AmeriHealth Caritas NC Transportation: Modivcare Rides, Pickup Rules, and How to Get the Trips

AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina is one of the state’s four NC Medicaid Standard Plans, and NC Medicaid’s health plan list, modified August 28, 2026, shows it serving the whole state. In the state’s managed care reports it averaged 393,750 members a month from July 2024 to June 2025, 12.6% of everyone on NC Medicaid, up from 358,646 the year before. Modivcare has arranged its rides since health plans took over Medicaid transportation on July 1, 2021. How plans and county social services offices split the state’s rides is in the North Carolina guide, and the rest of Modivcare’s work in the state is on Modivcare in North Carolina.

How AmeriHealth Caritas members book rides

Members call Modivcare at 1-833-498-2262. That one number books a trip, changes or cancels it, answers “Where’s My Ride?” when a driver is late, and takes gas money requests. Members can also book, change, cancel, and follow their driver in Modivcare’s app. AmeriHealth Caritas Member Services, 1-855-375-8811 (TTY 1-866-209-6421), answers other transportation questions and takes appeals when a ride is denied.

The plan’s own documents give different booking hours, so expect bookings at any hour:

Document	Booking hours it gives
Transportation page, as of September 2026	24 hours a day, seven days a week
Member handbook, revised July 2026	Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with after-hours calls going to Member Services
NEMT provider training, November 2023	Modivcare open Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and reservations taken around the clock all year

Routine rides need at least two business days’ notice, and the provider training sets 30 days as the furthest ahead a member can book. When members call, they give the medical reason for the ride, the kind of visit (a doctor, a lab test, therapy), and any mobility aid they use. Modivcare’s brochure for plan members says the member, a relative, a caregiver, or a health care provider may book.

Pickup and return times AmeriHealth Caritas promises

These are the times plan members are told to expect, and the times a complaint about your driver will be measured against.

Moment	What members are told
After booking	The driver calls with the pickup time and gives the driver’s own phone number (bus trips excepted)
Before pickup	Be ready 60 minutes early on the transportation page, or 30 minutes early in the July 2026 handbook
At pickup	Drivers may arrive up to 30 minutes early and are required to wait only 10 minutes past the pickup time, in Modivcare’s brochure
At the door	The driver can help the member to the door but cannot go into the home
At the clinic	Arrive on time, no sooner than one hour before the appointment, and not leave the visit early
Scheduled return	Within 30 minutes after the appointment is over
Will-call return	In less than 60 minutes
A long wait	After 60 minutes, the member calls the number the driver gave them

Two of those lines fall on your company, not on Modivcare. The member holds your driver’s phone number and is told to use it once a return runs past an hour, so your driver hears about a late pickup first. And the brochure lets a driver leave after 10 minutes, so record the arrival time and a call to the rider before pulling away, in case Modivcare asks later. Build both into your pickup window rules, and see managing will-call trips and when a driver is running late.

Wheelchairs, car seats, and who rides along

Modivcare’s brochure tells AmeriHealth Caritas members to bring their own wheelchair and to put in and take out their own child safety seats, and it says the driver will not take a child without a seat when one is required. The plan pays for an attendant, parent, or guardian to ride along when the member is 18 or younger or needs an attendant at the visit. Count that extra seat before you send a vehicle. See children in NEMT and escorts and caregivers.

Trips AmeriHealth Caritas must approve first

Most rides need no plan review. The July 2026 handbook names four kinds the plan reviews before Modivcare may schedule them:

1. A service level that does not match the member’s assessment. The handbook’s example is a stretcher ride requested for a member assessed for bus or car. See level of service.
2. Long trips. Any request with more than 75 miles one way.
3. Overnight trips. Food and lodging for a stay away from home.
4. Out-of-state trips.

After approval, Modivcare calls the member to schedule, and a denial comes in writing with appeal rights. Meal and lodging requests go from Modivcare to the plan’s Rapid Response and Outreach Team, and after approval Modivcare books the room and confirms it with the member. For a stretcher company the first item matters most: a stretcher van request can wait on plan review until the member’s assessment supports it. Long runs are covered in long distance medical transport.

No-shows, cancellations, and suspensions

Members must cancel at least 24 hours ahead, day or night, or the missed ride may be counted as a no-show unless there was a good reason. The July 2026 handbook then escalates:

• The first no-show is noted on the member’s account.
• After the second, the member may be asked to call one hour before pickup to confirm the ride is still needed.
• If no-shows keep happening, the member can be suspended, with a notice listing the dates and the earlier no-shows.
• A critical needs member, such as someone on dialysis or chemotherapy, cannot be denied rides to those treatments, only to other visits.

Behavior has its own rules. A member who puts the driver or other riders at risk can be suspended by the plan for 30 days, and the handbook adds that riders must follow the conduct policies of their transportation service providers, which can suspend them for more than 30 days. A member suspended under a conduct policy, and still eligible for rides, gets a mileage log to use instead. Report an unsafe rider to Modivcare the same day, in writing, and keep dialysis riders on your schedule through any suspension from other trips. See dialysis transportation and the passenger conduct policy.

Extra rides to Wellness & Opportunity Centers

AmeriHealth Caritas lists rides among its extra benefits. Its extra benefits page, last updated August 3, 2026, offers eligible members round trips to non-emergency provider visits and to programs at its Wellness & Opportunity Centers, and the handbook adds rides to plan appointments that are not with a health care provider. The centers hold free cooking, fitness, and life skills classes, open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

City	Address	Medicaid region
Asheville	216 Asheland Ave	Region 1
Greensboro	3018 West Gate City Blvd	Region 2
Charlotte	3120 Wilkinson Blvd, Suite D-1	Region 3
Fayetteville	4101 Raeford Rd	Region 5
Greenville	1876 West Arlington Blvd	Region 6

A mobile center serves Region 4, which the plan describes as Raleigh, Durham, and the greater Triangle, so Wake County has no fixed center. A van company in Mecklenburg County or Buncombe County has a center in its own county. These are weekday, daytime trips to fixed addresses.

How your company gets AmeriHealth Caritas trips

The plan’s NEMT provider training, from November 2023, tells transportation companies to contact Modivcare directly for contracting. In order:

1. Enroll in NCTracks. State policy makes every ride company in a plan’s network enroll as an NC Medicaid provider. AmeriHealth Caritas’s provider manual, version 16 revised September 18, 2025, adds that the plan will not contract with anyone missing from that enrollment, and it takes the state’s enrollment file in place of its own credentialing. A company in a neighboring state within 40 miles of the North Carolina line counts as a bordering provider. The fee and site visit are in the North Carolina guide.
2. Reach Modivcare’s North Carolina network team. Email ncnetwork@modivcare.com, the network address NC Medicaid published for Modivcare contracting, or call the Modivcare Transportation Provider Line, 855-397-3604, listed in NC Medicaid’s April 2026 quick reference guide for Standard Plans. Send the Become a Transportation Provider form on modivcare.com as well.
3. Pass Modivcare’s checks. Each driver needs a PASS wheelchair certificate, first aid and CPR, a defensive driving certificate, a drug screen, a motor vehicle report, and a background check. Each vehicle needs current registration and a state inspection where one is required. Modivcare also asks for general liability, sexual abuse and molestation, and auto coverage, plus workers’ compensation where the law requires it. North Carolina’s limits and state driver rules are on Modivcare in North Carolina.
4. Name every county and vehicle type. The plan is statewide, so list each county you reach and whether you run wheelchair or stretcher vans.

One plan document points the wrong way. AmeriHealth Caritas’s provider quick reference guide, in its July 2025 version, prints 1-833-498-2262 under the heading “MTM Member and Provider Services.” That number is Modivcare’s on the plan’s transportation page and in its July 2026 handbook, and NC Medicaid’s May 2025 county fact sheet pairs it with Modivcare. MTM Health books UnitedHealthcare Community Plan and Carolina Complete Health rides, not AmeriHealth Caritas rides. State policy bars exclusive contracts, so you can hold both.

Pay, claims, and the plan’s record

Modivcare pays you the rate in your agreement. NC Medicaid’s October 30, 2025 rate bulletin lists health plan NEMT among services without a published state fee schedule, so the price is set in your Modivcare agreement. The late 2025 rate cut and its reversal are in North Carolina reverses its NEMT rate cut.

The state’s managed care reports track the plan’s rides year by year:

Measure	July 2023 to June 2024	July 2024 to June 2025
Members a month, on average	358,646	393,750
NEMT grievances resolved	141	510
NEMT appeals resolved	0	0

A grievance is a member complaint, such as a late or missed ride: see member grievances. On January 31, 2024, NC Medicaid also put AmeriHealth Caritas on a corrective action plan for missing its contract’s automated claims processing rules for NEMT, especially the effect on nonemergency ambulance companies. The fix was still in progress when that report’s year closed on June 30, 2024. If a stretcher or ambulance claim for a plan member stalls, see appealing a denied NEMT claim.

What to do first

1. Check your NCTracks enrollment before you write to Modivcare.
2. Email ncnetwork@modivcare.com with your NCTracks number, the counties you cover, and your vehicles by type.
3. Set your pickup routine to the plan’s times. Call the rider with the pickup time, arrive no more than 30 minutes early, wait at least 10 minutes, and record each step on your trip log.
4. Keep a vehicle free for will-call returns near the clinics your riders use, since members are promised one in under an hour.
5. Apply to MTM Health as well for UnitedHealthcare and Carolina Complete Health riders, as set out on MTM Health in North Carolina.