A0170 Billing Code: Parking Fees, Tolls, and Other Trip Charges

What A0170 means

CMS lists A0170 in the national HCPCS code set as “Transportation ancillary: parking fees, tolls, other.” It has been in the code set since January 1, 1982. The October 2026 quarterly file gives it coverage code I, which means Medicare does not pay it, and pricing indicator 00, which means Part B sets no price for it.

A0170 is an add-on line. It never pays for the ride itself. You bill the base code for the trip and the mileage code for the loaded miles, then add A0170 for a toll or parking charge your payer allows. It sits in the same group of ancillary codes as A0180, lodging for the rider, and A0190 through A0210, meals and lodging for the rider and an escort. See NEMT billing codes for the full list.

Because Medicare does not use A0170, there is no national rate and no national unit. Each Medicaid program, health plan, or broker decides whether it pays A0170, what one unit means, and what proof it wants. The “other” in the descriptor is also defined by the payer. North Carolina’s county transportation manual, for example, lists attendant pay under A0170 as an ancillary cost.

Which states pay A0170

Program	Pays A0170?	The rule	Date
New York Medicaid	Yes, for tolls	The actual toll charged, one unit per crossing for the vehicle. TU and TK pay back the Manhattan congestion surcharge on for-hire trips.	Policy manual effective August 25, 2023. Fee schedule dated April 5, 2026.
North Dakota Medicaid	Listed as covered at a general rate of $0.85	Parking fees are a noncovered NEMT service. Providers who bill A0170 must complete and submit a trip ticket (SFN 296).	Fee schedule July 1, 2026. Manual January 2026.
North Carolina Medicaid Direct, run by county social services offices	Only when the trip is paid by mileage	A per-trip payment already includes parking and tolls.	MA-2910, revised March 16, 2026
Indiana Medicaid	No	Parking fees and tolls are noncovered ancillary charges. The fee schedule lists A0170 as a noncovered service.	Module published August 19, 2025. Fee schedule updated June 9, 2026.
Illinois Medicaid	No	Charges for waiting time, meals, lodging, parking, and tolls are not covered.	Handbook dated March 11, 2024

On broker trips, the broker’s contract and rate sheet decide. If your rate sheet has no A0170 line, ask the broker in writing before you plan a route through a toll. North Carolina members in a health plan get rides through the plan, not the county, so the plan’s transportation contract sets the rule for them.

How New York bills tolls on A0170

New York’s transportation policy manual pays only the actual cost a provider incurred while carrying a Medicaid rider. A toll is charged to the vehicle, not the rider. So a van carrying two riders through one toll bills one unit for that crossing, not one per passenger.

• E-ZPass accounts: bill the amount actually charged to your account while carrying the rider.
• Toll by mail: New York pays only the current E-ZPass rate, so a toll-by-mail premium is yours to absorb.
• Only charged crossings count: each crossing that charged a toll is one unit, and a crossing that charged nothing bills nothing.

The fee schedule dated April 5, 2026 lists A0170 for ambulance, ambulette, and taxi, livery, and van providers without a set fee, because the toll is paid at what you were charged. It also lists two surcharge lines for taxi, livery, and van providers:

Line	When	Fee
A0170 TU	A single-rider for-hire trip that starts in, ends in, or enters the Manhattan congestion zone	$2.75 per trip
A0170 TK	A shared ride with riders booked separately	$0.75 per rider

The state has collected the surcharge since February 2, 2019. It covers taxi, livery, green car, black car, and rideshare vehicles, and ambulances and ambulettes are exempt. A provider subject to it more than once a month must register with the New York Department of Taxation and Finance (the Medicaid manual lists a $1.50 fee), file a monthly return within 20 days after each month, and keep a record of every trip. Never ask the rider to pay it. See the New York state guide for enrollment.

What happens when tolls are padded

New York’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit treats a claim for a toll you did not pay as a false claim. In a cease and desist notice dated January 7, 2025, covering claims from January 1, 2015 to August 31, 2018, it found that a transportation provider had claimed tolls over $50 on 1,094 trips, $55,250 in total.

The notice set those claims against real toll prices. One of the highest E-ZPass tolls for a passenger vehicle on the New York State Thruway in 2024 was $20.54, for more than 447 miles from New York City to near Buffalo, and a more typical 28-mile Thruway trip cost under $2.00. Efficient routing would not have passed toll points costing nearly $50 per trip. The notice warned of treble damages and penalties of up to $27,894 per false claim under the state False Claims Act.

How to claim A0170 step by step

1. Check that your payer pays it. Find A0170 on your state fee schedule or broker rate sheet. Indiana and Illinois do not pay parking or tolls at all.
2. Take the direct route. New York pays only tolls actually incurred on the trip, and its fraud unit measures claimed tolls against efficient routing.
3. Log every charge on the trip. Write the toll point or parking location, the time, and the amount on the trip record.
4. Keep the proof. Save the toll account statement or the parking receipt with the trip record.
5. Bill it on its own line. Add A0170 to the claim with the trip’s base and mileage lines, using the units your payer counts and the modifiers it requires.
6. Send any required form. North Dakota wants a completed trip ticket (SFN 296) from providers who bill A0170.