UJ Modifier: Medi-Cal Night Call Rides Between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

What the UJ modifier means

CMS lists UJ in the national HCPCS code set as “Services provided at night.” It was added on April 1, 2003, along with UF, UG, and UH for services in the morning, afternoon, and evening. The national text gives no hours. Each payer that uses UJ decides when night begins, which codes take it, and what it pays. See U modifiers for the rest of the U group.

Medi-Cal uses UJ on ride claims. Its ground transportation manual calls these rides night calls: transportation responses between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. A night call starts at the time of unit alert, when the vehicle is sent, and ends when it arrives at the destination with the rider on board. Medi-Cal pays UJ in three cases:

• The ride starts in the day and ends at night, such as a 6:40 p.m. alert with a 7:15 p.m. drop-off.
• The whole ride runs at night.
• The ride starts at night and ends in the day, such as a 6:30 a.m. alert with a 7:15 a.m. arrival.

The manual’s night call table lists the wheelchair van base (A0130), the litter (stretcher) van base (T2005), and the ambulance base codes. Nonmedical rides on A0120 follow the same night call rules. Medi-Cal does not cover night calls on a transfer from an acute care hospital to a Level A nursing facility.

What Medi-Cal pays with UJ

UJ raises the base rate only. These are the fee-for-service maximums on the Medi-Cal rate pages as of October 2026, and the state’s rate search shows the same base rates. Medi-Cal pays your usual charge to the public, up to these amounts:

Code	Day maximum	Night maximum with UJ
A0120, nonmedical transportation	$17.65	$23.78
A0130, wheelchair van	$20.30	$26.43
T2005, litter van	$26.29	$32.42
A0428, basic life support ambulance, nonemergency	$107.16	$117.04

The A0130 and T2005 rates are on the page updated September 2023, and the A0120 and ambulance rates on pages updated August 2020. Each van and nonmedical base rises $6.13 at night. Mileage does not change: A0380 pays up to $1.50 a mile for wheelchair and litter vans and A0390 up to $1.30 a mile for nonmedical rides, with no UJ line for either.

How to bill a night call in Medi-Cal

Wheelchair and litter van rides need a treatment authorization request (TAR). Medi-Cal’s manual says a nonemergency claim is paid only when the modifiers on the TAR and the claim match, so UJ has to be on both.

1. Ask for it on the TAR. On a paper TAR, put the code and UJ in box 11, and give the night call notation and the start and stop times in box 8C, the Medical Justification field. On an eTAR, UJ goes in the Modifiers box next to the transportation code.
2. Add UJ to the base code on the claim. Use A0130 UJ, T2005 UJ, or A0120 UJ for the night leg. A line takes up to four modifiers.
3. Write the start and stop times in box 19. Box 19 of the CMS-1500 is Additional Claim Information. The NUCC manual (version 13.0, July 2025) gives it 71 characters, and Medi-Cal mileage claims also need the full pickup and drop-off addresses there, so keep the times short. See CMS-1500 for NEMT.
4. Bill both night legs on one line. When both legs of a round trip ran at night, use one line with UJ, a quantity of 2 in box 24G, and one charge, with each leg’s times in box 19.
5. Split a mixed round trip. When only one leg ran at night, use two lines or two claims, put UJ on only the night leg, and give the times for both legs.
6. Bill a night dry run with UJ alone. When the vehicle responds between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. but the rider is not transported, append UJ and write the time of the call in box 19, with no other modifiers or lines on the claim. The night call runs from unit alert until the vehicle leaves without the rider. See billing for no-shows.

A worked example: an early dialysis round trip

A wheelchair van is sent at 5:20 a.m. to take a rider to a 6:15 a.m. dialysis chair time, 12 miles away, and arrives at 6:05 a.m. The return leg is sent at 10:30 a.m. and gets the rider home at 11:05 a.m. The first leg ran entirely at night and the second entirely in the day, so the claim splits the round trip into two lines.

Line	Code	Units	Pays up to
Night leg	A0130 with UJ	1	$26.43
Day leg	A0130	1	$20.30
Mileage, both legs	A0380	24	$36.00
Total			$82.73

The same trip in daylight both ways pays up to $76.60, so the 5:20 a.m. start adds $6.13. Box 19 carries the start and stop times for both legs, and the TAR has to show UJ, the night call, and its times for the morning leg. If the chair time were 7:30 a.m. and the van arrived at 7:10 a.m. after a 6:40 a.m. alert, the first leg would still be a night call, because it started before 7 a.m.

UJ with Medi-Cal health plans and other payers

Medi-Cal health plans pay under your contract with them, so the fee-for-service table is a benchmark when you negotiate a night rate. Some plans follow the state’s night call rule. Health Plan of San Joaquin and Mountain Valley Health Plan, in an alert dated June 26, 2024, ask for UJ on rides between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., with the start and stop times in box 19 or on an attachment. IEHP’s billing guidelines, posted May 1, 2024, list A0428-UJ as the night call pickup line, between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., for its door, wheelchair, and gurney services. See Health Plan of San Joaquin and the California guide for how plan rides reach you.

Outside California, payers that pay more at night may use other codes, and some pay no night premium at all. South Country Health Alliance in Minnesota pays contracted companies extra for pickups between midnight and 7 a.m. with TU, the national modifier for “special payment rate, overtime,” in the first modifier position (provider manual Chapter 27, last updated February 27, 2026). Wisconsin’s rule for specialized medical vehicles, DHS 107.23(3)(b)9, says extra charges for nights, weekends, or holidays are not covered. For broker after-hours rates and how to staff night rides, see after-hours NEMT.