Highlands County Community Transportation: The New Coordinator and the County NEMT Certificate

Highlands County gives a wheelchair or stretcher company two things to sort out. The first is community transportation: the door-to-door vans lettered COMMUNITY TRANSPORTATION that carry older, disabled, and low-income residents around Sebring, Avon Park, and Lake Placid. The program changed coordinators on July 1, 2026. The second is the county’s own license for wheelchair and stretcher services, which Highlands County Fire Rescue reviews and the county commission grants at a public hearing.

Community transportation here is Florida’s Transportation Disadvantaged program, which pays for rides for people who cannot drive or buy a ride because of age, disability, or income, run in each county by one community transportation coordinator. Medicaid enrollment, fingerprint screening, and the state’s vehicle and driver rules are in the Florida guide.

Who runs community transportation in Highlands County

Highlands shares one service area with DeSoto, Hardee, and Okeechobee counties, under one Local Coordinating Board and one service plan. Private, for-profit companies coordinated it from 1997, most recently MTM Transit, LLC, which took over on July 1, 2021 and ran its office from 4650 U.S. Highway 27 South in Sebring. In 2026 the area moved the role back to a public agency, the Central Florida Regional Planning Council in Bartow, which DeSoto, Hardee, Highlands, Okeechobee, and Polk counties formed in 1974 and which last coordinated the program from 1981 to 1992.

Step	Date
Local Coordinating Board votes to recommend the council	January 21, 2026
Council sends its letter of intent (Resolution 2026-2C)	February 11, 2026
Heartland Regional TPO adopts Resolution 02-2026	March 11, 2026
Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged designates the council	April 8, 2026
Council picks MTM Transit, LLC to run daily operations	May 13, 2026
New term under state agreement TD2604	July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2031

The state’s April 8 package records that MTM Transit agreed the change would help the area. The council now plans the service, buys the transportation, and runs the contracts and money. It released a request for proposals for transit operations and management on April 7, 2026, with proposals due May 7 after an addendum, and its May 13 agenda describes a single proposal received. That day the council approved the ranking and authorized its director to negotiate and sign a contract with the top-ranked firm, MTM Transit, for door-to-door trips in all four counties and the deviated fixed route in Arcadia. Riders see the same operator under a new coordinator.

How riders use it

The rules below come from the service plan amended February 10, 2026, which the council said it would keep in place at its start:

• Booking. Riders call 1-800-260-0139, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at least 48 business hours ahead. Local trips book up to two weeks out and out-of-area trips up to 30 days.
• Hours. Weekdays 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., with limited Saturday service. Dialysis runs may start at 4 a.m.
• Who qualifies. A resident of the four counties with no other way to travel who is under 18 or over 60, has income at or below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines, or has a documented disability. Registration renews every two years.
• Fare. $2 each way for riders no agency sponsors, suspended as of March 2026.
• Longer trips. Rides to care outside the area, including Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, and Orange counties, run on set days, for morning appointments, grouped with other riders.

Highlands has no fixed-route bus, and the service plan puts 35.69% of its residents at 65 or older in 2020, against 20.68% statewide, so these vans are the county’s public transportation. The plan says the state’s per-trip and per-mile rates do not cover long out-of-area runs well. See long-distance medical transport for pricing those trips privately.

Highlands County in numbers

Fiscal 2024-25	Highlands
Total trips	59,075 of the four counties’ 115,195
Education, training, and day care trips	28,656
Medical trips	18,207
Trips paid by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities	13,101
Trips paid by the state Transportation Disadvantaged fund	9,739
Trips paid by the Medicaid agency	0
Trips by the coordination contractor	26,033
Vehicles and drivers	36 and 78
Cost per trip	$39.74
Unmet trip requests	332

The state trip and equipment grant awarded to the council for fiscal 2026-27 gives Highlands $398,606, including a $39,860 local match, out of $805,911 for the four counties (council agenda, August 5, 2026). Demand runs past that money. In the quarterly report to the board on April 15, 2026, 779 trip requests across the area were denied, 71% of them for lack of funding and 73% of them for medical trips, and 39% started in Sebring. MTM Transit’s on-time rate in Hardee, Highlands, and Okeechobee was 96.06% for January to March 2026, against a standard of 85%.

Where a private NEMT company fits in community transportation

As of September 30, 2026 the council had no open procurement, and its operations contract went to MTM Transit in May. The service plan still lets the coordinator contract more carriers, each approved by the Local Coordinating Board, with no promise of vehicles, hours, or trips, yearly renewals, and the right to rebid after any contract year. Carriers are paid by the trip at the rate in their contract.

What the plan asks of a contract carrier:

• Insurance. $500,000 combined single limit auto liability, $1 million general liability, and workers’ compensation at statutory limits. That is well above the state floor of $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident in the council’s state agreement. See NEMT insurance requirements.
• Lettering. COMMUNITY TRANSPORTATION in 2-inch block letters on the rear or both sides, PHONE 1-800-694-6566 beneath it, “Operated by” and your company name on both rear quarters, and a unit number on the back. The signs may be magnetic, but they must be up whenever you are on the way to a rider or carrying one.
• Spare vehicles. One backup vehicle for every six in service.
• Drivers. A Level 2 background check, first aid and CPR training, rural transit defensive driving, and no more than five points in two years. Phones are banned behind the wheel, hands-free included.
• Pay. The coordinator pays for trips from the 1st to the 15th and the 16th to month end, within seven days of your paperwork and its own funding. A payment late without good reason adds half a percent of the amount due for each day.

The plan also carries the coordinator’s approved rates under the state’s rate model: $52.13 per ambulatory trip and $89.37 per wheelchair trip, effective July 1, 2025. A carrier’s own pay is set in its contract.

Coordination contracts

An agency that runs its own vans for its own clients can hold a coordination contract instead. The service plan lists one in Highlands, Ridge Area ARC, and coordination contractors ran 26,033 of the county’s trips in fiscal 2024-25. The route fits an agency with clients and transportation money of its own, not a van company looking for trips.

What the new coordinator plans

The council’s March 2026 plan for the state lists goals for its first two years: vouchers for taxis, rideshare, or similar services to add hours and choices, on-demand zones, a service location in each county, and a new public name for the program. It owes the state a new service plan within 120 days of signing its agreement. Ask the planning organization at 863-534-7130 when the Local Coordinating Board will review it, and join the council’s procurement notice list on its RFPs page.

Trips you run under a Transportation Disadvantaged contract are exempt from the county certificate below, because section 5-54 excludes transportation contracted under chapter 427. Your other wheelchair and stretcher work in the county is covered by it.

The county certificate for wheelchair and stretcher companies

Highlands folds wheelchair and stretcher services into the same article of its code that governs ambulances. Section 5-62 covers any business that mainly carries people confined to wheelchairs or stretchers who do not need basic or advanced life support on the way, and section 5-55 names that service Class 1. The code’s only exemption aimed at outside companies covers out-of-state ambulances taking a patient out of state, and a Clearwater company renewed its Class 1 certificate on April 21, 2026, so plan on a certificate even if your base is in Polk or Hardee. The board’s 2026 certificates recite that each Class 1 applicant met sections 5-52 through 5-59, so the article’s general certificate rules apply along with section 5-62.

How to apply

1. Download the forms from Fire Rescue’s certificate page: the medical transport service application (check Class 1), the management information form, the personnel form, the certificate vehicles list, and one vehicle permit application for each van, with a photo of it.
2. Attach the paperwork. Articles of incorporation with shareholders and their shares, your radio license or communications contract, your station addresses, a certificate of insurance, a management plan, the area you will serve, facts showing the need for your service, your proposed fees, staffing and hours for each vehicle, and any investigation or formal disciplinary action by the Department of Health or another agency.
3. Prove your finances. Audited statements or federal tax returns (for a new corporation, the owners’ personal audited statements), pro forma statements, credit and bank references, a current credit report, and any pending liabilities.
4. Sign before a notary and file with Fire Rescue at 4506 Kenilworth Blvd., Sebring.
5. Pay the invoice. $500 for the application, the exact cost of the public notice, and $100 per vehicle, by check to the Highlands County Board of County Commissioners. Nothing is refunded.
6. Pass the vehicle inspection by the fire chief or a designee.
7. Attend the public hearing. The Deputy Chief presents your application to the board, which must approve or deny it within 75 days of filing.

The 2026 record shows the pace. The board approved a renewal on April 21, 2026, and a new application received in late April on July 7, 2026, each by unanimous roll call after an advertised hearing that drew no public comment. Each certificate runs two years, to April 21, 2028 and July 7, 2028, and each recites that the company will offer 24-hour service to all of Highlands County, so be ready to answer for your hours and coverage.

Insurance the county requires

Coverage on each vehicle (section 5-52)	Minimum
Injury or death of one person in one accident	$100,000
Injury or death of more than one person in one accident	$300,000
Property damage in one accident	$50,000

The same section asks every certificate holder for medical malpractice coverage of $100,000 for one person and $300,000 for one incident, so ask Fire Rescue how it reads for Class 1. Policies must name Highlands County as an additional insured, promise Fire Rescue 30 days’ notice of cancellation, and be filed with Fire Rescue before a certificate issues.

Vans, drivers, and records

Section 5-62 asks for a lift (electric, hydraulic, or mechanical), two latching points and a belt for each wheelchair, 50 inches of floor to ceiling height for wheelchair riders and 41 for stretchers, a quick-release litter fastener with two straps, a 5-pound ABC extinguisher, an inside mirror, and two-way contact with your base. Stretcher vans also need clean blankets, linen, or disposable sheets for each rider and an airtight compartment for soiled linen. During repairs, a like van can stand in for up to seven days. A longer swap needs written notice to the chief, and one of 30 days or more needs the chief’s approval.

Drivers need more than a clean license here. Each must be at least 18, swear to no addiction and no condition that could impair their driving, have no DUI or points suspension in the past three years, and hold a Florida license. On top of that, each needs an emergency vehicle operator course or an equivalent the Department of Health approves, a Red Cross or National Safety Council first aid card, and a Red Cross or American Heart Association CPR card. Test for drugs and alcohol before hiring and after any accident, plus unannounced tests of at least 10% of your drivers every quarter.

Keep a trip report for each rider with the time, origin, rider’s name, and destination for at least three years, along with personnel and vehicle files. Your ads must say plainly that you give no medical attention, and you may not use the word “ambulance” or the star of life on your vans or in your ads.

Renewals, changes, and selling

File a renewal at least 90 days before your certificate expires, with a count of your Highlands trip requests for the past year and any material changes, such as a bankruptcy, an enforcement action, or an investigation. A certificate cannot be sold or assigned. If a majority or controlling interest changes hands, the new owner applies from the start, so read buying a NEMT business before you price one here.

Medicaid rides in Highlands County

Highlands is in Medicaid Region D, with Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk. Under the state’s NEMT waiver for July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027, MTM Health arranges rides for members outside a plan, at 1-844-239-5974. The Medicaid agency paid for no community transportation trip in Highlands in fiscal 2024-25, so Medicaid work reaches you through the brokers.

Plan	Highlands members, August 31, 2026	Broker for its rides
Sunshine Health	7,693	Alivi
Simply Healthcare	2,803	Ride2MD
Humana Medical Plan	2,215	Modivcare
Aetna Better Health	1,749	Modivcare
UnitedHealthcare Community Plan	1,479	MTM Health, since March 1, 2026
Florida Community Care	241	Ride2MD

With 3 members in Molina and 2 in Community Care Plan, that is 16,185 in the main plans. Another 606 were in the Children’s Medical Services plan, and 890 were in long-term care plans. The waiver’s 2025 capacity tables listed 17 MTM network vehicles in Highlands (9 cab and 8 lift, no stretcher) and 17 Modivcare vehicles (13 ambulatory, 3 wheelchair, 1 stretcher). A Sunshine Health contract through Alivi reaches the most plan members, and stretcher capacity is the thinnest line in both networks.

What to do first in Highlands County

1. Call Fire Rescue at 863-402-7600 for the certificate packet and the current notice cost, and ask whether the malpractice line applies to Class 1.
2. Pick your base. The county repealed its business tax ordinance on July 24, 2006, so there is no county receipt. A base in Sebring (863-471-5100), Avon Park (863-452-4400), or Lake Placid (863-699-3747) may need the city’s or town’s. AHCA’s February 2026 enrollment policy asks transportation providers for a local license, and the board’s Class 1 certificate says it issues a license.
3. Price the insurance at the county minimums, and at $500,000 auto and $1 million general liability if you want community transportation work.
4. Enroll with Florida Medicaid and apply to Alivi, Ride2MD, Modivcare, and MTM Health.
5. Get on the council’s lists. Join its procurement mailing list and attend the Local Coordinating Board, which meets every three months in one of the four counties (Sebring on January 21, 2026) and will review the new service plan.

Polk County, to the north, is also in Region D and shares the planning council; see the Polk County page. Glades and Hendry, to the south, have their own board and coordinator; see Hendry and Glades. The service plan puts the average community transportation trip at 14.2 miles, and the area is rural outside Sebring and Avon Park, so read rural NEMT before you set your rates.