Blue Cross Complete Transportation: MTM Rides, Bus Tokens, and Mileage in Michigan

Blue Cross Complete of Michigan is a Medicaid plan owned 70 percent by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and 30 percent by Independence Health Group since February 1, 2024. It runs no vans of its own. MTM Health books every non-emergency ride for its Medicaid and Healthy Michigan Plan members and hands each trip to a cab company, a wheelchair van company, or another vehicle in its local network. For the statewide rules underneath, from vehicle registration to CHAMPS, see the Michigan guide.

Who books Blue Cross Complete rides

Every booking goes to MTM at 888-803-4947 (TTY 711). The line takes same-day and urgent requests 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and routine reservations from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Members can also book, change, and track rides in the MTM Link Member app, or book online in the MTM Link Member Portal. The plan’s March/April 2026 provider newsletter asks doctors’ offices to point patients to the app.

A ride request can come from more people than the member. Blue Cross Complete lets these callers schedule:

• Members 18 and older, and teens seeking family planning or pregnancy care
• A parent, legal guardian, or authorized representative
• A Blue Cross Complete case manager
• A primary care provider, specialist, or Maternal Infant Health Program provider
• A hospital discharge planner or a social worker

That list matters if you market to hospitals. A discharge planner who knows the plan can book a Blue Cross Complete patient home through MTM without waiting for family to call. See hospital discharge transportation.

How much notice the plan asks for

Blue Cross Complete asks for less advance notice than most Michigan plans. These rules come from its transportation page as of September 2026 and the MDHHS plan ride list revised May 14, 2026:

Situation	Blue Cross Complete rule
Routine ride by phone	2 business days (48 hours) ahead
Children’s Special Health Care Services member	1 business day (24 hours) ahead
Booking online in the MTM Link portal	At least 2 days ahead, never the same day
Urgent visit	Same day by phone, around the clock
Hospital discharge, including after hours	Handled the same day, every day of the year
Canceling a ride	At least 4 hours before the appointment

The plan’s typical urgent reasons include doctor visits during pregnancy, sick visits, follow-up visits within 24 hours of leaving the hospital, and any ride the health plan itself requests. MDHHS’s list adds that lead screening counts as urgent. Short-notice trips like these go to the companies that answer fast, so tell MTM you take them. See same-day NEMT trips.

What the plan’s rules mean for your drivers

Blue Cross Complete sets rider rules that land on your van at the curb:

• Pickup time. Members are told to expect pickup about one hour before the appointment.
• Return rides. A member with no set return time calls for a will-call trip, and the plan warns the wait can be up to 60 minutes.
• Passengers. The member may bring one other person. A caregiver with up to four children under 18 in their care may bring all of them, if the ride service heard about them at booking.
• Equipment. Members must bring every car seat, booster seat, wheelchair, and oxygen tank they need. The plan says riders without the right safety or medical equipment will not be transported.

The equipment rule is the one to train on. On a Blue Cross Complete trip the family supplies the child seat, so a parent who comes out without one is a problem for MTM to solve. Have the driver call MTM before canceling, and note it on the trip log. Molina Healthcare of Michigan works the opposite way, so check the plan on each trip sheet. See Molina Michigan transportation and children in NEMT.

When a ride runs late, the member calls MTM’s Ride Assistance line at 888-803-4947. If the member can no longer make it, MDHHS’s list says the member reschedules, the 48-hour rule is waived, and the ride goes to the next available appointment, even the same day. A missed trip can come back to your board as a same-day rebooking.

If MTM believes a member needs more help than a ride, it contacts Blue Cross Complete’s Rapid Response care management team at 888-288-1722, per MDHHS’s list. Tell MTM when your driver sees a rider struggling at home. Members with both BCN Advantage and Blue Cross Complete use the BCN Advantage ride benefit first, under the plan’s provider manual. See dual eligible.

Where Blue Cross Complete covers rides

Blue Cross Complete began in 2007 in Livingston, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties and added 29 more in January 2016. MDHHS’s contracts that began October 1, 2024 gave it seven of Michigan’s ten Prosperity Regions: Northwest, Northeast, West Michigan, East Central, East Michigan, Southeast, and Detroit Metro. The plan’s own list now counts 58 Lower Peninsula counties. Compared with the 32 counties CMS listed for July 1, 2024:

Status	Counties
Served before and after October 2024 (29)	Allegan, Barry, Genesee, Hillsdale, Huron, Ionia, Jackson, Kent, Lake, Lapeer, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Mason, Mecosta, Monroe, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oakland, Oceana, Osceola, Ottawa, St. Clair, Sanilac, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Washtenaw, Wayne
Added with the new contracts (29)	Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Arenac, Bay, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Clare, Crawford, Emmet, Gladwin, Grand Traverse, Gratiot, Iosco, Isabella, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee, Midland, Missaukee, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon, Saginaw, Wexford
No longer served	Clinton, Eaton, Ingham
Not served	Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, Van Buren, and the 15 Upper Peninsula counties

CMS counted 284,873 Blue Cross Complete members in Michigan’s main Medicaid program and 105,053 in the Healthy Michigan Plan on July 1, 2024, all in the old 32-county area. The added counties run from Gratiot, Saginaw, and Bay north to Emmet and Cheboygan. If you drive up north, ask MTM which Blue Cross Complete trips it has trouble covering there. See rural NEMT.

How your company gets Blue Cross Complete trips

Blue Cross Complete’s rides run through MTM’s network of local vendors, so the work comes through MTM.

1. Match your counties. Check where you drive against the table, and ask the dialysis units and clinics you serve how many patients carry Blue Cross Complete cards.
2. Register your vehicles. For-hire vehicles with 8 or fewer seats, driver included, fall under the limousine act that LARA runs. MDOT regulates non-emergency vehicles carrying 9 or more, driver included, under the Motor Bus Transportation Act. Fees and insurance are in the Michigan guide.
3. Send MTM your Letter of Intent. MTM’s steps are an application, an interview, a contract, credentialing, training, and a first trip. It moves quickly where it needs providers and keeps other files until a need opens. Its requirements are on the MTM Health page.
4. Lead with what a bus token cannot do. Tell your MTM network representative which levels of service you run, wheelchair vans above all, and which of the new counties you cover.

One MTM agreement reaches more than this plan. On the MDHHS list of May 14, 2026, MTM also booked rides for Aetna Better Health of Michigan, HAP CareSource, and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, and for Molina, whose ride line SafeRide Health also listed in September 2026. See MTM in Michigan.

Bus tokens and mileage

Not every Blue Cross Complete ride reaches a van. MTM picks the kind of ride each member needs, and two options skip you:

• Bus tokens. May be offered when the member can ride the bus and a route runs within a quarter mile of home.
• Mileage. A member with a car, or a relative or neighbor who drives, can be paid mileage reimbursement. The plan’s March/April 2026 provider newsletter presented this to doctors’ offices as a new option.

Mileage has its own steps. The member gets a trip number from MTM by phone, portal, or app before going, and can ask as late as the day of the visit, before the appointment time. In the app, the member taps the green I’m Here button on arrival so MTM can match their location to the doctor’s. On MTM’s Blue Cross Complete paper log, any health care professional at the office can sign, a nurse or physician assistant included, and logs are due within 365 days of the first appointment on them. A long trip can add meals and lodging with at least two days’ notice, and lodging needs approval first.

The handbook asks members who need wheelchair space or oxygen to call early, so MTM can find a vendor with the right vehicle. Those are the trips a wheelchair van company is built for.

Who to call

For	Contact
Booking, changing, or checking a ride, will-call returns, late rides	MTM Health, 888-803-4947 (TTY 711), 24 hours a day
Ride complaints and feedback	Blue Cross Complete Customer Service, 800-228-8554 (TTY 888-987-5832), 24 hours a day
A member who needs more than a ride	Rapid Response Outreach Team, 888-288-1722, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday
Mileage trip logs	MTM Health, Attention: Trip Logs, 16 Hawk Ridge Dr., Lake St. Louis, MO 63367, fax 888-513-1610, or payme@mtm-inc.net
Joining the ride network	MTM Health’s Join Our Network page