Charles County Medical Assistance Transportation: One Health Department Contract for Every Ride Type (2027)

The Charles County Department of Health does not drive Medical Assistance rides itself. Its Medical Assistance Transportation program screens each request and hands the approved trips to one primary contractor, picked by request for proposals, which has to cover everything from a shared ambulatory ride to a critical care ambulance transfer. A second company may be named as a backup. The whole arrangement sits in one public bid document, so you can read exactly what the county expects before you decide to chase it.

Maryland funds Medicaid rides through grants to each local health department and to Montgomery County’s transportation department, under state plan amendment 26-0002 (approved May 20, 2026, effective January 1, 2026), and each grantee screens every request in its area. MDH is also buying one statewide dispatch and claims system, which the legislature’s 2026 budget analysis expects to finish in 2030, and the Maryland guide covers the grant rules and that plan.

Who books Medical Assistance rides in Charles County

The program works out of the Health Department at 4545 Crain Highway in White Plains. Screeners answer 301-609-6923 and 301-609-6933 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, and the program’s fax is 301-609-6730. As of October 2026, its page offers ambulatory, wheelchair van, and ambulance service, with ambulatory and wheelchair rides running weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Saturdays for kidney dialysis only.

The program calls itself last resort transportation, and its rider rules shape your day:

• Who qualifies. A rider lives in Charles County, has Maryland Medicaid, has no vehicle registered in their name, and has no other way to travel. A physician completes the certification form at least once a year.
• The ¾ mile rule. A rider who lives within ¾ of a mile of a public transit route, or who qualifies for ADA paratransit, rides only if the doctor certifies they cannot use it.
• Booking. Riders call at least two business days ahead and no more than a week ahead. The rider packet says same-day rides are not provided.
• Destinations. The packet lists medical appointments in Charles County and at hospitals and clinics in Washington, DC, and Baltimore.
• Ready times. Riders must be ready 60 minutes before a local appointment and 2 hours before an out-of-county one, and drivers do not come to the door.
• No-shows. A rider who cancels less than 2 hours before pickup is a no-show. After more than three, the rider must also confirm each ride by 2:00 p.m. on the business day before, or it is canceled.

Hospitals use a separate statewide transfer and discharge form, and the regular certification form is marked not for hospital discharges or transfers. The rider packet linked from the program page, last revised in February 2024, still names All American Ambulance & Transport Services (AAA) as the carrier, with a dispatch line of 301-952-1193 for ride checks and cancellations. The 2017 packet named the same company. Ask the program which company holds the contract that started July 1, 2025.

What the trips look like

The 2025 bid prints the Health Department’s own counts. In fiscal 2024 it bought 6,130 trips for 485 riders, covering 128,009 miles, or about 21 miles a trip. That is far below the 16,657 trips the 2022 bid counted for fiscal 2020, a year the Department said COVID-19 may already have held down.

Ambulatory trips grew between fiscal 2023 and 2024 while wheelchair trips nearly halved, and ambulance trips were about one in thirteen:

Ride type	Trips FY2023	Trips FY2024	Miles FY2024
Ambulatory	3,765	4,659	84,038
Wheelchair	1,875	996	29,028
Ambulance, basic	541	442	13,407
Ambulance, advanced life support	35	32	1,510
Ambulance, critical care	5	1	26

Wheelchair trips averaged about 29 miles each in fiscal 2024 and ambulatory trips about 18. Costs per trip have run high here before: MDH’s 2019 report to the legislature put the county’s average program cost at $99.24 a trip in fiscal 2019, second only to Baltimore City among Maryland’s 24 local programs, and Baltimore City’s figure included air ambulance.

How the 2025 bid worked

The Health Department issued RFP CCDOH 2026-01 on June 2, 2025, took proposals by email until 5:00 p.m. on June 16, 2025, and planned to award by July 1. Bidders had two weeks. The 2022 bid ran on nearly the same calendar, issued June 3 and due June 17, 2022. Answers to questions come as addenda on the Health Department’s website, and each bidder must watch for them and acknowledge every one.

The contract runs two years from July 1, 2025, with one optional renewal year, and each year depends on state funds. If the Department uses the renewal, the term ends June 30, 2028. The 2022 contract started July 1, 2022 on the same two-plus-one terms, and its successor was set to start three years later.

Who can bid

• Every mode. The contractor must be able to provide ambulatory, wheelchair, bariatric wheelchair, basic and advanced life support ambulance, specialty care ambulance, and bariatric ambulance rides. It, or a qualified subcontractor, must hold a Maryland commercial ambulance license under COMAR 30.09.
• Five years in business.
• A Charles County office with workspace, access to records, and a computer for the Department’s contract monitor, who inspects operations and the fleet there twice a year. Your dispatch office must be in Maryland.
• Medicaid enrollment for ambulance work. Any contractor providing ambulance service must be enrolled as a Maryland Medicaid provider.
• Paperwork. Three current reference letters and good standing with SDAT, the State Department of Assessments and Taxation.

A van company that cannot meet all of that can still reach these riders as a subcontractor. The bid asks for subcontractors to be named in the proposal, and none may drive without the Department’s written approval first. See subcontracting NEMT trips.

How proposals are scored

The technical proposal is worth 80 points: organization, staffing, and vehicles 18, a narrative showing you meet every requirement 18, responsiveness 16, current licenses 14, and references 14. Only proposals that earn at least 70% of the technical points have their prices opened. The lowest price gets all 20 price points, and higher prices get a prorated share. The firm with the highest technical rating becomes the primary contractor, and the second may get a contract as the backup if the primary fails to perform.

Insurance

Before signing, the contractor buys these from insurers licensed in Maryland:

• Business auto liability. $1 million, covering owned, non-owned, and hired vehicles.
• Commercial general liability. $1 million per occurrence.
• Workers’ compensation. Statutory limits.

The certificate names the Health Department as additional insured, promises 30 days’ notice of cancellation or a material change, and carries a two-year extended reporting provision. See NEMT insurance requirements.

How you get paid

Pricing is by mode, with a base rate and a per-mile rate. The price form asks for local and long distance per-mile rates for sedan, wheelchair, and each ambulance level, plus a multiple ride fare charged per rider when two or more share a vehicle. Time is not paid, no-shows are not paid, a cancellation received before the vehicle arrives is not paid, and added riders on a shared ride carry no mileage. Attendants, and a guardian riding with a child who has the appointment, are not charged. See NEMT mileage billing.

Invoices are due by the 10th of each month for the month before. Payment comes by electronic funds transfer from the Maryland Comptroller, which needs its X-10 registration form, and the contract says payment usually arrives 3 to 4 weeks after the invoice. The bid also attaches Maryland’s Living Wage affidavit, which applies to state service contracts of $100,000 or more. Charles County is a Tier 2 area, where the living wage from September 29, 2026 is $15.00 an hour.

Running the contract day to day

The Health Department screens and schedules from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and sends the next day’s manifest by secure email by 11:00 a.m. the day before. You are also expected to take urgent same-day requests within reason, even though the rider packet tells riders not to expect them.

After 4:30 p.m., and whenever the office is closed, hospitals call you directly for discharges and transfers. You need screening and dispatch around the clock, must provide ambulance and wheelchair rides within 2 hours of the call, and must report each after-hours trip with its paperwork within 24 hours. The Department then rescreens the trip and approves or denies payment, so check Medicaid eligibility before you roll. See hospital discharge transportation.

Other rules in the 2025 bid:

• Hours. Scheduled rides run 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and on occasional Sundays and holidays when dialysis centers and other facilities are open. Discharges from facilities in Charles County run 24 hours a day, every day.
• Pickup windows. Arrive no more than 60 minutes before the appointment for a trip inside the county and no more than 90 minutes before for one outside it, unless the drive takes longer. Pick riders up for the return within 60 minutes of the scheduled time in the county and 90 minutes outside it.
• No-shows. Wait at least 7 minutes before you leave.
• Severe weather. File a plan for getting dialysis and chemotherapy patients through snow, ice, sleet, and freezing rain. See dialysis transportation.
• Incidents. Report incidents and accidents within 24 hours, with the police report number and every passenger’s name.

Drivers and crews need at least American Red Cross basic first aid and CPR, proven within 60 days of award, plus MVA and criminal background checks repeated at least yearly and substance abuse screening. Vehicles show your company name and vehicle number, carry two-way radios or an equivalent, and keep manifests out of riders’ sight, and the contract monitor may inspect any vehicle without notice.

Licenses for Charles County trips

• Ambulance. Commercial ambulance licenses come from MIEMSS’s State Office of Commercial Ambulance Licensing and Regulation, 410-706-8511.
• Vans and sedans. You usually need Maryland PSC carrier authority, and your drivers need PSC for-hire licenses. As of October 2026, Charles County is also one of the few places where the PSC regulates taxicabs and licenses taxicab drivers. See the Maryland guide and the PSC for-hire driver’s license guide.
• WMATC. WMATC covers a paid trip only when both ends are inside its district, and Charles County is outside it, so a ride from Waldorf to a DC hospital falls outside its jurisdiction. A wheelchair van trip with both ends inside the district, such as a transfer from a DC hospital to a Prince George’s County facility, does need a WMATC certificate, while ambulance service falls outside WMATC’s jurisdiction. The Prince George’s County page explains WMATC authority.
• Crossing into DC. Rides to DC hospitals cross a state line. Read whether NEMT companies need a USDOT number before you take them.

What to do first

1. Call the program at 301-609-6923. Ask which company holds the contract that started July 1, 2025, whether a backup contractor was named, and whether the Department expects to use the renewal year.
2. Call the contract monitor named in the 2025 bid, at 301-609-6872. Ask whether the primary contractor uses subcontractors and which ride types run short, especially wheelchair and after-hours discharges.
3. Watch the Request for Proposals page each spring. Both recent bids opened in early June and closed two weeks later, so draft your technical narrative before the next posting.
4. File a Maryland Public Information Act request for the 2025 award, the winning price proposal, and the signed contract.
5. Build your file now. Gather SDAT good standing, three reference letters, insurance quotes at the bid’s limits, the Comptroller’s EFT form, and first aid and CPR cards for every driver. The bid or no-bid checklist and the government NEMT contracts guide help you decide whether to pursue it.