SafeRide Health in Kansas: Sunflower and UnitedHealthcare Rides (2027)

Kansas buys Medicaid rides through its three KanCare health plans, and SafeRide Health books them for two. The Kansas guide covers KMAP enrollment, Kansas Corporation Commission rules, and driver record limits, and the SafeRide Health page covers SafeRide’s signup, credentialing list, and performance standards everywhere it works. This page covers what changes in Kansas: the two plans, how each one books and certifies rides, where claims go, and the contract terms behind SafeRide’s on-time push.

Which KanCare members SafeRide books

Sunflower Health Plan, since November 1, 2024. Sunflower’s provider bulletin SHPBN-2024-044, dated October 28, 2024, announced that SafeRide would provide curb-to-curb rides for its Medicaid members and run gas mileage reimbursement too. Sunflower told members on October 16, 2024 that their benefit and the ride number on their ID card would stay the same, so riders who called the old line reached SafeRide without doing anything.

UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kansas, since January 1, 2026. UnitedHealthcare’s 2026 KanCare provider manual lists SafeRide for non-emergency rides effective January 1, 2026, alongside Modivcare, its earlier vendor. If you drove UnitedHealthcare riders for Modivcare during 2025, those riders now reach you only through a SafeRide agreement. Close out your 2025 Modivcare claims with Modivcare, and use the broker transition checklist for standing rides.

Healthy Blue rides go elsewhere. The third plan uses MTM Health, and its transportation page sends members to MTM at 833-270-2254. See MTM Health. Members outside the plans ride with KMAP-enrolled providers after prior approval, which the Kansas guide explains.

The KanCare contracts say covered services are provided statewide, so a SafeRide trip can start in any of Kansas’s counties. The member’s plan decides the broker, which means a dialysis center in Wichita or Garden City may have riders on all three plans and two brokers at once. KDHE announced the current contracts on May 14, 2024, for January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2027, with Sunflower and UnitedHealthcare as returning plans. Each contract allows two one-year renewals.

How Sunflower and UnitedHealthcare rides compare

Both plans send their rides to SafeRide, but each writes its own member rules. As of October 2026, the plans’ own pages and manuals show:

Item	Sunflower Health Plan	UnitedHealthcare Community Plan
Member ride line	SafeRide, 1-877-917-8162	1-855-932-2320 in its manual; 1-888-462-6044 on SafeRide’s page
Routine notice	At least 3 days before the appointment day	Stretcher and ambulance rides at least 3 days ahead
Short notice	Sooner for an urgent visit the member names when calling	Discharges and urgent trips handled the same day
Ride types named	Bus, van, taxi, stretcher vehicle	Sedan, taxi, wheelchair van, transit, shared rides
Extra rides	12 round trips a year, plus 8 one-way WIC trips	24 round trips a year, within a 10-mile radius
Riders under 18	Ride with an adult	Ride with an adult unless emancipated or pregnant; 16 and up may request rides
Family drivers	$0.30 a mile, registered drivers only	Mileage repayment offered

The extra rides are value-added benefits, and the KanCare contract requires plans to offer those statewide. Sunflower’s go to food, housing, and job supports, the pharmacy, support groups, health education, and community events. UnitedHealthcare’s cover trips such as the pharmacy, a grocery store, a food bank, WIC, prenatal classes, and job interviews, and its 10-mile radius makes them short local runs. Ask your network vendor manager whether these trips come to your company and at what rate.

Family drivers are competition for ambulatory work. Sunflower pays the member, or a friend or relative registered with SafeRide, $0.30 a mile when the ride was booked with SafeRide first and the doctor signs the trip form, and SafeRide must receive the form within 180 days. See mileage reimbursement.

The form behind Sunflower wheelchair and stretcher rides

SafeRide’s Sunflower page links a Certification by Medical Provider for Transportation Services, revised October 2024. The primary care doctor or a designee (a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or clinical nurse specialist) completes it, and SafeRide returns any form that is not filled out in full. It sorts riders into two levels:

• Level I. The rider walks, with or without a walker, cane, or someone’s help.
• Level II. The rider is confined to a wheelchair, permanently or for a stated time, or needs a stretcher.
• Either level. The rider occasionally needs a wheelchair because of chemotherapy, radiation, outpatient surgery, or dialysis. The form says this box lets transportation providers bill for the service actually given.

A form lasts up to one year unless the doctor marks the wheelchair as permanent, and a temporary wheelchair certification ends when the expected duration the doctor writes runs out. When a rider improves, the doctor files a new form to move them back to Level I. Doctors send it to sunflower_authorizations@saferidehealth.com or fax 1-888-405-0375. If your regular dialysis riders sometimes leave in a wheelchair, ask the center to check the occasional box, and see levels of service and dialysis transportation.

What Kansas adds before your first SafeRide trip

SafeRide’s signup asks whether you are approved for Medicaid rides and for your Medicaid provider ID. In Kansas that means a KMAP ID: KMAP General Bulletin 24215 says enrollment as a KMAP provider is required to enroll with a KanCare plan, and a service location not enrolled with KMAP cannot take part. The Kansas guide walks through the KMAP application and choosing plan networks in the KMAP portal.

SafeRide also asks that your company be licensed for NEMT in every area you serve. In Kansas, that is a Kansas Corporation Commission certificate for for-hire vans built or used for 9 or more people, driver included, or rated 10,001 pounds or more, unless an exemption fits. Smaller sedans and minivans fall outside that definition, and the Kansas guide lists the exemptions and filing steps. For SafeRide’s insurance limits and driver checks, see the SafeRide Health page and NEMT broker credentialing.

How KanCare grades the rides SafeRide sends you

The Sunflower and UnitedHealthcare contracts carry the same ride standards in section 2.5.5.5: pickup no more than 15 minutes late, a 15-minute wait before a no-show, drop-off 15 minutes to one hour before the appointment, and a will-call return within one hour. The Kansas guide lists them in full. What the contract adds is money and reporting:

• $1,000 per driver no-show. Appendix G lets the state charge a plan $1,000 for each scheduled NEMT driver no-show, per member.
• $500 per other miss. The same row charges $500 per occurrence, per member, for a late pickup, an early or late drop-off, a return wait over one hour, or an urgent ride not picked up within three hours.
• Late counts as a no-show. Section 2.5.5.5 calls any pickup more than 15 minutes late a provider no-show, even though Appendix G prices late pickups with the $500 misses.
• Monthly reports. Each plan reports transportation provider no-shows and what it did about them every month, and audits the standards every quarter.
• Facility pickup rules. Each plan must tell transportation providers how pickups at facilities work: whom to notify on arrival, how, and how long to wait.

The penalties are charged to the plan, and your SafeRide agreement decides what passes to you, so read its sections on no-shows and service failures before you sign, and ask how it counts a late arrival. Ask your network vendor manager for SafeRide’s Kansas facility pickup guidelines in writing, and track your own on-time rate against SafeRide’s standards with NEMT broker scorecards.

Billing SafeRide in Kansas

SafeRide’s provider guide, posted in June 2023, asks you to bill trips daily with time stamps and driver and vehicle details, and it pays within 30 days of a properly completed ride. Your agreement sets the rate for each ride type. See how to bill NEMT brokers.

When a claim goes on paper, the plan decides the address. KMAP General Bulletin 19019, updated March 2026, lists these transportation addresses:

Plan	Transportation paper claims go to
Sunflower Health Plan	SafeRide Claims Dept., 106 Jefferson, Suite 300, San Antonio, TX 78205
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan	UnitedHealthcare/SafeRide, 18302 Talavera Ridge, Suite 300, San Antonio, TX 78257
Healthy Blue	MTM, c/o Claims Department, 16 Hawk Ridge Circle, Lake St. Louis, MO 63367

KMAP does not process paper KanCare claims. An envelope that names a plan or vendor but reaches KMAP comes back to you, and one marked KMAP, Kansas Medicaid, or nothing at all is scanned in as a fee-for-service claim. Address each envelope to the right SafeRide office.

Who to call

For	Contact
Joining SafeRide’s network	team@saferidehealth.com or (855) 955-7433
Sunflower rides, booking and day of ride	SafeRide, 1-877-917-8162
UnitedHealthcare rides	1-855-932-2320, weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central (manual); 1-888-462-6044 (SafeRide’s page)
Sunflower Level of Service forms	sunflower_authorizations@saferidehealth.com, fax 1-888-405-0375
Sunflower provider customer service	1-877-644-4623
UnitedHealthcare provider services	1-877-542-9235
KMAP customer service	1-800-933-6593
Healthy Blue rides	MTM Health, 833-270-2254

What to do first

1. Enroll with KMAP and choose the Sunflower and UnitedHealthcare networks in the KMAP portal.
2. Fill out SafeRide’s signup with your KMAP ID, NPI, and EIN, list every Kansas county you can reach, and finish within 30 days or start over.
3. Get a KCC certificate if any van is built for 9 or more people or rated 10,001 pounds or more.
4. Ask for SafeRide’s Kansas rules in writing: facility pickup guidelines, how no-shows are counted, and whether value-added trips come to you.
5. Talk to your dialysis and cancer centers about the Level of Service form for riders who sometimes need a wheelchair.
6. Apply to MTM Health for Healthy Blue riders, so no plan’s members are off limits to you.