How to Provide RideConnect Trips for South Country Health Alliance in 2027

South Country Health Alliance is a county-based purchasing health plan for Minnesota Health Care Programs members in seven southern Minnesota counties. It became Minnesota’s first multi-county plan of that kind on November 1, 2001, and its owner counties govern it through a Joint Powers Board with one commissioner from each. Its 2026 Quality Program Description puts enrollment at 27,083 members as of January 2026.

The plan does not hand rides to a broker. Its RideConnect staff take each member’s request and call a transportation company to drive it, so a company that wants these trips contracts with South Country itself.

Statewide, Minnesota NEMT companies must meet MnDOT’s special transportation service standards and enroll with Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP), and the statewide or regional NEMT administrator in state law can start only after DHS gives counties, managed care plans, and county-based plans such as South Country six months’ notice (Laws 2026, chapter 121). The Minnesota guide and the administrator delay report cover both.

Where South Country arranges rides

South Country’s owner counties and service area are Brown, Dodge, Goodhue, Sibley, Steele, Wabasha, and Waseca. Its Winter 2025 provider newsletter reported a DHS change: starting January 1, 2026, South Country is the only Families and Children (PMAP) plan in those counties, and it stays the only Special Needs BasicCare (SNBC) plan there. MinnesotaCare, MSC+, and MSHO members in the same counties can still choose among plans.

Chapter 27 of the provider manual, last updated February 27, 2026, lists the members RideConnect serves when they have no transportation of their own:

• Families and Children (Medical Assistance, formerly PMAP).
• Minnesota Senior Care Plus (MSC+).
• SingleCare and SharedCare, two of its Special Needs BasicCare (SNBC) programs.
• AbilityCare and SeniorCare Complete, South Country’s two Medicare Advantage dual plans (HMO D-SNP).
• MinnesotaCare, only for members under 19 and pregnant members.

Some rides belong elsewhere. Trips to Elderly Waiver services are the waiver’s job, arranged through the member’s county care coordinator. South Country does not pay mileage or gas to members who drive their own car, and it tells them to ask their county. Veterans Affairs care is not a covered service, but South Country tries to arrange a ride when the VA and other community resources cannot.

South Country’s provider networks reach past its seven counties into the Twin Cities, Brainerd, Duluth, Fargo, and Bemidji, so a member’s covered care can sit far from home. Under the RideConnect page updated January 16, 2026, the plan does not have to provide a ride to a primary care clinic more than 30 miles from home or a specialty provider more than 60 miles away, and out-of-state care needs South Country’s authorization first.

How RideConnect sends trips to your company

RideConnect books rides Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 1-866-567-7242, and it is closed on weekends. Members call at least three business days before the appointment. With less notice, a ride depends on which companies are available.

The rules that decide your trips:

• RideConnect calls you. Staff contact companies directly to schedule rides, and the manual asks companies to answer quickly so rides get set up on time.
• Do not book members yourself. During business hours, send any member who calls your office to RideConnect.
• Nights, weekends, and holidays. When a member, a hospital discharge planner, or a nursing home asks you for a ride while RideConnect is closed, check eligibility on the South Country provider portal or MN-ITS, and you may give the ride if the member is eligible. The next business day, fax (507) 431-6328 or secure email rideconnect@mnscha.org with the member’s name, member ID, ride date, and pickup and drop-off details. South Country may deny the claim if you report late.
• Nursing home residents. Ambulatory and wheelchair rides for members living in, entering, or leaving a licensed nursing facility can be booked directly with any contracted company. Stretcher rides for them always go through RideConnect.
• Bad weather. You may decline a ride you judge unsafe, but bring members home before conditions close in, give special weight to dialysis, chemotherapy, radiation, and ECT, and tell the member and RideConnect at once if you cannot finish. The bad weather policy guide helps you write the rule down.
• Minors. A minor riding without a parent or guardian needs South Country’s signed minor parental authorization form. Keep it in your records. It lasts one year.

South Country will not pay for some trips at all. These include rides to a Day Training and Habilitation site or adult day program, an extra stop to pick up a parent, guardian, or PCA, a drop-off changed after booking without the coordinator’s approval, a higher level of service than the member needs, and an emergency room trip unless it is a scheduled appointment or the entrance to an urgent care clinic. Pharmacy-only trips are allowed only when no other way to get the prescription exists, with every prescription picked up the same day and no repeat trips that week or month.

Assisted rides and the level of need assessment

Assisted rides cover ambulatory, wheelchair, stretcher, and protected service, where the driver helps the member from inside the pickup location, into the vehicle, with seat belts or securement, and all the way to the appointment desk. The driver gets a signature at the medical facility showing a scheduled appointment and that the member reached the desk.

Ambulatory, wheelchair, and stretcher rides need authorization from South Country’s Health Services department, which does a level of need assessment that the member requests through RideConnect. Check the authorization tab of the provider portal before the ride. New authorizations can take up to 72 hours to appear, and the portal showing one does not guarantee payment. These members qualify without the assessment:

• Nursing facility residents with living arrangement code 41, 42, 44, or 45 in their eligibility record.
• Dialysis, ECT, and outpatient procedures with sedation.
• Urgent visits when the medical provider asks for one.

Every assisted vehicle shows your business name and USDOT number on both sides, or your MnDOT STS certificate number if you have no USDOT number. The lettering must contrast sharply with the background and be readable in daylight from 50 feet while the vehicle is parked. Removable signs are allowed if they meet the same test. A wheelchair van must run under MnDOT authority and be registered with MnDOT.

Protected rides add their own paperwork. Within 72 hours of the ride, and before the claim is paid, send South Country’s protected transportation notification form (6928) with the state’s level of service assessment (DHS-6715) to Health Services by secure email to HealthServices@mnscha.org or by fax to 1-888-633-4052. A mental health crisis team or hospital certifies the member on that assessment, and each certification covers one trip on one date. Your company must be MnDOT-certified for protected transport, and the vehicle needs safety locks, a video recorder, and a clear partition between the driver and the member. A driver and an attendant ride along, each with at least six hours of training such as Crisis Intervention Team or Mental Health First Aid. No attendant is needed when the member was stabilized in an emergency department just before a trip under 100 miles.

How to join the RideConnect network

1. Earn your MnDOT STS certificate. Chapter 27 requires it of every company, assisted or unassisted.
2. Enroll with MHCP. Since January 1, 2024, South Country takes contract requests only from MHCP-enrolled providers. Apply after your MHCP welcome letter arrives.
3. Send the contract application by South Country’s web form, or email the PDF to providerinfo@mnscha.org. Allow up to 60 days, and expect no guarantee of a contract.
4. Send your STS certificate with the Provider Participation Agreement, then proof of each renewal within 30 days of the MnDOT renewal date.
5. Return the yearly Provider Information Form. Its roster lists everyone who has physical contact with members and every owner of 5% or more, with driver’s license numbers, the latest NetStudy background study for new drivers, your certificate of insurance, and an attestation of training. The credentialing checklist keeps those documents together.
6. Report changes right away: new counties or a new dispatch office, and any ownership change on South Country’s ownership disclosure form.
7. Screen every driver at hire and monthly against the HHS OIG exclusion list, SAM, and the MHCP excluded provider list, and tell South Country at once if anyone is under investigation or excluded. The exclusion screening log fits this schedule.

While a contract is pending, an MHCP-enrolled company can still drive members as a non-contracted provider. It sends the non-contracted facility information form (4402), a W-9, and the NPI or UMPI notification form (5071), then waits 15 business days before its first electronic claim. The health plan contracting guide covers the steps that apply to any plan.

What South Country pays for, and how to bill it

Chapter 27 pays contracted companies for four items that a non-contracted company cannot bill at all:

• Unloaded miles to the pickup, with the TP modifier.
• Wait time after the first 60 minutes, up to 2 units.
• After-hours pickups between midnight and 7 a.m., with the TU modifier.
• No-shows, with modifier 52 and no mileage.

Unloaded miles count only on the way to pick the member up. Empty miles to the clinic for the return leg of a round trip, and empty miles after you drop the member at home, are not billable. A one-way trip that starts at the medical facility is the exception. On the claim, TP goes in the second modifier position, after the origin and destination modifier, and the after-hours TU goes in the first position. Deadhead miles explains what empty driving costs you.

These are the codes Chapter 27 sets for each mode:

Mode	Pickup	Loaded mile	Unloaded mile
Unassisted (taxi or common carrier)	A0100	S0215	A0100 TP
Ambulatory	T2003	S0215	T2003 TP
Wheelchair	A0130	S0209	S0209 TP
Stretcher	T2005	T2049	T2049 TP
Protected	T2003 UA	S0215 UA	S0215 TP

Report a no-show by secure email to rideconnect@mnscha.org with the member’s name, ID, and date, then bill A0100 52 for an unassisted ride, T2003 52 for an ambulatory or protected ride, S0209 52 for a wheelchair ride, or T2049 52 for a stretcher ride, with no mileage. Wait time bills as T2007 in 30-minute units, a rule in effect since January 1, 2020. Volunteer driver miles are A0080, and T2001 pays an extra attendant only on stretcher rides.

Claim rules to get right:

• Driver’s license number. On every T2003, T2005, and A0130 line, put the license number of the driver who gave the ride in Loop 2400, SV101-7, with no spaces or dashes, or the claim rejects or denies.
• Electronic only. Bill on the 837P to payer ID 81600. Chapter 4 says paper claims are shredded.
• Place of service 99 and a valid ICD-10 diagnosis code on every claim.
• Mileage. Exact direct miles rounded to the nearest mile, from commercial mapping software, never zone mileage. Loaded mileage codes allow a 5-mile minimum on trips under 5 miles.
• Modifiers. Origin and destination modifiers go on every pickup and mileage line, and each mileage trip gets its own line.
• Deadlines. Claims within 180 days of the date of service, and corrected claims within 180 days of the original remittance advice. Contracted companies appeal within 90 days of the remittance advice, and non-contracted companies within 60 days for Medical Assistance claims.

Trip records South Country audits

Chapter 27 ties trip records to Minnesota Statutes 256B.0625, subdivision 17b, and makes you keep them for 10 years from the date of service, in English and legible. Each record carries the member’s name and South Country ID on every page, the pickup and return times with a.m. or p.m., both addresses, the vehicle’s plate number, the driver’s printed full name, your NPI or UMPI, and the mode. Show every loaded and unloaded mile with the mapping source or odometer readings, and the driver’s starting point for unloaded miles.

Two signed statements complete each trip. The driver certifies that the miles and times are accurate and that misreporting is fraud. The member or an authorized party certifies the ride happened, or the medical provider certifies the member arrived. South Country audits these records, and it recoups payment when the level of need criteria for an assisted ride were not met.

Who to call

• RideConnect: 1-866-567-7242, Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., fax (507) 431-6328, rideconnect@mnscha.org for scheduling, no-shows, and after-hours reports. Send anything with member health information by secure email.
• Provider Contact Center: 1-888-633-4055 for claims, eligibility, and the status of non-contracted paperwork.
• Utilization Management: 1-888-633-4051, fax 1-888-633-4052, for authorizations.
• Contracts: providerinfo@mnscha.org.
• Fraud reports: compliance@mnscha.org or 1-866-722-7770.
• Mail: South Country Health Alliance, 6380 West Frontage Road, Medford, MN 55049.

Other Minnesota plans run rides their own way. PrimeWest Health is another county-based plan with its own ride program and billing rules, and Blue Plus runs BlueRide for its members.