Baker Act Transport in Florida (2027): County Contracts, Forms, and Insurance

Who drives a Baker Act ride in Florida

Florida Statutes 394.462 requires every county to write and carry out a transportation plan with its managing entity, the nonprofit that holds the Department of Children and Families (DCF) behavioral health contract for the region. Nearby counties may share one plan through a memorandum of understanding, and they must send the managing entity a copy.

The plan covers rides to a receiving facility for a person under an involuntary examination (the Baker Act) or an involuntary substance use admission (the Marchman Act). It may rely on emergency medical transport services or private transport companies.

Each county also names one law enforcement agency to take the person into custody and drive them. That agency may decline the ride only when both of these are true:

• The county holds an annual contract with an emergency medical transport service or private transport company for these rides, paid by the county or as its plan provides.
• The officer and the company agree that an officer’s continued presence is not needed for the safety of the person or others.

DCF’s 2026 Baker Act Handbook (March 2026) adds the field rule. An officer must come to the scene and assess it before handing the person to a transport company, unless the person is already in a secure setting such as a hospital or inpatient unit. When safety calls for it, the officer stays involved, even by following the van in a patrol car.

The plan reaches past the first ride, too. The handbook says that once a person is inside a secured facility, that facility’s staff arrange every later ride under the county plan. For secure transport rules in other states and how routine behavioral health rides are paid, see behavioral health transportation.

What the 2024 rewrite changed

CS/CS/HB 7021, signed June 14, 2024 as chapter 2024-245, took effect July 1, 2024. It added the words “or as otherwise provided in the transportation plan” to the contract rule, so a county contract no longer has to be paid entirely by the county. The House’s final analysis says this lets counties write cost sharing with other entities into the plan.

The same law made it optional, not required, for an officer to take a person who appears to meet the criteria to a facility. An officer carrying a minor must also give a parent or guardian who is present the facility’s name, address, and contact information before leaving.

What the law requires of a contracted company

Section 394.462 puts these duties on any company that carries patients under a county plan:

• Insurance. At least $100,000 in liability insurance for patient transport. The same floor applies to rides to a treatment facility.
• Liability. The company is an independent contractor and is solely liable for the safe and dignified transport of the patient.
• DCF rules. A company that contracts with a county must follow DCF’s rules for the safety and dignity of patients. The transportation rule is 65E-5.260, last amended October 16, 2025.
• Acceptance. The receiving facility in the plan must accept a person brought by a private transport company the county has authorized.
• Preference for care homes. A county’s contracted company gets preference for rides from nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult day care centers, and adult family-care homes, unless the person’s behavior calls for an officer.
• Hand-off. Custody and the paperwork go to a responsible person at the facility.

One rule protects care home residents. Under 394.463(2)(b), a person may not be removed from a nursing home or assisted living facility licensed under chapters 400 or 429 for an involuntary exam until an ex parte order, a professional’s certificate, or an officer’s report is prepared. Family members driving their own relative are exempt.

The restraint rule in 394.463(2)(a) is written for officers, who must restrain a person in the least restrictive manner the situation allows. Neither section 394.462 nor rule 65E-5.260 sets restraint standards for a private company, so the county contract and your own written policy carry that weight. Ask for the contract’s restraint terms before you bid.

Licenses still apply. Many counties license wheelchair and stretcher vans on their own, as the Florida NEMT license guide shows county by county. Some contracts run on ambulances. Under section 401.25, a company offering basic life support transport needs a Department of Health license first, and that license requires a certificate of public convenience and necessity from each county it serves.

The paperwork that travels with the person

Rule 65E-5.260 says every transporter hands the receiving facility the original or an electronic copy of the document that started the exam:

• Baker Act. Form CF-MH 3001, the ex parte order (or the court’s own form), CF-MH 3052a, the officer’s report, or CF-MH 3052b, the professional’s certificate.
• Marchman Act. Form CF-MH 4057, the professional’s certificate for emergency assessment, or CF-MH 4002, the officer’s protective custody report, both dated August 2025.

The ride itself goes on Form CF-MH 3100, Transportation to Receiving Facility, in its August 2025 version. As of October 2026, DCF’s forms page still lists a July 2023 version, so use the August 2025 form posted with the rule on flrules.org. The officer fills in Part I even when your company drives. Part II is the hand-off. It names your company and the destination, and your representative prints a name, signs, and writes the date and time. By signing, you agree an officer is not expected to be needed and accept responsibility for the rest of the ride under 394.462(1).

The form travels with the person. The facility files it in the clinical record and sends it to DCF’s Baker Act Data Collection System, and your company may keep a copy. DCF’s handbook asks transporters to do four things at the door:

1. Ask that valuables stay home or with a trusted person when that is possible.
2. Hand phones, wallets, lighters, cigarettes, and medications straight to facility staff.
3. Tell staff about any safety concern you noticed on the ride.
4. Share what you know about the person’s name, birth date, address, and family contacts.

Who pays for a Baker Act ride

The statute makes the person transported responsible for the cost, and the transport company may seek reimbursement. The county must seek payment in this order:

1. A private or public third-party payer, when the person has coverage.
2. The person.
3. A financial settlement for medical care or transportation owed to the person.

Do not count on a Medicaid broker. The Florida Medicaid Non-Emergency Transportation Services Coverage Policy (November 2019, adopted in rule 59G-4.330) excludes rides from a hospital or facility to a behavioral health facility for a person under the Baker Act. The routine Medicaid rides on the Florida state guide are a separate business.

Transfers follow section 394.4685. A person who moves from a public facility to a private one goes at their own expense. When a private facility asks to move a patient to a public one, the private facility pays. DCF’s handbook says transfer costs can also be set by agreement between the facilities. In practice, the money comes from four places: the county contract, the person’s insurance, facility contracts, and private pay.

How four counties run it

Hillsborough County

The Hillsborough plan for 2025 to 2028 took effect April 1, 2025. The county contracts with the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, which runs vehicles through its TransCare division, for non-police rides countywide. Officers, the mobile response team, or a family member reach it through the 2-1-1 line or its dispatch line.

The plan sets clear terms:

• Who rides. The contractor does not carry people seeking voluntary admission unless they need basic life support care. Children under 8 ride in an ambulance.
• Who pays. Private insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare pays when it applies, and the county contract pays as last resort for people who cannot.
• Wait times. The contractor asks facilities to be ready to hand over or accept a person within 15 minutes of arrival.
• Paperwork. Except for referrals the mobile response team sends electronically, an original paper copy of the Baker or Marchman Act document must be at pickup, and the person is verified on scene.
• Room for others. The plan says other private transport companies may carry private-pay riders or contract with area hospitals.

The county’s Acute Care Committee meets monthly, and the plan says the public is welcome to attend. More on the county is on the Hillsborough County page.

Pinellas County

The county commission approved the Pinellas plan for 2026 to 2029 on May 19, 2026. The Sheriff’s Office is the designated transporter, and the county contracts with Paramedics Logistics of Florida, operating as Sunstar Paramedics, for non-police rides. Transfers between facilities are arranged and paid for by the sending facility, and the plan says a non-emergency medical transportation company may provide them. See the Pinellas County page.

Charlotte County

Charlotte County has contracted with Ambitrans Medical Transport for Baker Act rides since January 1, 2002, and for Marchman Act rides since 2020, renewing the agreement each year. The 2026 to 2029 plan, sent to the county commission for adoption on June 23, 2026, describes ground ambulance service. The county pays only for rides to its central receiving facility in Punta Gorda or to the county jail. Rides to any other facility, including out of county, are the sending facility’s bill. See the Charlotte County page.

Miami-Dade County

Miami-Dade’s commission approved its transportation plan on July 18, 2017 (Resolution R-782-17), effective July 1, 2017. That plan has the county’s police carry people in unincorporated areas and each city’s police carry them within its own limits. On June 16, 2026, Resolution R-558-26 let the mayor amend the plan for the county’s new mental health center at 2200 NW 7th Avenue, with the Office of the Miami-Dade County Sheriff among the parties. Ask Thriving Mind South Florida, the managing entity, for the current version, and see the Miami-Dade County page for the county’s for-hire license.

Transfers and rides after a court order

Work for a van company does not stop at the first ride. When a person under an involuntary exam is in a hospital for a medical problem, section 394.463 sets a clock. Within 12 hours after the doctor documents the person is stable, the person must be examined and released or transferred to a designated facility, and that facility must be told of the transfer within 2 hours after the person is stable. A hospital that has to move someone within 12 hours needs a transport partner it can call.

Rides to a treatment facility follow section 394.462(2). When neither the patient nor anyone responsible can pay, the county plan must say how the patient travels to, from, and between facilities. The same $100,000 insurance floor and DCF rules apply. County and city police and corrections staff may not carry patients the court has adjudicated incapacitated or found to meet the criteria for involuntary services, except in small rural counties with no cost-efficient alternative.

Hillsborough’s plan shows how this splits. The contractor carries civilly committed patients from county facilities to a state psychiatric hospital, and drives patients to involuntary treatment hearings on request. The Sheriff’s Office carries forensic patients, and the state hospital plans each patient’s ride at discharge.

Marchman Act rides

The Marchman Act covers involuntary substance use services, and the county plan covers these rides too. Three statutes set who may drive:

• Emergency admission. Under 397.6795, the applicant, the person’s spouse or guardian, or an officer may deliver someone named in a professional’s certificate to a hospital, detoxification facility, or addictions receiving facility.
• Protective custody. Under 397.6772, an officer who finds a hospital or licensed facility the right place may take the person there without unreasonable force.
• Court-ordered treatment. Under 397.697, a court may direct the sheriff to deliver the person to a licensed service provider.

Plans also say who drives the next ride. Charlotte’s 2026 to 2029 plan sends a person under a Marchman Act order who needs medical care to a hospital first, by police, EMS, or the county’s contractor. Once the person is stable, the hospital may call the contractor for the ride to the central receiving facility.

How to become a county’s contracted transport provider

1. Get your county’s current plan. Ask the managing entity, which keeps a copy. Central Florida Behavioral Health Network posts the plans for its counties, and each plan names the current contractor, its term, and who pays for which ride.
2. Find the contract. Search the county commission’s agendas for a Baker Act or Marchman Act transportation agreement. Section 119.07 lets any person inspect and copy public records, so ask the county for the signed contract and its rate schedule.
3. Join the local meetings. Hillsborough’s Acute Care Committee meets monthly and is open to the public. Pinellas has its own Acute Care Committee, and Charlotte’s plan group meets regularly to discuss how the plan runs.
4. Line up licenses and insurance. Hold any county vehicle-for-hire license, and an ambulance license if the contract calls for one. Carry at least $100,000 in liability coverage, more if the contract asks.
5. Train your crews. DCF sponsors free online Baker Act courses, open to the public, including “Law Enforcement and the Baker Act” and “Emergency Medical Treatment: Florida’s Baker Act and Marchman Act.” Practice Part II of Form CF-MH 3100 before your first ride.
6. Start with transfers. Offer hospitals and private receiving facilities a transfer agreement, since the sending facility usually pays. The guides to facility contracts and hospital discharge transportation cover pricing and terms.
7. Bid when the contract opens. The statute’s contracts run a year at a time, though Charlotte’s has stayed with one company since 2002. The guide to government NEMT contracts explains where county bids are posted and how to compete.