Healthy Blue NC Transportation: Modivcare Rides, Booking Rules, and How Companies Get the Trips

Healthy Blue is the NC Medicaid Standard Plan that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina offers statewide. In the state’s managed care report for July 2024 through June 2025, it averaged 611,656 members a month, more than any other Standard Plan. Modivcare has arranged every Healthy Blue ride since health plans took over Medicaid transportation on July 1, 2021. How North Carolina splits rides between health plans and county social services offices is in the North Carolina guide, and the rest of Modivcare’s work in the state is on Modivcare in North Carolina.

Who books Healthy Blue rides

A Healthy Blue member calls Modivcare at 855-397-3602 (TTY 711), Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time. The member handbook, revised September 25, 2025, also lets members book through Healthy Blue Member Services at 844-594-5070. Modivcare then hands the trip to a company in its network. The same Modivcare number doubles as the plan’s Ride Assist line, which members call to start a will-call return, report a late pickup, or change a reservation.

Healthy Blue’s transportation page, as of September 2026, gives members a checklist for the call: pickup and drop-off addresses, the date, time, and length of the appointment, the doctor’s name, any wheelchair or other mobility equipment, whether an assistant is coming, and, for a child 16 or younger, the adult riding along. One line asks whether the member has a transportation provider they use on a regular basis. That gives a regular rider a way to name your company, though nothing in the plan’s materials promises the trip goes to you.

Healthy Blue ride rules

Rule	What Healthy Blue tells members
Booking	At least two business days ahead (48 hours on the plan’s ride page), and no more than 30 days
Urgent rides	An after-hours center books urgent trips, including hospital discharges, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
What counts as urgent	Sick visits, hospital discharges, and life-sustaining treatment
Return rides	With no set end time, the member calls Ride Assist at 855-397-3602 to start a will-call pickup
Arrival	On time, and no sooner than one hour before the appointment
Waiting	No more than one hour after the appointment for the ride home
Riders along	An attendant, parent, or guardian rides free with a member 18 or younger, or with a member who needs an attendant
Cancelling	At least 24 hours ahead, or the trip may count as a no-show
Suspension	Three or more missed trips in three months can stop rides for up to 30 days
Plan review	Trips over 75 miles one way, meal money, and lodging. Healthy Blue answers within 24 hours.

Healthy Blue lists personal vehicles, taxis, vans, mini-buses, mountain area transports, and public transportation as ways to ride. Members paid for miles must finish the trip and show proof before mileage reimbursement is issued. For your drivers, the return window matters most: a member who calls Ride Assist for a will-call pickup has been told the wait after the appointment will be no more than an hour.

Extra rides and the foster care plan

The added services in the September 2025 handbook, some only for members who qualify, include a $20 rideshare gift card. Members who get long-term services and supports can also get up to 10 rides to personal appointments.

Since December 1, 2025, Blue Cross NC has also run Healthy Blue Care Together, the statewide Children and Families Specialty Plan. It covers children in foster care, adopted children, and former foster youth, and it uses Modivcare on its own line, 855-397-3615. NC Medicaid’s December 2025 fact sheet says county DSS staff, foster parents, and caretakers can book for a child in custody, and it treats secure transport of high-risk youth as a job for DSS child welfare workers, with the plan paying their mileage, meals, lodging, and airfare. See children in NEMT for how attendants work on these trips.

How your company gets Healthy Blue trips

You never sign a ride contract with Healthy Blue itself. The plan’s provider manual, in the edition effective October 1, 2026, names Modivcare as its nonemergent transportation vendor, so the Modivcare agreement is the one that matters.

1. Enroll in NCTracks. North Carolina’s managed care NEMT policy, amended January 1, 2025, makes every NEMT company in a plan’s network enroll as a Medicaid provider. The fee, the taxonomy code, and the site visit are in the North Carolina guide.
2. Contact Modivcare’s North Carolina network team. Send the Become a Transportation Provider form on modivcare.com, or email ncnetwork@modivcare.com, the contracting address in NC Medicaid’s April 29, 2022 bulletin. NC Medicaid’s April 2026 Standard Plan quick reference lists 855-397-3604 as Modivcare’s line for transportation providers.
3. Pass the driver, vehicle, and insurance checks. Modivcare’s provider page asks each driver for PASS wheelchair training, first aid and CPR, defensive driving, a drug screen, a driving record, and a background check. The North Carolina insurance and state driver rules are on Modivcare in North Carolina.
4. Say exactly where you can drive. Healthy Blue members live in every part of the state, so list the counties your vans reach and the service levels you run, such as wheelchair or stretcher.

As of September 30, 2026, Modivcare also books rides for AmeriHealth Caritas, Healthy Blue Care Together, and every Tailored Plan in the state. State policy bars exclusivity and non-compete terms in your agreement, so you can also join MTM Health, which carries Carolina Complete Health and UnitedHealthcare riders. See working with multiple brokers.

How Healthy Blue trips are paid

Modivcare pays you the rate in your agreement. NC Medicaid’s October 30, 2025 bulletin puts NEMT among services with no published state fee schedule, so no Healthy Blue document sets a trip price. If a payment looks wrong, Healthy Blue’s provider quick reference guide says nonemergent transportation appeals are handled by the vendor, which means you take the dispute to Modivcare. See appealing a denied NEMT claim.

The state has pushed Healthy Blue on transportation claims before. On January 31, 2024, NC Medicaid put Healthy Blue and the three other Standard Plans then using Modivcare on a corrective action plan for failing its contract’s automated claims processing rules for NEMT, especially their effect on nonemergency ambulance companies. Healthy Blue was then assessed $144,750 in liquidated damages on July 9, 2024, and the state recorded the problem as fixed on March 18, 2025.

On December 10, 2025, the state announced it was reversing the 3% cut it had planned for health plan NEMT pay from October 1, 2025. The details are in North Carolina reverses its NEMT rate cut.

Complaints the state counts

The same July 2024 to June 2025 report counts each plan’s resolved NEMT grievances and appeals. A grievance is a member’s complaint about service, such as a late or missed ride. See member grievances.

Standard Plan	Members a month, on average	NEMT grievances	NEMT appeals
Healthy Blue	611,656	637	3
WellCare, now part of Carolina Complete Health	495,738	1,152	5
UnitedHealthcare	480,165	837	0
AmeriHealth Caritas	393,750	510	0
Carolina Complete Health	279,434	440	0

In that year every plan in the table except WellCare, which used MTM Health, sent its rides through Modivcare.

What to do first

1. Check your NCTracks enrollment. State policy requires it before you join any plan’s ride network.
2. Email the North Carolina network team. Write to ncnetwork@modivcare.com with your NCTracks number, the counties you cover, and your vehicle count by type.
3. Tell your regular riders how to book. Give Healthy Blue members the 855-397-3602 line, and remind them they can name a transportation provider they use regularly when they call.
4. Apply to MTM Health too. Its plans are on MTM Health in North Carolina.
5. Ask your county DSS about Medicaid Direct trips. Members in NC Medicaid Direct get rides from their county instead, as in Wake, Mecklenburg, and Buncombe counties.