asks for your limits but does not set minimums. The floor usually comes from the program behind the ride and your state’s rules for passenger carriers. Before you change a policy, ask network@ridehealth.com which limits apply to the programs in your county, and whether Ride Health must be named on your certificate. Our guide to NEMT insurance requirements shows the limits brokers commonly set.

Rules that come with each kind of ride

Ride Health’s contract is only one layer. The client program brings its own federal or state rules.

Medicaid health plan rides

Under 42 CFR 438.602(b), each state must screen, enroll, and revalidate every network provider of its Medicaid health plans. The federal definition of a network provider in 42 CFR 438.2 includes a company with an agreement with a plan’s subcontractor that is paid with Medicaid money directly or indirectly. So a Ride Health trip for a Medicaid health plan member usually needs your company enrolled with that state’s Medicaid program. A plan may sign a provider while enrollment is pending, but must end the agreement if the state has not enrolled it within 120 days. See how to contract with Medicaid health plans.

PACE rides

PACE programs answer to 42 CFR 460.76 for transportation. The program must:

• Train all transportation staff, employees and contractors alike, in managing participants’ special needs and handling emergencies.
• Make sure a contractor’s vehicles are maintained to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
• Equip vehicles to communicate with the PACE center.
• Tell transportation staff about relevant changes in a participant’s care plan.

Contracted staff who furnish care directly to participants also fall under 42 CFR 460.71: orientation, a competency program, clearance for communicable diseases, and current immunizations before direct contact. Ask the PACE program whether it applies those steps to drivers. Under 42 CFR 460.68(a), a PACE program also may not contract with a company or person excluded from Medicare or Medicaid, or convicted of crimes tied to health care or social service programs. See PACE transportation contracts.

California regional center rides

California’s Department of Developmental Services (DDS) separates the broker from the driver. Under 17 CCR 54342, a transportation broker (service code 883) builds routes and schedules and may monitor quality, but does not provide rides. A transportation company (service code 875) needs a current business license as a transportation company and proof of the insurance the regional center sets. Service code 880 covers a day program that drives its own clients with its own staff. Ride Health’s home page says it supports regional centers’ 875 and 880 providers.

DDS directive D-2024-Rate Reform-006, last revised October 28, 2025, sets how transportation companies bill for services from January 1, 2025. Every provider had to move to mileage billing by December 31, 2025:

Rule	What the directive says
Billing unit	Total vehicle mileage, at a rate set by vehicle capacity
Vehicle size	Small (10 or fewer passengers, including the driver), medium (11 to 18), large (19 or more)
Wheelchair vehicles	Vehicles with a lift get the non-ambulatory rate
Miles counted	From leaving your lot to returning, minus miles not tied to riders, such as lunch or fueling
Records	Odometer readings at the start and end of each trip, and attendance for each one-way trip

Ask the regional center whether you need your own vendor status as a transportation company before you take these rides. See the California state guide for licensing.

Medicare Advantage rides

These are supplemental benefits, so the plan sets how many rides a member gets and where they may go. Harvard Pilgrim’s 2020 benefit, for example, allowed 12 to 24 rides a year depending on where the member lived. See Medicare Advantage transportation.

How Ride Health sends trips and pays

Coordinators book rides on Ride Health’s platform: one-way, round trip, multi-stop, and recurring rides for day programs. Each passenger has a profile that travels with the ride. Ride Health’s offer system then spreads rides across the client’s own fleet and outside providers, and its Ride Success team answers alerts and calls from riders, coordinators, and drivers around the clock.

Read the profile before every pickup. Harbor Regional Center’s intake form, as of September 2026, shows what a profile can hold:

• Mobility: cane or walker, wheelchair type, and total wheelchair width from 28 to 40 inches. Scooter riders must transfer to a seat and have the scooter stowed.
• Assistance: none, help into and out of the vehicle, door to door, or door through door, plus stairs at the home and how many.
• Warm hand-off: whether an adult must receive the rider at drop-off.
• Notes: oxygen, infant seats, and conditions such as seizures, hearing or vision loss, or behavior in transit.
• Timing: 30-minute arrival and departure windows at the day program.

Changes needed in less than one full business day go by phone to (833) 530-9437, not through the form.

For payment, Ride Health says transportation providers on its regional center programs get manifests, need profiles, electronic trip verification, and simpler billing. Your rates and payment terms come from your agreement. Get these in writing before you accept trips: the rate for each service level, mileage and wait time pay, no-show and late cancellation pay, the payment schedule, and how to dispute a short payment. Our guide to negotiating broker rates covers what to ask.

Who to contact at Ride Health

• Joining the network: network@ridehealth.com
• Ride Success team (24/7 phone): (833) 267-7433
• Support email: support@ridehealth.com, with live chat Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern
• Urgent trip requests: the form at ridehealth.com/new-trip-request
• Platform status: ridehealth.com/status
• Harbor Regional Center rides needed within one business day: (833) 530-9437
• Mail: Ride Health, Inc., New York, NY 10001

Ride Health is not the only company that books rides for health plans. Compare its program with SafeRide Health and other brokers on our NEMT brokers by state guide, and check each plan’s transportation page in your state to see which vendor it uses.