AmeriHealth Caritas PA Transportation: MATP Vans, MTM Ambulance Trips, and CHC Non-Medical Rides

AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania Community HealthChoices, shortened to AmeriHealth Caritas PA CHC, serves 62 counties: every Pennsylvania county except the five in the Southeast. Community HealthChoices is the state’s Medicaid managed care program for adults who have Medicare and Medicaid or who get long-term services and supports, and the Department of Human Services (DHS) lists AmeriHealth Caritas as one of its three companies, with PA Health & Wellness and UPMC Community HealthChoices. Routine medical rides still belong to the county Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP), which the Pennsylvania guide explains. This page covers the rest: who books the plan’s ambulance trips, the non-medical rides it owes some participants, and how your company gets that work.

Who arranges each AmeriHealth Caritas PA CHC ride

Three documents set the split: the plan’s bulletin to health systems dated April 2, 2026, its provider manual dated April 2026, and the DHS Community HealthChoices agreement of January 1, 2026.

Ride	Who arranges it (October 2026)	How
Taxi, van, or wheelchair van to a medical visit or pharmacy	The county MATP office	The participant registers with MATP in their county
Stretcher or non-emergency ambulance from a home	MTM	1-855-540-7062
Non-emergency ambulance from a hospital or medical facility	The facility, with an MTM-contracted ambulance company	Approved after the ride, since January 1, 2026
Medical rides for nursing facility residents	The plan, with the nursing facility	The plan covers these, not MATP
Rides to shopping, worship, work, or community activities	The service coordinator, through the service plan	Only for participants who need a nursing facility level of care
Emergency	911 or the local ambulance service	Never MATP

The plan’s own medical ride duty is narrow. Its 2026 participant handbook says it does not cover non-emergency medical transportation for most participants. It covers trips for nursing home residents and medically necessary specialized trips, such as a stretcher, and it is responsible for emergency and non-emergency ambulance.

When MATP cannot give a stretcher or ambulance trip, the county sends the plan an MA 583 Transportation Referral Form. Under the 2026 agreement, the plan has two business days to decide whether the trip meets its ambulance criteria. If it cannot provide the trip either, it forwards the form to the County Assistance Office, which reviews it for a Medical Transportation Allowance.

Stretcher and ambulance trips go through MTM

Under a notice to hospitals dated October 31, 2024, facilities have booked the plan’s ambulance, basic and advanced life support, and stretcher trips through MTM (Medical Transportation Management) since January 1, 2025. That notice also set a rule that still holds: the facility calls for the trip, not the transportation company. It warned that calls from transportation providers to the plan or MTM asking for a trip may delay the process. The October 2024 notice printed an older MTM number, so use the lines in the April 2026 bulletin: 1-855-540-7062 for AmeriHealth Caritas PA CHC and 1-877-659-6137 for AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care.

Hospital trips approved after the ride, since January 1, 2026

For a non-emergency ambulance trip that starts at a hospital or medical facility, the April 2, 2026 bulletin lets the plan authorize the trip after it happens. The facility checks the patient’s coverage to confirm MTM is the right transportation manager, then books the trip directly with an ambulance company that MTM has approved and contracted. The referring facility keeps two records: the referring physician’s clinical assessment of why an ambulance is needed and a completed physician certification statement. MTM steps in only when the facility asks for help or cannot find an available ambulance.

Trips that start at a private home or any other place that is not a hospital still go through MTM. For an ambulance company, this makes MTM’s network the entry ticket, and it puts the choice of company in the hands of discharge planners at hospitals in the plan’s 62 counties. See hospital discharge transportation and the MTM guide.

What the plan pays an ambulance company

The 2026 agreement requires every Community HealthChoices plan to pay ambulance providers no less than the Medical Assistance fee schedule, and it extends that floor to the plan’s subcontractors. Medical Assistance Bulletin 26-24-01 pays ground ambulance mileage for every loaded mile for dates of service from January 1, 2024, where it once paid only miles beyond the first 20. AmeriHealth Caritas told its ambulance providers on June 7 and July 23, 2024 that it follows that rule and would accept resubmitted claims.

The April 2026 manual treats a trip as medically necessary when at least one listed condition applies. Examples include a van, taxi, bus, or car being physically impossible or a danger to the participant, a need for restraints, or a need for oxygen or other life support on the way. A trip from a hospital to a non-hospital substance use disorder withdrawal management and residential treatment facility also qualifies when the hospital decides inpatient care is not needed. For where a stretcher van ends and an ambulance begins, see NEMT vs. ambulance.

Non-medical rides for CHC participants

This is the ride type that sets Community HealthChoices apart. The 2026 agreement requires the plan to give non-medical transportation to every participant who is nursing facility clinically eligible, meaning their needs call for a nursing facility level of care, whether they live at home or in a facility. It may offer the rides to other participants at its own cost. The trips cover community activities, grocery shopping, religious services, adult daily living centers, work, volunteering, and other activities in the person-centered service plan. The plan must deliver at least 86% of the requested non-medical trips that service plans authorize, and it reports the trips it did not deliver to DHS.

The Community HealthChoices waiver in effect since July 1, 2026 sets how the rides work:

• Form of the benefit. Mileage paid to a driver who takes the participant, or tickets and tokens bought for the participant. It is billed per one-way trip or per item, such as a monthly bus pass.
• Tied to the service plan. Each ride must serve a specific goal in the service plan, and medical trips still go to MATP.
• Last resort. The service coordinator authorizes it only when it is the most cost-effective way to get there and free help from family, neighbors, friends, and community agencies is used up.
• What it never pays. Mileage for anyone driving the participant’s own vehicle, vehicle purchases, rentals, or repairs, and rides at the same time as adult daily living services that include transportation or employment skills, career assessment, or job finding services.
• Who watches it. The service coordinator reviews the service every quarter.

The plan’s 2026 handbook lists non-medical transportation among the long-term services that a service coordinator must approve in advance. The provider manual refers to the plan’s non-medical transportation broker without naming it. In training slides dated February 15, 2018, which DHS still posts, the plan described MTM as its vendor for participants’ non-medical trips as well as medical ones, so ask the plan which vendor handles them in your counties today. The waiver transportation guide explains how waiver rides differ from NEMT and how other states enroll their drivers.

What a company needs to give waiver rides

The waiver lists two kinds of providers: an individual driver, and an agency that holds Public Utility Commission authority or is a public transit authority or community transportation provider or subcontractor. An agency must meet these standards:

• Rules. The Pennsylvania Vehicle Code (Title 75) and the DHS rules in 55 Pa. Code Chapter 52.
• Insurance. Commercial general liability, auto insurance on every vehicle it owns, leases, or hires for the service, and workers’ compensation as state law requires.
• Training. Staff trained for each participant’s communication, mobility, and behavioral needs.
• Drivers. At least 18, with a valid license, criminal history clearances under 35 P.S. 10225.101 and 6 Pa. Code Chapter 15, and a child abuse clearance.

The Office of Long-Term Living or its designee checks these qualifications at enrollment and at each revalidation. On top of that, the plan’s April 2026 manual lists transportation as one of its long-term services provider types. Each one needs a current Medical Assistance (PROMISe) ID, an NPI if eligible, a current certificate of liability insurance, and any required license or certification. The plan also checks federal exclusion lists, runs the background checks DHS requires, and re-credentials at least every 36 months. Some providers are credentialed by vendors the plan delegates.

AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care rides

AmeriHealth Caritas VIP Care is the company’s Medicare dual special needs plan for CHC participants who also have Medicare. Its 2027 evidence of coverage lists the same 62 counties. The 2026 participant handbook says a participant who becomes newly eligible for Medicare is enrolled in VIP Care automatically unless they opt out, so many CHC participants hold both plans.

VIP Care adds its own rides. Its 2026 summary of benefits gives 36 one-way trips a year to plan-approved places such as a doctor’s office, pharmacy, or hospital, by car, shuttle, or van, at no cost. Its 2027 Annual Notice of Changes cuts that to 20 one-way trips a year. Both years cap each trip at 50 miles and require booking at least one business day ahead. The April 2026 bulletin and the CHC handbook both say a Medicare Advantage ride benefit may be used before the Medicaid plan’s benefit. See Medicare Advantage transportation.

AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania, the HealthChoices plan

AmeriHealth Caritas Pennsylvania is a separate plan: the company’s HealthChoices plan for Medical Assistance members outside Community HealthChoices. Its July 2026 provider manual lists the same 62 counties, and the DHS map shows it in the Southwest, Lehigh/Capital, Northeast, and Northwest zones. Its 2026 member handbook sends routine rides to MATP, which gives tokens or passes when the member lives within a quarter mile of a fixed-route stop, and makes the plan responsible for emergency and non-emergency ambulance.

The manual says the plan has contracted with specific ambulance providers across its service area. The April 2026 MTM bulletin names only the CHC plan and VIP Care, so ask Provider Services at 1-800-521-6007 how HealthChoices ambulance trips are booked in your counties. Ambulance trips to and from a prescribed pediatric extended care center, for members under 21 who need oxygen, ventilator support, or monitoring on the way, are approved together with the center’s services. Member Services is 1-888-991-7200 (TTY 1-888-987-5704), and the Enhanced Member Supports Unit is 1-800-684-5503.

How a ride company gets AmeriHealth Caritas PA trips

1. Hold Public Utility Commission authority. Paratransit authority covers wheelchair vans, and the waiver accepts it for agencies giving non-medical rides. The Pennsylvania guide has the application and timeline.
2. For van and wheelchair riders, contract with MATP. Each county buys rides its own way. County pages such as Allegheny, Lancaster, Erie, and Luzerne explain how.
3. For stretcher and ambulance riders, join MTM. Then introduce your company to discharge planners, since hospitals now choose among MTM’s contracted ambulance companies.
4. For waiver non-medical rides, enroll in Medical Assistance first. The plan’s credentialing page says no Medicaid claim is paid until you are enrolled. Then email CHCProviders@amerihealthcaritas.com, the address it gives long-term services providers that are not yet contracted.
5. Ask about direct ambulance contracts. A physical health provider, such as an ambulance company, that is not yet contracted emails the contract application to pnmcontracting@amerihealthcaritas.com. The Contracting Department is 1-866-546-7972.
6. Never call the plan or MTM to ask for trips. The facility or doctor’s office requests them.

Who to call

For	Contact (October 2026)
CHC stretcher or ambulance trip from a home	MTM, 1-855-540-7062
VIP Care non-emergency ambulance trip	MTM, 1-877-659-6137
Van or wheelchair ride	The county MATP office, listed on matp.pa.gov
CHC Participant Services and Transportation Unit	1-855-235-5115 (TTY 1-855-235-5112)
Provider Services, AmeriHealth Caritas PA and PA CHC	1-800-521-6007
VIP Care Member Services	1-866-533-5490 (TTY 711)
Southeast participants	Keystone First CHC, MTM 1-855-540-7063

UPMC for You, a HealthChoices plan in all five zones, has providers outside the Lehigh/Capital zone coordinate medically necessary wheelchair van trips through its own line. Check each rider’s plan before you build your fleet around one.