Cecil County Health Department Medical Transportation: Wheelchair Van and Ambulance Contracts (2027)

Cecil County’s Medicaid rides run through the Health Department in Elkton. Its Medical Assistance Transportation Program screens each request, gives every wheelchair van and ambulance trip a pre-authorization number, and hands the trip to one of several contracted companies at rates the Health Department sets in advance. In June 2026 it asked wheelchair van and ambulance companies to send an expression of interest for its fiscal 2027 contracts.

Who arranges Medicaid rides in Cecil County

Maryland funds Medicaid rides through grants to local health departments and Montgomery County’s transportation department, and under the state plan page CMS approved on May 20, 2026, each grantee screens riders and contracts for rides in its own area. MDH is also procuring one statewide NEMT dispatch and claims system, which the legislature’s 2026 budget analysis expects to finish in 2030, and the Maryland guide explains both.

Here the grant goes to the Cecil County Health Department at 401 Bow Street. Its Division of Administrative Services runs the Medical Assistance Transportation Program, which has an ambulatory side and a non-ambulatory side. As of October 2026 its page says rides run Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with limited evening and weekend hours. Both 2026 requests give 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. as the hours to call 410-996-5171 for an ambulance pre-authorization number, which goes only to a client with a current Medicaid card when the ambulance is medically necessary.

The ride contracts cover Medical Assistance recipients and certain other Health Department clients who need a ride to care Medical Assistance covers and have no other way to get there. The program is small next to Baltimore County’s. MDH’s October 2019 report to the legislature counted 22,075 paid trips in Cecil County in fiscal 2019, at an average program cost of $48.95 a trip, and $1,048.16 spent for each Medicaid member who used the program. It also counted 52 trip requests that Cecil County did not authorize that year. Baltimore County paid for 203,058 trips in the same year.

The 2026 wheelchair van and ambulance requests

On June 15, 2026, the Health Department posted two Requests for Expression of Interest on Cecil County’s e-Procurement Portal: REI-CCHD #2027-003 for wheelchair van transportation and REI-CCHD #2027-002 for ambulance transportation. The portal set a deadline of 5 p.m. on September 1, 2026 and closed both listings on September 10. Its closing note says the Health Department alone reviews the responses and decides who gets a contract.

The Health Department’s cover letters, dated June 15, 2026, treat recruiting as an ongoing process. They say the requests have no closing date, but no company can start driving until it signs a contract based on its response. Each contract is subject to three one-year renewals, and the Health Department may reject any response.

This is not one award to one company. The Health Department uses several providers and assigns each trip to whichever is available. Program staff or hospital staff phone or fax you the request with the rider’s name and address, the appointment time, the medical provider’s name and address, the Medicaid number, a phone number when there is one, and the pre-authorization number. You schedule the driver, and the program staff take problems from you or the rider. A response guarantees you no trips at all.

Who holds the contracts now

As of October 2026, the Health Department’s ambulance page names three contracted ambulance companies: GEM Ambulance, Keystone Ambulance, and Mid Atlantic Ambulance. The list does change. From October 2019 through October 2023 the same page named Urgent Ambulance Services, East Coast Ambulance Services, and Mid Atlantic Ambulance, and by March 2024 GEM and Keystone had replaced the first two.

The program’s pages name no wheelchair van contractors, and neither 2026 request asks for sedan or ambulatory companies. Before you pitch a sedan service, ask the program how it covers ambulatory riders today.

What the requests ask of you

• Your vehicles. List every vehicle you will use for the program.
• Your hours. If you cannot run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, list your hours on the form.
• Your area. Service must reach all of Cecil County, the greater Baltimore area, and Wilmington, Delaware. To serve less, list the ZIP codes you will cover.
• Licenses. Every vehicle, driver, and company must hold all the licenses local, state, and federal law require.
• Insurance. Send proof of bodily injury and property damage liability coverage with your response. See certificate of insurance.
• No smoking. Drivers may not smoke in the vehicle while carrying program clients.
• Civil rights terms. You agree to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, including affirmative action to hire and promote workers with disabilities.
• Minority firms. The Health Department encourages minority business enterprises to respond.

Wilmington trips cross a state line. Under federal rules, a company paid to carry passengers across a state line needs FMCSA operating authority in a vehicle of any size unless an exemption applies. Get it, or leave Delaware ZIP codes off your form. See DOT numbers for NEMT.

What a Cecil County trip pays

Both requests pay a fixed base rate for each trip plus $8.50 for each passenger mile. The rates are printed on the interest form you sign, so there is no price to bid. These are the fiscal 2027 rates in the June 2026 requests:

Service	Base rate per trip	Per passenger mile
Wheelchair van	$80.00	$8.50
Basic life support ambulance	$300.00	$8.50
Advanced life support ambulance	$408.00	$8.50
Critical care transport	$1,000.00	$8.50

At these rates, a wheelchair van trip with one rider aboard for 10 miles pays $80 plus 10 times $8.50, or $165. Mileage counts passenger miles, the miles you drive with the rider on board, so the drive out to the pickup is yours to cover. See loaded miles. Ask the program how it counts miles when two riders share a van. For what the vehicle itself costs and needs, see wheelchair vans for NEMT.

How a Cecil County trip gets authorized

Every trip needs a pre-authorization number, and the wheelchair van form says all trips require prior authorization. For ambulance trips, the 2026 requests and the ambulance page set out these steps:

1. The call. The medical facility or the rider calls the program at 410-996-5171 between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a pre-authorization number.
2. The form. The facility completes the Physician’s Certification for Medical Transportation, signed by a licensed physician certifying the ambulance is medically necessary, and faxes it to 410-996-1020 with a contact name and a phone or fax number.
3. Evenings and weekends. The facility faxes the signed form, and the authorization comes on the next business day.
4. Your number. The authorization number comes with the trip request, and the ambulance company must have it to be paid.

Three rules protect your payment, so check them before you roll:

• A trip without approval is the requester’s bill, not the program’s.
• A trip not authorized within 30 days of the transport is not considered for payment.
• When a rider also has Medicare and Medicare denies the transport, the program allows another 30 days from the date of the Medicare denial letter.

The Health Department’s copy of the statewide transfer and discharge form, revised July 2018, adds an after-hours number, 410-920-4167. It also asks whether the rider is in a skilled nursing facility under a Medicare Part A stay, because the program checks whether Medicare covers that trip before it schedules one. See prior authorization and medical necessity forms.

How you bill and get paid

The 2026 requests set the same billing rules for wheelchair vans and ambulances:

• When. Invoice by the 10th working day of each month for the month before.
• On what. Use the CMS-1500, which the requests call the HCFA 1500, with the rider’s name, the date of transport, the authorization number, the mileage, the cost, and your company’s name, address, and federal tax ID. See the CMS-1500 for NEMT.
• With what. Attach a copy of the trip run sheet, or the ambulance run sheet for an ambulance trip.
• Who pays. The program checks each invoice and forwards it to the State, which pays about 30 days from the invoice date.
• The cutoff. Invoices received more than six months after the transport are not paid.

How to get Cecil County trips

1. Get licensed first. The requests say every vehicle, driver, and company must hold all required licenses, and the Maryland guide covers PSC authority for wheelchair vans and MIEMSS licensing for ambulances.
2. Fill in the right form. The wheelchair van form and the ambulance form each print the fixed rates and ask for your company’s name, address, phone, fax, federal ID number, an authorized signature, and any limits on your service. Add your vehicle list and proof of insurance.
3. Email it. Send it to cchd.procurement@maryland.gov, addressed to the Health Department’s procurement officer, and call 443-245-3751 with questions. The portal deadline was September 1, 2026, so ask whether a late response will still be reviewed.
4. Sign before you drive. No trips start until a contract is signed, and a contract promises no volume.
5. Be the company that answers. Trips go to whichever company is available when program or hospital staff call or fax, so answer both quickly and list on your form any hours you cannot cover.
6. Follow the county portal. Cecil County posts Health Department solicitations on its e-Procurement Portal, where an account lets you subscribe to notices of new ones and follow a listing for its addenda. The 2026 requests carried a fiscal 2027 label. See government NEMT contracts.