# When a NEMT Broker Pays Late in 2027: Payment Deadlines, Proof, and How to Get Paid

Canonical URL: https://nemtguide.com/guides/nemt-broker-late-payment/ · Updated 2026-09-30

A NEMT broker payment is late only when it misses the deadline in your agreement or your state rules, such as 30 days after online submission in MTM Health's standard agreement, or 15 business days in Georgia when the agreement is silent. Confirm the claim was received and clean, log every unpaid trip, send a written demand, then go to the state or health plan.

- The payment clock runs from the day the broker receives a clean, uncontested claim. A claim with missing details is not late yet.
- Check the portal before you complain. A rejected claim may never show on your remittance at all.
- Some agreements let the broker pay you late when its own client pays it late, as WellTrans's Indiana agreement does.
- Put every demand in writing with trip IDs, dates, amounts, and the clause you rely on, and send it the way the agreement's notice section says.
- Keep running assigned trips, keep billing on time, and never bill the rider while you wait.

A late broker payment feels like a broken promise, but the first question is a dry one: late by which clock? Your broker agreement sets the deadline, the claim has to be clean for that clock to run, and the proof you gather in the first week decides how fast the money moves.

## When is a broker payment actually late?

Federal Medicaid payment rules mostly bind the state, not your broker. Under [42 CFR 447.45](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/chapter-IV/subchapter-C/part-447/subpart-A/section-447.45), a state paying claims itself must pay 90 percent of clean claims from practitioners within 30 days of receipt and 99 percent within 90 days. A state's contract with a Medicaid managed care organization must hold it to the same pace, unless the plan and its providers agree to another schedule in the contract (42 CFR 447.46). A broker pays you on the schedule in its agreement with you, and sometimes on a floor the state sets.

Two words in those schedules matter most:

- **Clean.** Federal rules define a [clean claim](https://nemtguide.com/glossary/clean-claim/) as one that can be processed without getting more information from you or anyone else. A claim from a provider under investigation for fraud or abuse, or a claim under review for medical necessity, is not clean.
- **Uncontested or undisputed.** Most agreements promise payment only for invoices the broker does not dispute. A disputed trip moves to the dispute process, and the payment clock stops for it.

Here are five payment clocks, taken from broker agreements, state manuals, and a broker's claims policy.

| Payer and program | The clock starts | Pays within | What pauses it |
|---|---|---|---|
| MTM Health, standard agreement (January 1, 2023, posted by Pennsylvania DHS) | Online submission of a properly submitted invoice | 30 days, for uncontested invoices | Contested invoices. Offsets for overpayments and liquidated damages |
| WellTrans, Indiana (revised October 16, 2025) | Submission of a properly submitted invoice | 30 days, paid twice a month | Contested amounts. Its client not paying WellTrans |
| Verida, Indiana fee-for-service (module version 6.1, August 19, 2025) | A clean claim received by Wednesday | 14 days | Claims that are not clean |
| Any broker in Georgia (DCH manual, July 1, 2026) | The broker's receipt of an undisputed invoice | The schedule in the service agreement, or 15 business days if it sets none | Disputed invoices and unauthorized trips |
| MediTrans, Louisiana Healthcare Connections members (claims policy revised February 24, 2025) | Receipt of a clean claim | 90 percent within 15 calendar days, all within 30 calendar days | Rejected claims. Pended claims, which it adjudicates within 60 days |

A worked example with MTM Health's standard terms: you submit an uncontested invoice online on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Payment is due by Thursday, October 1, 2026. If nothing has arrived by October 8, it is 7 days late. With Verida in Indiana, a clean claim received on Wednesday, September 2, 2026 should be paid by Wednesday, September 16.

Georgia's rule is worth knowing even outside Georgia. Since April 1, 2026, Verida has been the broker in all five Georgia regions, and the state manual still requires every service agreement to state its payment terms. Ask your broker where your agreement sets the payment date. If it cannot point to one, treat that as a problem to fix before you sign the next renewal.

## Why broker payments run late

Most late payments have an ordinary cause you can find in an afternoon. Match what you see to the likely reason before you write to anyone.

| What you see | Likely reason | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The claim is missing from your remittance | It was rejected before it entered the claims system. MediTrans says rejected claims do not appear on the remittance advice at all, and their status and reason show in its provider portal. | Fix the missing detail and resubmit before the filing deadline, such as 90 days after the date of service under MTM's standard agreement |
| The claim shows as pending or pended | It is under review | Ask what is missing and send it the same day |
| You were paid less than you billed | An offset for an overpayment, liquidated damages, or a rescheduling charge. MTM's agreement allows all three (sections 6.D, 7.B, and 14.B). | Ask for an itemized list of offsets by trip ID, then contest the ones you dispute. See [NEMT broker penalties](https://nemtguide.com/guides/nemt-broker-penalties/). |
| Every provider you know is being paid late | The broker's own client, the state or health plan, may be paying it late | Ask the broker in writing when it expects that money, and read your agreement for a pay-when-paid clause |
| Payments stopped after you gave notice to end the agreement | A hold for audit. MTM withholds all unpaid claims at the time of notice until it audits the service records (section 14.E). | Keep your trip records ready. See [how to leave a NEMT broker](https://nemtguide.com/guides/leave-a-nemt-broker/). |
| The broker says it paid, but nothing arrived | A check in the mail, or a bank detail that changed | Confirm your direct deposit form and W-9 are current. WellTrans's agreement packet includes both forms. |
| Every Medicaid payment stopped at once | Possibly a state [payment suspension](https://nemtguide.com/glossary/payment-suspension/) | Look for the written notice, which 42 CFR 455.23 requires within 5 days in most cases |

To check each claim's status, use the broker's portal the day after the due date. [How to check claim status](https://nemtguide.com/guides/check-medicaid-claim-status/) covers what each status means.

## How to document a late payment

Every escalation runs on your records. Start a payment log the day a payment is due, and keep one row per claim. The NEMT payment log has the columns.

| Column | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Trip ID and claim number | The broker searches by these |
| Date of service | Filing deadlines run from it |
| Date and time submitted, with the confirmation number or a screenshot | Most payment clocks start here |
| Amount billed | The starting point for any shortfall |
| Due date under your agreement, with the section number | Shows the broker exactly which promise it missed |
| Date paid and amount paid | Measures how late and how short |
| Remittance reason code or offset note | Separates denials and offsets from plain lateness |
| Each call or message: date, name, ticket number, what was promised | Proves you asked, and when |

Two formulas turn that log into numbers:

**Due date = submission date + the days in your agreement**

**Days late = date paid (or today) − due date**

When your agreement or a state rule pays interest, add a third:

**Interest = amount unpaid × annual rate × days late ÷ 365**

For example, MediTrans's policy pays 12 percent a year, calculated daily, once a payable clean claim is past its 30-day deadline. A $3,650 clean claim paid 20 days late earns $3,650 × 0.12 × 20 ÷ 365 = $24.00. The policy says the interest is paid on the same day the claim is processed. The dollar amount and days here are an example. Check whether your own agreement pays interest before you ask for it.

Keep the trip record behind every claim with the log: the signed trip log, pickup and drop-off times, and miles. A broker that stalls a payment will often ask for them next.

## The escalation path that gets money released

Work up this ladder in order, in writing, and give each step a short deadline of your own, such as 10 business days. Skipping a step usually sends you back to it.

1. **Confirm the facts yourself.** Check the portal and your remittance for every claim on your log. Resubmit anything rejected, because no complaint can speed up a claim the broker never accepted.
2. **Send a written payment inquiry.** Email the claims or provider relations team a list of claim numbers, trip IDs, dates of service, amounts, submission dates, and due dates, with the agreement section you rely on. Ask for the status of each claim and a payment date in writing.
3. **Use the broker's dispute or appeal process for denials and short pays.** Each broker sets its own window. For Louisiana Healthcare Connections members, MediTrans gives you 180 calendar days from a denial to dispute it and processes disputes within 30 business days. Verida in Indiana starts with an administrative review requested through its provider portal, then a written appeal to Verida Claims, 843 Dallas Highway, Villa Rica, GA 30180. MTM's agreement provides an appeals process for denied claims. See [how to appeal a denied NEMT claim](https://nemtguide.com/guides/appeal-denied-nemt-claim/).
4. **Send formal notice under your agreement.** Follow its notice section exactly. MTM's standard agreement accepts personal delivery, registered or certified mail with a return receipt (deemed served on the third mail delivery day after mailing), or a national courier. WellTrans's Indiana agreement requires a meeting between senior managers of each side, then binding arbitration run by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration free of charge, with each side paying its own costs.
5. **Go to whoever pays the broker.** A state that uses a broker must audit and oversee it (42 CFR 440.170(a)(4)), and CMS says the state stays responsible for access to rides (SMD 23-006, September 28, 2023). When a health plan hired the broker, the plan keeps full responsibility for its state contract (42 CFR 438.230). Send your log and your letters to the state NEMT office or the plan's provider services team. Complaint forms by state are in [how to escalate a NEMT broker problem](https://nemtguide.com/guides/escalate-broker-problems/).
6. **Get legal advice for large or old balances.** A health care contract attorney can tell you what your agreement allows, including where a dispute must be heard.

### What to put in the demand letter

- Your company's legal name, provider or vendor number, and NPI
- A table of every unpaid claim: trip ID, claim number, date of service, amount, date submitted, date due
- The total owed and the days late for each claim
- The exact payment clause, quoted with its section number
- Interest owed, only if your agreement or a state rule provides for it
- What you want, by when: payment, or a written reason for each unpaid claim
- A copy to your account manager, and later to the state or plan if you escalate

## What to keep doing while you wait

A payment dispute is not permission to break the rest of the agreement.

- **Keep running assigned trips.** WellTrans's Indiana agreement requires you to keep performing regardless of any outstanding contested amounts. MTM's standard agreement makes you run assigned trips through the 30-day notice period if you end it, and lets MTM deduct the cost of rescheduling any you drop.
- **Never bill the rider.** MTM's agreement bars billing a member even if MTM or its client does not pay (section 6.C), and 42 CFR 447.15 makes the program's payment payment in full.
- **Keep billing on time.** Holding new claims to make a point only costs you. MTM's standard agreement disallows claims submitted more than 90 days after the date of service. WellTrans's Indiana agreement asks for invoices within 60 days of the date of service and disallows any submitted more than 90 days after it.
- **Keep every credential current.** MTM pays nothing for trips run by uncredentialed drivers or vehicles (section 6.B), and a lapse in the middle of a dispute hands the broker a reason to withhold more.

## Protect your cash while a payment is late

Plan for late money before it happens. A reserve sized to your slowest payer, and a line of credit arranged before you need it, cover payroll while a dispute runs. [NEMT cash flow](https://nemtguide.com/guides/nemt-cash-flow/) shows how to size both.

Selling your receipts is limited. Federal rule [42 CFR 447.10](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/section-447.10) bars a state Medicaid program from paying for your services to or through a factor, even by power of attorney. Broker payments follow your agreement instead. MTM's standard agreement lets you assign your right to payment only if you give MTM written notice at least 30 calendar days before any assigned payment (section 12.C). See [NEMT factoring](https://nemtguide.com/guides/nemt-factoring/) before you sign any funding offer.

Spreading your work across more than one payer also limits the damage when one pays late. See [working with multiple NEMT brokers](https://nemtguide.com/guides/multiple-nemt-brokers/).

## When the broker itself is in trouble

Some late payments are a sign the broker is struggling or losing its contract. Watch for three things: payments slipping across the whole network, a pay-when-paid clause being invoked, and news that the broker's state or health plan contract is ending. MTM's standard agreement lets MTM end your agreement at once if its client loses funding or MTM's contract with that client ends for any reason (section 14.D), while keeping both sides' obligations for services performed before the end date (section 14.A).

States can protect providers here. Georgia requires every broker service agreement to say that if the broker defaults, the agreement passes to the Department of Community Health or its agent, with the same terms and rates until they are renegotiated (manual section 701.1.9.18, July 1, 2026). Ask your state whether its broker contract has a similar clause.

A broker bankruptcy puts old invoices under a court's control. When Modivcare filed for Chapter 11 on August 20, 2025, it told the court it used about 4,100 transportation vendors, at about $120 million a month, and estimated it owed them $91.6 million for work done before the filing. The court let it keep paying those vendors. Its final order of September 30, 2025 let it choose which old invoices to pay. A vendor that accepted payment was deemed to agree to keep working on terms at least as good as those in place 180 days before the filing, and if it stopped, Modivcare could ask for the payment back. The plan took effect on December 29, 2025. The full timeline is in [Modivcare's bankruptcy](https://nemtguide.com/news/modivcare-exits-bankruptcy/).

If your broker is in trouble:

1. Bill every completed trip right away, so nothing sits unbilled when the rules change.
2. Keep your own copy of every trip log, submission confirmation, and remittance.
3. Total what the broker owes you every week, by date of service.
4. Read every notice from the state, the broker, or a court, and meet each deadline in it.
5. Line up a second payer, so one broker's problem does not become yours.

## Frequently asked questions

### How long does a NEMT broker have to pay a claim?

As long as your agreement allows. MTM Health's standard agreement (January 1, 2023) pays uncontested invoices within 30 days after online submission. WellTrans in Indiana pays twice a month, within 30 days. Verida pays Indiana fee-for-service clean claims received by Wednesday within 14 days. Georgia's NEMT manual (July 1, 2026) sets 15 business days when the service agreement does not set its own schedule.

### Can I charge interest on a late broker payment?

Only if your agreement or a state rule provides for it. The federal timely payment rule for Medicaid, 42 CFR 447.45, has no interest penalty. Some brokers pay interest anyway. MediTrans's claims policy for Louisiana Healthcare Connections members (revised February 24, 2025) pays 12 percent a year, calculated daily, on a payable clean claim left unpaid past its 30-day deadline.

### Can a broker hold my payment because the state has not paid it?

Only if your agreement says so. WellTrans's Indiana agreement (October 16, 2025) lets it delay provider payments when its client is unable or unwilling to pay WellTrans. Georgia's manual says brokers pay providers from the capitation payments the state makes, on the schedule in the service agreement. Find the payment section of your agreement and read it before you sign.

### Can I stop taking trips until the broker pays me?

Not safely. WellTrans's Indiana agreement requires you to keep performing regardless of any contested amounts. MTM Health's standard agreement requires you to run assigned trips through the 30-day notice period if you end it, and lets MTM deduct the cost of rescheduling trips you drop. Talk to a health care attorney before you refuse assigned work.

### Can I bill the rider when the broker does not pay?

No. MTM Health's standard agreement says you look only to MTM for payment and may never bill a member, even if MTM or its client does not pay. Federal rule 42 CFR 447.15 also requires Medicaid providers to accept the program's payment as payment in full. Keep the dispute between you and the broker.

### What does it mean when every payment stops at once?

Ask in writing right away. It may be an offset for an overpayment or penalties, a hold after a termination notice, a lapsed credential, or a bank change that failed. If a state Medicaid agency suspends payments over a credible allegation of fraud, federal rule 42 CFR 455.23 requires it to send you written notice within 5 days, unless law enforcement asks it in writing to wait, and the notice must tell you of your right to submit written evidence.

### What happens to money a broker owes me if it files for bankruptcy?

The court decides which old invoices get paid and when. When Modivcare filed for Chapter 11 on August 20, 2025, it estimated it owed transportation vendors $91.6 million for earlier work and asked the court to let it keep paying them. The final order tied those payments to vendors continuing to work on their usual terms. Watch every notice the court's claims agent mails you.

## Official resources

- [eCFR: 42 CFR 447.45, Timely claims payment](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/chapter-IV/subchapter-C/part-447/subpart-A/section-447.45)
- [eCFR: 42 CFR 455.23, Payment suspensions and the notice you must receive](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/section-455.23)
- [Georgia DCH: NEMT policies and procedures manual (July 1, 2026)](https://www.mmis.georgia.gov/portal/Portals/0/StaticContent/Public/ALL/Handbooks/Non-Emergency%20Medical%20Transportation%20(NEMT)%20Q3%20-%20July%202026%2020260918170713.pdf)
- [Indiana Health Coverage Programs: Transportation Services module (Verida payment and appeals)](https://www.in.gov/medicaid/providers/files/modules/transportation-services.pdf)