CalOptima Transportation: Modivcare Rides, Authorization Forms, and CBAS Trips in Orange County

CalOptima Health is the public agency that runs Medi-Cal for Orange County as its county organized health system. The Medi-Cal provider manual describes that model as the one plan in the county open to every member, with Kaiser Permanente as an added choice for some members. DHCS counted 772,737 CalOptima Medi-Cal members in August 2026, down from 875,118 a year before, and 72,263 Kaiser members in the county. Statewide Medi-Cal enrollment and van rules are in the California guide, and Modivcare’s work for other California plans is on Modivcare in California.

Who books CalOptima rides

CalOptima Health sent a News Flash on April 1, 2024: from that day, it partners with Modivcare to coordinate all transportation for its Medi-Cal members and for OneCare, its Medicare and Medi-Cal plan. That covers both medical (NEMT) and non-medical (NMT) rides. The ride lines stayed the same through the switch.

Who calls	Number	What it is for
Medi-Cal members	1-833-648-7528 (TTY 711)	CalOptima’s transportation line. Modivcare schedules the ride.
OneCare members	1-866-612-1256 (TTY 711)	OneCare ride line
Providers and facilities	1-866-529-2128	Provider use only
CalOptima Customer Service	1-888-587-8088 (TTY 711)	Benefit questions, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
CalOptima Provider Relations	714-246-8600	Provider questions, as listed in the April 2024 notice

The News Flash says rides are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that Modivcare’s call center is staffed Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., except holidays. Kaiser Permanente’s Medi-Cal members in Orange County belong to a different plan, so their rides are not part of this arrangement.

How much notice comes with a CalOptima trip

CalOptima’s 2026 Medi-Cal member handbook asks members to book a routine ride at least two business days ahead, Monday to Friday, on 1-833-648-7528. For an urgent appointment, they call as soon as they can, with their CalOptima ID card ready. OneCare’s 2026 benefits page asks for the same two business days.

A routine Orange County trip can land on your schedule two weekdays out, and an urgent one sooner, so keep room on your routes for short-notice calls.

The handbook’s other ride rules are Medi-Cal’s statewide ones: the lowest-cost ride that meets the member’s needs, to the closest provider with an open appointment, and approvals that last up to 12 months. Rides outside CalOptima’s network or service area need its approval in advance. The California guide explains the statewide rules, and least costly mode shows how the ride type is picked.

The CalOptima authorization form

CalOptima’s News Flash says its Utilization Management team still processes NEMT authorization requests, and that the prescriber lists Modivcare as the NEMT provider on the form. The form is CalOptima’s Referral Request for Transportation Services and Physician Certification Statement, in the 2024 version posted on Modivcare’s California page.

Part of the form	What CalOptima asks
Where it goes	Routine and retroactive requests to fax 714-338-3153. Urgent requests to 714-571-2424.
Vehicle	Ambulance, litter or gurney van, wheelchair van, or air ambulance
How long	Start and end dates, for six months or 12 months
Why	The member’s functional limits, not just a diagnosis. The form says a diagnosis alone does not show medical necessity.
Checkboxes	Needs special equipment or staff, cannot sit for the trip, or must ride in a wheelchair and cannot transfer or wheel alone
Where the member lives	Home, board and care, ICF-DD, skilled nursing facility, or other
Who signs	A physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, certified nurse midwife, physical, speech, or occupational therapist, dentist, podiatrist, or mental health or substance use disorder provider

Once the form is in, CalOptima cannot lower the approved level without a new form from the provider. So if a gurney rider improves enough to ride in a wheelchair, the clinic sends a new form before the trips change. The News Flash tells the clinic to write Modivcare, not your company, in the NEMT provider box. See NEMT medical necessity forms.

Children need one more form. CalOptima’s Transportation of a Minor Consent Form lets a parent or guardian allow CalOptima’s ride companies to take a child to approved appointments without a parent or guardian along. It lasts one year from the signature, and the parent emails it to CalOptima. See children in NEMT.

OneCare rides

OneCare is CalOptima’s HMO dual special needs plan for members with both Medicare and Medi-Cal. See dual eligible. Its 2026 benefits page, as of July 2026, lists these ride benefits for CalOptima Health OneCare Complete:

• Ambulance and wheelchair van rides to medical visits when a car or bus is not possible because of the member’s condition.
• Unlimited non-medical rides to plan-approved places: covered medical appointments, prescription and medical supply pickups, and the gym.
• Gym trips within a 10-mile radius, as part of the fitness benefit.

OneCare members book on 1-866-612-1256 at least two business days ahead, and OneCare Customer Service is 1-877-412-2734. For a company in Modivcare’s network in Orange County, the pharmacy, supply, and gym rides add short non-medical trips on top of medical visits.

Rides Modivcare does not take: CBAS and PACE

CalOptima addressed its April 2024 News Flash to Community-Based Adult Services (CBAS) providers. It says Modivcare takes CBAS participants to medical appointments, but not from home to the CBAS center or back. The California Department of Aging lists transportation to and from the participant’s home among the services a CBAS center provides. Those rides are the center’s to arrange, which makes each center a customer you can call directly.

The Department of Aging’s CBAS provider list showed 30 centers in Orange County on September 30, 2026:

City	CBAS centers
Garden Grove	5
Anaheim	3
Irvine	3
Santa Ana	3
Buena Park, Cypress, Huntington Beach, Laguna Woods, Tustin, Westminster	2 each
Costa Mesa, Fullerton, La Habra, Laguna Hills	1 each

The list gives each center’s address, phone, and hours, so you can see which ones sit inside your service area. See adult day care transportation for how center routes are priced and run.

PACE is separate too. DHCS counted three PACE programs in Orange County in August 2026: CalOptima Health PACE with 579 Medi-Cal participants, AltaMed Senior Buena Care with 542, and Innovative Integrated Health PACE with 222. CalOptima’s PACE benefits page, as of July 2026, lists transportation to and from its PACE center, and the News Flash covers only Medi-Cal and OneCare. See PACE transportation contracts.

How your company gets CalOptima trips

1. Enroll in Medi-Cal through PAVE. The California guide covers the application, fees, and van rules.
2. Apply to Modivcare. Send its Become a Transportation Provider form with CA as your state and Orange as your base county. Modivcare asks for PASS wheelchair training, first aid and CPR, defensive driving, drug screens, driving records, and background checks, plus general liability, sexual abuse and molestation, auto, and workers comp insurance. The Modivcare guide covers each step.
3. Call the CBAS centers near your base. Offer their home-to-center rides, which Modivcare does not take.
4. Ask the PACE programs. Find out how each one arranges rides to its center.
5. Give clinics the right fax. Doctors’ offices and dialysis centers send the authorization form to 714-338-3153, and name Modivcare as the NEMT provider.

A rider who joins CalOptima from another plan cannot insist on keeping an out-of-network ride company, because CalOptima’s handbook says it does not have to continue care with an out-of-network transportation provider. Your rate on Modivcare trips is the one in your Modivcare contract, so compare it with the Medi-Cal fee-for-service maximums in the California guide and see negotiating broker rates.