What Is a Stretcher Chair? Wheelchair or Stretcher Trip, and Will It Fit Your Van

What a stretcher chair is

A stretcher chair carries a patient sitting up or lying flat on one wheeled frame. The back reclines, the leg rest rises, and the seat becomes a flat surface, so the same device works as a chair and as a stretcher.

The hospital kind is a stretcher in the FDA’s terms. As of October 2026, the stretcher chairs in the FDA’s device listings sit under product code FPO, the wheeled stretcher, which 21 CFR 880.6910 defines as a platform on a wheeled frame designed to transport patients in a horizontal position. A wheelchair is a different device: 21 CFR 890.3850 describes a mechanical wheelchair as one that gives mobility to people restricted to a sitting position.

Some wheelchairs built for NEMT vans also lie flat. One crash-tested transport chair reclines up to 90 degrees and measures 58 inches long with its leg rest down and 73 inches long fully reclined, by its maker’s specifications as of October 2026. Montgomery County, Maryland calls a similar device a geri chair. Its Medicaid ride contract (open solicitation 1171472, March 2025) describes a fully padded clinical recliner on swivel casters that moves from fully upright to fully reclined, used to carry patients lying on their back.

Ambulance crews use the words for a third thing: a combination stretcher and stair chair, a portable carrier for steps. New Jersey lets one of those count as both the portable stretcher and the stair chair its basic life support ambulances must carry (N.J.A.C. 8:40-6.8). See stair chair for that equipment, and Broda chair for padded tilt and recline wheelchairs.

Is it a wheelchair trip or a stretcher trip

The chair does not decide the trip type. Your state or broker does, mostly by how the rider must travel, and writes it into the authorization. Here is how five programs draw the line:

• Washington. A stretcher trip requires the client to ride prone or supine without medical attention, “by stretcher, board, gurney, or other appropriate device,” and a medical or safety need must be the reason (WAC 182-546-5100, effective April 11, 2026). By those words, the rider’s position decides it, not the device: a rider who must lie flat is on a stretcher trip even in a reclined chair.
• California. Medi-Cal uses a litter van when a rider must travel prone or supine because they cannot sit for the time the trip takes. Its examples include a stable patient after surgery who cannot tolerate sitting upright that long (provider manual, pages updated August 2020).
• Georgia. Stretcher service is for members who cannot walk and need at least two people to move them to and from the vehicle in a reclining position (NEMT manual, version October 1, 2026, section 709.3).
• Oregon. A ride in a reclining wheelchair is paid at the wheelchair base rate, because wheelchairs do not qualify as stretchers or gurneys (OAR 410-136-3220, effective January 1, 2024). That rule covers the rides the Oregon Health Authority’s brokerages arrange, mainly for Open Card members.
• Montgomery County, Maryland. The county buys geri chair rides as their own service, priced above a wheelchair van and below a two-crew wheelchair van or stretcher. A company in that category must own at least one geri chair, keep a driver and an attendant on board, and get prior approval for the ride.

The federal codes follow the same split. The October 2026 CMS HCPCS file lists A0130 for a wheelchair van and T2005 for a stretcher van, with no code for a reclining chair. You bill the level on the authorization, whatever the rider sits in. MTM Health’s Virginia handbook (approved August 10, 2026) says providers and drivers must use only the mode and level of assistance MTM approved for each trip. The level of service entry explains how those levels are set.

Will a reclined chair fit and stay secured in your van

The federal ADA vehicle rule sizes a wheelchair station for a seated rider. Under 49 CFR 38.23:

• Each securement location has a clear floor area of 30 by 48 inches.
• A lift platform must give at least 30 inches of clear width and 48 inches of clear length just above its surface, with a design load of at least 600 pounds.
• A chair secured the way its maker directs may move no more than 2 inches in any direction in normal driving.

A chair reclined to 73 inches is half again as long as that station. DOT’s guidance on 49 CFR 37.165 says you must carry a chair larger than 30 by 48 inches if it fits on the lift and in the securement area. You may refuse one that would block the aisle and interfere with a safe evacuation, and you never have to let a chair ride outside a securement location. Measure the chair in the position the rider needs before you accept the trip.

Recline also changes how the belts work. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute’s Ride Safe guide (2018) says it is best to ride with the backrest 30 degrees or less from vertical. If the rider needs more recline, move the shoulder belt anchor back along the side wall so the belt stays on the shoulder and chest. Ask whether the chair is crash tested: a WC19 wheelchair carries a label and marked securement points.

A stretcher van is set up for its own cot, not for a chair. Illinois requires a primary wheeled litter at least 75 inches long and 22 inches wide, held by a crash-stable quick-release three-point fastener (77 Ill. Adm. Code 515.840, effective October 21, 2011). MTM Health’s Virginia handbook requires a stretcher that meets GSA KKK-A-1822E, holds the rider supine or in Fowler’s position (sitting partly up), and rides on a crash-tested mount. So a rider who must lie flat moves from the hospital’s stretcher chair onto your stretcher, and onto the facility’s own bed or chair at the other end. Georgia lists stretcher service to dialysis as bed to bed or treatment chair, with the facility’s chair ready on arrival (section 904.1.3.4.3), and says stretcher providers may not let a facility treat members on the provider’s stretcher (section 815.4). The stretcher van requirements guide covers the rest of the vehicle.

A dispatch and billing example

A hospital discharge planner calls for a ride home and says the patient “goes in a stretcher chair.” Before you assign a vehicle:

1. Ask whether the patient can sit upright, with the back near vertical, for the whole ride.
2. Ask what level the broker or plan authorized, and whether the paperwork matches. Georgia’s broker needs its medical necessity paperwork before the third scheduled stretcher trip, and fee-for-service Medi-Cal needs a treatment authorization request with a prescription for most rides.
3. Confirm that the hospital’s chair stays at the hospital.

If the patient can sit up, send a wheelchair van and move them into a wheelchair. MTM Health’s Virginia handbook makes providers that accept hospital discharges carry one wheelchair on board, with a seat at least 20 inches wide. If the patient must lie flat, send a stretcher van with a two-person crew and your own stretcher. The hospital discharge guide covers the rest of the call.

The price follows the level, not the device. Under Montgomery County’s rate schedule (March 2025), each base rate covers the first 20 miles one way, and stretcher rides share one line with two-crew wheelchair vans. On a 25-mile one-way ride, the geri chair pays the most, $70.00, because its extra miles pay $3.00 each against $1.50 for the other two services:

Service	Base rate	5 extra miles	25-mile ride
Wheelchair van	$50.00	5 × $1.50	$57.50
Geri chair	$55.00	5 × $3.00	$70.00
Wheelchair van or stretcher, two crew	$61.25	5 × $1.50	$68.75

The same rider in a reclining wheelchair in Oregon is paid at the wheelchair base rate. In Washington, if the rider must lie flat, it is a stretcher trip. Check what your broker pays for each level before you take standing orders from a facility that uses stretcher chairs.