How to Become an APD Transportation Provider in Florida: iBudget Waiver Rules for 2027

Florida’s Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) runs the iBudget Waiver, the Medicaid home and community-based services program for people with developmental disabilities. Its transportation service is separate work from Medicaid NEMT, with its own enrollment, training, and billing. The rules sit in the iBudget Waiver Coverage and Limitations Handbook (May 2023), which Rule 59G-13.070, last amended April 30, 2025, makes binding on every provider. For the general picture in every state, see the waiver transportation provider guide.

What iBudget transportation pays for

The service carries a member between home and the waiver services in their support plan and approved cost plan, or between two waiver service sites. Typical stops are adult day training, supported employment, and prevocational programs. The handbook pays for a ride only when the member has no other way to get there: family, friends, or neighbors who can drive at no cost come first, and members who can ride the fixed-route bus are steered to it. When a member can ride the bus and a month of paratransit trips would cost more than a monthly pass, the waiver buys the pass.

Some trips are never paid with waiver funds:

• Trips to Medicaid state plan services, such as doctor visits. Those go through Florida Medicaid’s ride program, which the Florida guide covers.
• Rides that duplicate public school transportation to and from school.
• Trips beyond the limits. A member paid by the trip gets at most four one-way trips a day.
• Transportation that is part of another service’s rate, such as trips between two adult day training sites.

A few rules shape every route. You may not charge the member a copay. You may bill for an escort the member needs, unless your own policy lets escorts ride free. The handbook tells providers to use group trips, ride sharing, and multi-loading as much as possible, and when several members ride together, the mileage charge is split among them. When you drop riders at an adult day training center that does not own your van, its staff help them in and out of the building, and your driver is responsible for their safe entry into and exit from the vehicle.

Who can enroll, and where the transportation coordinator fits

The handbook lets these providers enroll: community transportation coordinators, limited transportation providers, public transit authorities, the group homes where members live, the adult day training, supported employment, and prevocational programs members attend, and other public, private for-profit, and nonprofit transportation entities. Taxis, multi-load passenger vans, and private agencies are all on its list. Every one must comply with subsections (2) and (4) of Rule 41-2.006, the transportation disadvantaged safety standards, and APD’s quick guide adds that providers must be 18 or older.

The community transportation coordinator (CTC) for the member’s county gets first call. The handbook says taxi companies and private transportation companies outside the coordinated system can be paid with waiver funds when the CTC determines it is unable to provide or arrange the trip. When an APD regional office uses a provider outside that system, it must contact the CTC in the member’s county. Section 427.0135 of the Florida Statutes sets the same rule for each purchasing agency: use the coordinated system unless the agency meets the criteria for another provider.

That leaves a small van company two doors, and you can use both:

• Contract with your county’s CTC as a transportation operator, and carry the trips it assigns, which can include APD members. The Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged lists every county’s CTC.
• Enroll directly with APD for the members and routes the CTC cannot cover.

You enroll as a solo provider or an agency. APD’s quick guide counts an agency as two or more employees, including the owner. A provider that only hires subcontractors is not an agency for rate purposes.

How to apply, step by step

APD’s quick guide and its regional application set the order, as of October 2026. There is no APD fee to apply.

1. Choose your region. Send one application to the region where your business is registered or headquartered, even if you will serve several regions.
2. Screen everyone first. Register each person in Florida’s Care Provider Background Screening Clearinghouse and start the check there before anyone goes for fingerprints. The application asks for Level 2 and local law enforcement screening results and a signed APD Attestation of Good Moral Character.
3. Fill out the Regional iBudget Provider Enrollment Application, Non-WSC. Check Transportation and pick your billing unit: mile, trip, or month.
4. Attach the documents on its checklist: photo ID, Social Security card, IRS SS-4 or W-9, two written employer references, a provider policies and procedures attestation letter, your Sunbiz registration and articles, MyFloridaMarketPlace vendor registration if you have one, any licenses, and the screening results. APD also asks for its Provider Enrollment Personal Reference Form.
5. Email the application to your region’s inbox, such as Central.providerenrollment@apdcares.org. APD emails a receipt. If anything is missing, you get a Notice of Incomplete Provider Application and have 45 days to send every missing item, or the application is closed.
6. Enroll with Florida Medicaid through the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) as provider type 67, Home and Community-Based Services, specialty 096, Developmental Disability (iBudget), which needs APD’s approval. Choose enrollment option 2 or 3 so you are fully enrolled. A limited enrollment is paid only by health plans, and APD’s guide warns the type cannot be changed later: you would cancel and apply again.
7. Finish APD’s required training, covered in the next section.
8. Sign the Medicaid Waiver Services Agreement with APD. Bring your Florida Medicaid number, proof of any pre-service training, and the declaration pages of your general or professional liability insurance, with APD listed as certificate holder.

Enrollment does not bring riders by itself. Members choose their providers, and the handbook says enrollment does not guarantee selection, so introduce your company to the support coordinators and day programs in your area.

Which region gets your application

Send your application to the region that covers the county where your business is registered or headquartered. APD’s regional offices cover these counties, as of October 2026:

• Northwest: Bay, Calhoun, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Wakulla, Walton, Washington.
• Northeast: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Madison, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia.
• Central: Brevard, Citrus, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter.
• Suncoast: Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hendry, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota.
• Southeast: Broward, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, St. Lucie.
• Southern: Miami-Dade, Monroe.

Each region’s inbox follows the same pattern: the region name, then .providerenrollment@apdcares.org.

Background screening and training for your drivers

Section 393.0655 of the 2026 Florida Statutes requires a Level 2 screening for every direct service provider who is not related to the client. Section 393.063 defines a direct service provider as anyone 18 or older with face-to-face contact with a client while providing services, so every driver needs one. That is stricter than Florida Medicaid NEMT, where drivers need a Level 1 check. The Level 2 background check page covers the fingerprints, the cost, and the Clearinghouse.

The APD version adds three things. It includes employment history checks and a local criminal records check through local law enforcement. It disqualifies for more offenses than section 435.04 lists, including Medicaid provider fraud, patient brokering, insurance fraud, and forgery. And the employer or the person screened pays for it. APD lets you hire a driver before the screening clears only for training and orientation, with no direct contact with members until it does.

APD training each driver completes

The handbook’s training table sets these deadlines, counted from the day a driver starts serving members:

Course	Deadline	How often
Zero Tolerance (abuse, neglect, exploitation)	Before the first trip	Every 3 years
HIPAA	Within 30 days	Every year
Direct Care Core Competencies	Within 90 days	Once
Overview of APD Waiver Provider Requirements	Within 90 days	Once
AIDS/HIV and infection control	Within 90 days	Keep the certificate current
First aid	Within 90 days	Keep the certificate current
CPR	Within 90 days	Keep the certificate current

Owners of a solo company and managers of an agency take Requirements for All Waiver Providers, taught by APD staff, before providing services. A driver who gives medication needs Medication Administration and Validation, and one who serves a member needing reactive strategies needs Behavioral Emergency Procedures first. APD’s courses take a passing score of 85 percent, or 75 percent for iConnect training. Keep a personnel file for each employee with screening results and training certificates for at least five years after the last date of service billed.

Safety rules from Rule 41-2.006 and Rule 14-90

Subsection (4) of Rule 41-2.006 (effective September 3, 2018) sets the standards your vans and drivers meet on every APD trip:

• Drug and alcohol testing for safety-sensitive jobs: pre-employment, random, post-accident, and reasonable suspicion, as federal highway and transit rules require.
• Posted numbers. A local toll-free complaint number and the TD Helpline, 1-800-983-2435, inside every vehicle.
• Driver identity. Drivers announce their name and company at pickup, unless they carry the rider regularly, and wear photo ID the passenger can see.
• Boarding help. Drivers open the door, fasten seat belts or wheelchair securements, stow mobility devices, and close the door. They may not take a wheelchair up or down more than one step unless the passenger, guardian, and driver agree it is safe.
• Vehicles. Working two-way communication with your base, air conditioning, and heat; clean interiors with no torn seats; and never more riders than the registered seating capacity.
• No smoking in any vehicle.

Subsection (2) adds the state’s bus transit safety rule, chapter 14-90. Its definition of a bus covers paratransit vehicles such as vans, minibuses, station wagons, and sedans, though not taxicabs. The core of it: a written System Safety Program Plan, a medical exam for each driver before hire and at least every two years, no more than 12 hours of driving or 16 hours on duty in 24 hours, a daily pre-trip inspection, and a yearly inspection of every vehicle by someone with at least a year of mechanic or inspector training or experience. The Rule 14-90 guide walks through the full rule.

Trips you carry for a CTC also fall under subsection (1): at least $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident in liability coverage. APD’s own agreement leaves the amount to you, as long as it is adequate and APD is named as certificate holder.

How trips are authorized, logged, and paid

Each member’s waiver support coordinator builds a cost plan and issues you a service authorization in APD iConnect, at least once a quarter. It must be in approved status before you drive, and it is not approved after the fact except in rare cases the regional office allows. The authorized units cover the whole quarter, and any units left on June 30 expire with the fiscal year.

You bill one of three codes. APD’s rate table and the handbook set the unit limits as of October 2026, and the July 1, 2026 rate update lists each rate as negotiated:

Code	Unit	Most a member can get
A0425UC	Mile	200 a day, 234 a month, 2,808 a year
T2003UC	One-way trip	4 a day, 80 a month, 960 a year
T2002UC	Month	1 a month, 12 a year

Your negotiated rate goes in an attachment to your Medicaid Waiver Services Agreement. The handbook pays limited transportation providers the state mileage rate, which section 112.061 sets at 44.5 cents a mile in the 2026 statutes.

Billing turns on records:

1. Log every trip, with the date and the driver’s name and signature on each record.
2. Enter your trip logs in APD iConnect every month, before you bill.
3. Keep a copy of every claim you submit. Claim form rules follow Florida Medicaid’s CMS-1500 reimbursement handbook.
4. Keep records for six years after your agreement ends, longer if an audit is still open.

For iConnect access or help, the APD help desk is 833-400-3420. If you also run day program routes, the adult day care transportation guide covers how to price them.