Sunshine Health Transportation: Alivi Ride Lines, Booking Rules, and How Van Companies Get the Trips

Sunshine Health is the Florida Medicaid plan of Sunshine State Health Plan, a Centene company, and it has more members than any other plan in the state. It pays Alivi to arrange every non-emergency ride for its Medicaid, long-term care, and specialty plan members, so a van company reaches Sunshine riders only through Alivi. The Florida guide explains how the plans split the state among brokers, and the Alivi page covers Alivi’s credentialing and trip standards. This page covers what is particular to Sunshine: where its riders live, which line each one calls, and the rules they ride under.

Where Sunshine’s riders live

AHCA’s enrollment report for August 31, 2026 counts 1,081,332 Sunshine members in Managed Medical Assistance, the main Medicaid program. That is about 39 percent of Florida’s Medicaid plan members, more than twice the next plan. Sunshine also had 34,343 long-term care members, 43,078 members in Pathway to Shine, its child welfare plan, and 11,031 members in its plans for serious mental illness and HIV.

Region	Counties	Sunshine Medicaid members	Share of the region’s Medicaid plan members	Sunshine long-term care members
A	Escambia, Okaloosa, Bay, Leon, and 14 more Panhandle counties	88,049	46%	2,291
B	Duval, Marion, Volusia, Alachua, Lake, and 18 more	269,087	51%	5,127
C	Pasco, Pinellas	65,739	43%	3,053
D	Hillsborough, Polk, Manatee, Highlands, Hardee	152,327	38%	3,589
E	Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Brevard	158,537	46%	3,115
F	Lee, Collier, Sarasota, Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades, Hendry	112,256	57%	3,376
G	Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River, Okeechobee	107,533	45%	4,160
H	Broward	58,385	28%	2,787
I	Miami-Dade, Monroe	69,419	19%	6,845

Sunshine is the largest Medicaid plan in Regions A through G. Its biggest county counts in August 2026 were Orange (81,304), Duval (78,467), Hillsborough (71,295), Miami-Dade (66,650), Palm Beach (66,275), Broward (58,283), and Lee (57,892). Its share runs highest in small Panhandle counties: about 74 percent of plan members in Liberty County, 71 percent in Taylor, and 70 percent in Madison and Gadsden. Even in Leon County, home to Tallahassee, it has 64 percent.

For a company in Liberty, Taylor, Gadsden, or Leon County, Alivi holds most of the Medicaid plan riders nearby. The exception is the western Panhandle: in Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Walton counties, Humana had more plan members than Sunshine, 22,465 to 11,606 in Escambia alone. In Broward and Miami-Dade, Sunshine is second to Simply, so a company there usually needs more than one broker, such as Ride2MD for Simply Healthcare.

Which Alivi line each Sunshine member calls

Sunshine gives each of its plans its own Alivi number. Each line takes reservations and Ride Assist calls for rides in progress.

Sunshine plan	Ride line (September 2026)
Medicaid (Managed Medical Assistance)	Alivi, 1-844-352-0134
Long Term Care and Comprehensive Long Term Care	Alivi, 1-888-863-0248
Pathway to Shine (child welfare)	Alivi, 1-844-352-0414
Mindful Pathways (serious mental illness)	Alivi, 1-844-352-1485
Power to Thrive (HIV/AIDS)	Alivi, 1-888-588-9413

All lines take TTY 711. Doctors’ offices and facilities book Sunshine trips on Alivi’s provider line, 1-844-352-0140, or in the Alivi provider portal. Sunshine tells its network providers they may be asked to spot members’ ride needs, set up standing orders for recurring trips, and help members fill in mileage logs, all through Alivi.

How Sunshine’s rides moved to Alivi

AHCA’s Health Care Alert of January 15, 2021 moved Sunshine’s long-term care and Comprehensive members to Alivi on February 1, 2021, with booked trips transferred automatically. Logisticare, now Modivcare, kept the Medicaid-only and child welfare members. AHCA’s vendor list of July 20, 2023 still showed that split, with Modivcare covering serious mental illness members too.

Sunshine then moved the rest to Alivi on January 1, 2025. Alivi began taking bookings on December 16, 2024, and Modivcare’s standing orders carried over. If you ran Sunshine trips for Modivcare in 2024, that work now comes only from Alivi. See the broker transition checklist.

Children’s Medical Services Plan riders

Sunshine ran the Children’s Medical Services Health Plan through September 30, 2026, and its members rode with MTM Health, not Alivi. AHCA counted 117,163 children in the plan’s Medicaid rolls on August 31, 2026. From October 1, 2026, Molina runs the plan: AHCA moved every member automatically and says existing appointments and prior authorizations are honored. Sunshine’s April 30, 2026 notice says provider contracts with Sunshine do not transfer, so see the Molina page for how those rides work now.

What Sunshine covers and how members book

Rule	Sunshine, as of September 2026
Who qualifies	A member with no other way to get to the service
Medical trips	No limit on trips between home, medical appointments, and health care facilities
Notice	24 hours, booked one business day before the appointment
Hours	Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. Discharges, urgent trips, and same-day trips any time.
Who can book	A member 18 or older, a parent, guardian, or representative, a plan case manager, or a doctor or facility. A member under 18 can book for their own child, and there is no minimum age for family planning or pregnancy visits.
Will-call returns	The member calls Ride Assist when ready. Expected response up to 60 minutes.
Long trips	Sunshine approves trips of more than 100 miles one way and trips to a neighboring state
Non-medical rides	Three round trips a month for Medicaid members 18 and older, inside the home county or within 30 miles, such as shopping or family visits. Long-term care members add three Pathways to Purpose trips for volunteering or mentoring. Comprehensive long-term care members need Sunshine’s approval for non-medical trips.
Ride types	Ambulatory (bus, sedan, van, minivan, taxi), wheelchair, stretcher, and non-emergency basic or advanced life support

Sunshine’s list of covered trips reads like a facility contract: emergency room to home, hospital to hospital, hospital or nursing facility to home, home or assisted living facility to a skilled nursing facility, one assisted living facility to another, and a nursing facility resident to an appointment and back. Its provider pages list a pharmacy run as a non-medical trip, while its member page puts pharmacies among the unlimited medical trips. Its stretcher mode is a reclining ride with no lights, sirens, or emergency equipment, which suits a stretcher van. See hospital discharge transportation for how discharge runs work.

On the day of the trip, Alivi’s Sunshine member flyer tells members the driver will come one hour before the appointment. Plan pickups for that hour, since it is the time riders are told to expect.

Mileage payments and the bus

Alivi pays mileage when a friend or relative can drive a member who has no ride of their own, but members, spouses, and parents or guardians cannot be paid. The request goes to Alivi between 30 days before and the day of the appointment, never after, and each date on the trip log needs a doctor’s or clinician’s signature. Logs go to Alivi by fax at 1-855-621-8962, by email, or by mail to the Alivi Claims Department, 7205 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 404, Miami, FL 33126.

Ambulatory rides include the bus. Alivi’s Sunshine page, updated September 21, 2026, posts a mass transit exclusion form for members who cannot use public transportation for medical or other reasons, completed by a doctor and returned to Alivi, plus a medical necessity form. A member on the bus or on mileage reimbursement is not a trip for your van, while a member with that form on file, or one who needs a wheelchair or stretcher, is.

How a van company gets Sunshine trips

1. Match your counties to the table. Sunshine has members in every county, and its share is highest in Region F, Region B, and the small Panhandle counties and lowest in Miami-Dade, Santa Rosa, Escambia, and Broward.
2. Enroll with Florida Medicaid. Florida’s plan contract (July 1, 2026) has Sunshine confirm that every provider holds a current AHCA agreement and passes a Level 2 background check, and that transportation companies follow Rules 41-2 and 14-90 on drug testing, safety, and driver conduct. The Florida guide walks through enrollment.
3. Send Alivi’s callback form. It asks for your NPI, the counties you serve, your number of drivers and vehicles, and your levels of service. Alivi says it calls back within 2 business days, and the Alivi page lists what its credentialing checks.
4. Know the facilities near you. Sunshine’s pages say facilities and providers set up members’ recurring trips as standing orders through Alivi, so the dialysis centers, nursing facilities, and clinics near you are where steady, repeating Sunshine trips start. See facility contracts.
5. Bill Alivi for van trips. Sunshine’s quick reference guide sends claims for covered non-emergency rides to the transportation vendor. Only emergency ambulance claims go to Sunshine, under payer ID 68069, within 180 days of the date of service for participating providers.

If a problem with Alivi stays unresolved, Sunshine Provider Services is at 1-844-477-8313, and escalating broker problems covers how to document one.

Who to call

For	Contact
Book a Sunshine ride for a patient or resident	Alivi provider line, 1-844-352-0140, or the Alivi provider portal
Sunshine Medicaid members	Alivi, 1-844-352-0134 (TTY 711)
Sunshine long-term care members	Alivi, 1-888-863-0248
Mileage logs	Alivi fax, 1-855-621-8962, or Alivi Claims Department, 7205 Corporate Center Drive, Suite 404, Miami, FL 33126
Join Alivi’s network	The callback form on Alivi’s transportation provider page
Sunshine Provider Services	1-844-477-8313
Sunshine Member Services	1-866-796-0530 (TTY 1-800-955-8770), Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern

What to do first

1. Find your region and county in the tables above and note how many Sunshine members live there.
2. Start Florida Medicaid enrollment with your NPI in hand.
3. Send Alivi’s callback form listing every county and level of service you can cover.
4. Brief your drivers on Sunshine’s timing: arrive an hour before the appointment and answer will-call returns within 60 minutes.
5. Give nearby facilities Alivi’s provider line, 1-844-352-0140, so they book their Sunshine patients’ rides and standing orders there, and keep a trip log for every leg you drive.