UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas Moved Its Medicaid Rides to SafeRide Health on January 1, 2026

On January 1, 2026, SafeRide Health took over non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) for UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas, which announced the change on November 21, 2025. Before that, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) listed ModivCare as the plan’s ride vendor. Rides for the plan’s STAR, STAR Kids, and STAR+PLUS members now go through SafeRide, so a transportation company needs a SafeRide agreement to get them.

What changed on January 1, 2026

UnitedHealthcare told doctors, hospitals, and other providers to update their contact information for rides and to send every ride call and request to SafeRide. It told dialysis centers to set each member’s chair time with SafeRide.

Item	Through December 31, 2025	From January 1, 2026
Ride vendor	ModivCare	SafeRide Health
Member booking line	ModivCare’s plan lines, such as 866-528-0441 for STAR, STAR+PLUS, and CHIP	SafeRide at 888-462-6050, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central, 7 days a week (TTY 711)

The notice also gave SafeRide lines for doctors and other health care providers (855-932-2332) and for facilities (855-955-7433). Members book routine rides at least 2 business days ahead and long-distance rides at least 5.

SafeRide started taking reservations after December 15, 2025 for rides on or after January 1. The benefit itself did not change: members still get rides to covered health care, including appointments, pharmacies, and hospitals. The notice adds that Medicaid, CHIP, and dual special needs plan members may get rides through the plan’s value-added services.

What the plan’s ride benefit covers

The plan’s 2026 care provider manual, dated September 2, 2026, lists the NEMT services members can get:

• Demand response trips. Curb-to-curb rides in private buses, vans, wheelchair vans, or sedans. This is the work a transportation company contracts for.
• Mileage payments to a member, or to a family member, friend, or neighbor who drives them, through the individual transportation participant program.
• Transit passes and tickets, and commercial airline travel.
• Meals and lodging on long-distance trips, and funds in advance of a trip, for members 20 or younger. Meals are $25 a day for the member and $25 for an approved attendant.
• Attendants. An attendant’s ride is covered, and the plan may ask for proof of medical need. Children 14 and younger ride with a parent, guardian, or other authorized adult.

Value-added rides go through SafeRide too. In the Harris service area chart dated September 1, 2026, UnitedHealthcare offers 4 round trips for non-Medicaid health needs, such as grocery, housing, or utility visits, booked with SafeRide. Members ages 0 to 17 ride with an adult.

Who it affects

• Companies that drove UnitedHealthcare trips for ModivCare. Those trips now come only through SafeRide.
• Companies already in SafeRide’s Texas network. SafeRide also arranges rides for Superior HealthPlan, Molina Healthcare of Texas, and other Texas plans. Ask your SafeRide network vendor manager whether your agreement covers UnitedHealthcare members in your area.
• Dialysis centers, clinics, and hospitals. Dialysis centers set each member’s chair time with SafeRide, and facilities book rides on SafeRide’s facility line. See dialysis transportation for how recurring treatment rides work.

How to join SafeRide’s network for Texas trips

1. Enroll in Texas Medicaid first. The state’s NEMT Services Handbook, chapter 16.4 of the Uniform Managed Care Manual, requires plans and their vendors to confirm a ride company is enrolled in Texas Medicaid through the state’s claims administrator before they sign an agreement with it. See the Texas guide for that step.
2. Fill out SafeRide’s provider form. Use your real NPI and your EIN. SafeRide says an application left unfinished for 30 days has to start over.
3. Send your insurance. Meet both SafeRide’s minimums and the state handbook’s.
4. Send driver and vehicle files. SafeRide asks for vehicle registration and insurance, and for each driver a national background check, a national sex offender registry check, a motor vehicle report, a pre-hire drug screen, first aid or CPR training, defensive driving, and wheelchair securement training.
5. Train drivers on the state schedule and keep the dates on file.

Coverage	SafeRide’s minimum	Texas NEMT Services Handbook, section 5300
General liability	$1 million per occurrence, $2 million aggregate	$1 million each occurrence, $2 million aggregate
Auto liability	$500,000	$750,000 combined single limit, for owned, non-owned, and hired vehicles
Workers’ compensation	Not listed	Statutory limits, with employer’s liability of $1 million each accident, $1 million each employee for disease, and a $1 million disease policy limit

SafeRide also asks to be listed as an additional insured on your certificate of insurance.

The handbook requires every demand response driver to finish this training within 30 days of hire:

Driver training	Repeat
Non-discrimination, sensitivity, and diversity	Every year
Passenger safety	Every year
Assistive devices, such as wheelchair lifts, tie-downs, and child safety seats	Every year
Defensive driving	Every 2 years
Motor vehicle qualifications and conduct	Every 2 years
Passenger assistance techniques	Every 3 years

To stay in the network, SafeRide says providers must keep a 100% ride response rate, 95% acceptance, 95% on-time performance, complaints under 1%, and trips handed back after accepting them (kickbacks) under 5%. Our SafeRide Health provider guide covers how its trip offers and app work.

How trips are billed

The plan’s manual says transportation companies contracted with SafeRide bill their NEMT claims directly to SafeRide, through the transportation provider login on its site. The state handbook sets the clock: claims are due within 95 days of the date of service, and the plan or its vendor must decide each one within 30 days of receiving it.

The handbook also requires the plan or its vendor to check that each paid ride matches a health care visit. If no visit claim is on file, it should get proof that the member kept the appointment, and that proof is enough to support paying the ride. Drivers must wait at least 10 minutes past the scheduled pickup before calling a no-show, and you must document every cancellation, no-show, and rescheduled trip.

Which vendor runs each Texas plan’s rides

The HHSC list shows how the Texas Medicaid plans split their ride work as of September 30, 2026:

Ride vendor	Texas Medicaid health plans
SafeRide Health	Community First Health Plan, Driscoll Health Plan, Molina Healthcare of Texas, Superior HealthPlan, Texas Children’s Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare
MTM Health	Aetna, Community Health Choice, Cook Children’s Health Plan, Dell Children’s Health Plan, El Paso Health, Parkland Community Health Plan, Wellpoint
ModivCare through September 30, 2026, then MTM Health from October 1, 2026	Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas said on August 26, 2026 that recurring trips and trips already scheduled after October 1 will be handled by MTM Health. See the MTM Health provider guide.

What transportation companies should do now

1. Apply to SafeRide if you served UnitedHealthcare members through ModivCare and want those riders back.
2. Keep your Texas Medicaid enrollment current. The Texas provider manual says a provider that misses its revalidation is disenrolled from all Texas health care programs, including the Medicaid health plans.
3. Update your call sheets. ModivCare’s UnitedHealthcare numbers no longer book rides for the plan.
4. Tell the dialysis centers you serve to set UnitedHealthcare chair times with SafeRide.
5. Close out old ModivCare claims. A ride on December 31, 2025 was due by April 5, 2026 under the 95-day rule. If a payment is still missing, contact ModivCare with your trip records.
6. Spread your work across payers. UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas both changed ride vendors in 2026. Our guides on working with several brokers and when a broker changes show how to plan for the next one.

Key dates

Date	What happened
November 21, 2025	UnitedHealthcare announces SafeRide Health as its Texas Medicaid ride vendor
December 15, 2025	Reservations for January rides open after this date
January 1, 2026	SafeRide starts arranging the plan’s rides
October 1, 2026	Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas moves its rides to MTM Health

Who to contact

• SafeRide line for doctors and other health care providers booking rides: 855-932-2332
• SafeRide facilities line: 855-955-7433
• SafeRide member line for the plan: 888-462-6050, TTY 711
• SafeRide, for NEMT companies that want to join: team@saferidehealth.com or 855-955-7433
• UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas Provider Services: 888-887-9003