Prince George's County Medical Assistance Transportation: How the Health Department Buys Rides (2027)

The Prince George’s County Health Department arranges Medicaid rides for county residents through its Non-Emergency Medical Assistance Transportation (NEMT) Program. Program staff screen each rider and each appointment, then send the trip to a company the county has under contract for sedan, wheelchair, or ambulance service. For a ride company, the way in is a county contract, and most van trips in the county also need authority from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Commission (WMATC).

Who runs Medical Assistance Transportation in Prince George’s County

Maryland pays for Medicaid rides through grants to its local health departments and Montgomery County’s transportation department, under a state plan page CMS approved on May 20, 2026, effective January 1, 2026. The Maryland guide explains that grant system and MDH’s plan for one statewide NEMT dispatching and claims system, which the legislature’s 2026 budget analysis expects to finish in 2030.

In Prince George’s County, the grantee is the county Health Department, and the NEMT Program sits in its medical assistance services. As of May 2026, its page says:

• Who qualifies. County residents with a valid Medical Assistance card who have no other way to reach a Medicaid-covered medical appointment. New riders go through a full screening, and current riders are screened again from time to time.
• How riders apply. By phone at 301-856-9555, weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each rider gives a copy of the Medicaid card and a signed HIPAA form, and the program gets a primary care physician’s certification after screening.
• How far ahead. At least 24 hours before the appointment. Rides are not guaranteed, except for riders just discharged from the hospital.
• Long trips. Appointments more than 30 miles from home may need an out-of-area physician referral first.
• Checks on every trip. Staff verify the appointment before scheduling and check it again afterward.

The program does not cover emergencies, rides to workshops or day care programs, visits, non-medical errands, services Medicaid does not pay for, or travel in severe weather it judges unsafe. There is no fee to the rider.

How many rides the county buys

MDH’s October 2019 report to the legislature’s budget committees tracked each local program. Prince George’s County ran the fourth most paid trips in Maryland in fiscal 2019, behind Baltimore County, Harford County, and Montgomery County.

Fiscal year	Paid trips	Average cost per trip	Requests not approved
2017	72,032	$45.50	1,044
2018	72,447	$47.74	629
2019	73,678	$50.35	575

The average cost comes from the program’s total costs, so it is not a vendor rate. The county turned down more trip requests than any other Maryland program in fiscal 2017 and 2018, and only St. Mary’s County turned down more in fiscal 2019.

The county budget shows the money behind those rides. Its FY2026 approved operating budget lists the Health Department’s General Medical Assistance Transportation grant at $4,529,800, after $4,201,689 spent in FY2024. For FY2025 the grant was budgeted at $4,630,400, with $3,315,200 estimated spent. The grant also carries 13 full-time positions in FY2026, and the budget describes these Medical Assistance grants as paying for transportation to medical appointments for Medical Assistance recipients.

A 2016 study posted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments gives an older picture of the mix. In fiscal 2015 the county reported 134,665 one-way Medicaid trips: 114,458 by taxi, 17,737 by wheelchair van, 1,841 by ambulance, 1,109 by ambulatory van, and 20 by accessible taxi. At the time the Health Department used taxis, two wheelchair van companies, and one ambulance company, and it ran two vans of its own. That study counted one-way trips, while MDH’s report counts paid trips, so use it for the mix of ride types rather than the total.

How the Health Department picks its ride companies

The NEMT page says rides come from contracted vendors for sedan, wheelchair, and ambulance service, so a company gets these trips only through a contract. The 2016 regional study described the method then: the county issued a request for proposals, and only companies that met the technical requirements went on to submit prices. The county’s procurement FAQ calls that method a multi-step bid: technical submissions are judged first, only bidders that pass have their prices considered, and the award goes to the lowest responsive, responsible price.

The county’s contract list as of March 2022 carried a Medical Assistance Transportation contract among its county government contracts: S17-013, with Silver Cab Co. of P.G. County, from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022. That list dates from 2022, so ask the Health Department which contracts are in force now and when they end.

Prince George’s County buys through the Office of Procurement’s SAP Ariba system, and vendor registration is required to do business with the county. As of 2026, registration works like this:

1. Request an invitation on the county’s supplier registration form with your company’s basic details.
2. Create an SAP Business Network account from the invitation email.
3. Complete the supplier questionnaire with your legal name, email, and phone exactly as they appear on your business documents, plus your EIN and banking details for payment.
4. Wait for approval from the county’s Vendor Registration Administrator.
5. Receive your county vendor ID by email once approved.

Some Maryland health departments post ride bids on eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA) instead, as Washington County did in April 2026, so register there too. To learn who holds the current contracts, file a request under the Maryland Public Information Act for the NEMT vendor contracts, their terms, their rates, and their end dates. The custodian must grant or deny it within 30 days. If producing the records will take more than 10 working days, the custodian must tell you so in writing within those 10 working days. See government NEMT contracts for how public bids are built.

Licenses for Prince George’s County trips

WMATC authority

WMATC’s district covers all of Prince George’s County, along with DC, Montgomery County, Arlington and Fairfax counties, Alexandria, Falls Church, and Dulles Airport. A paid trip with both ends inside it needs a WMATC certificate, so a ride from Largo to a Bowie clinic, or from Oxon Hill to a hospital in DC, needs one. Two exceptions matter here:

• Ambulances. WMATC does not assert jurisdiction over ambulance service.
• Taxicabs. Taxicabs and other vehicles giving bona fide taxicab service, seating 9 or fewer including the driver, need no certificate.

A company that runs even some trips needing a certificate must hold one, and WMATC presumes the whole fleet falls under it unless you show the fleet is partitioned. The Montgomery County page walks through WMATC’s application, fees, and insurance.

Maryland authority and ambulance licenses

You usually also need Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) carrier authority and for-hire licenses for your drivers, as the Maryland guide explains. Ambulance trips need a license from MIEMSS’s State Office of Commercial Ambulance Licensing and Regulation.

Stretcher vans work differently here than in most of Maryland. A 1995 Attorney General opinion found that stretcher van service is generally ambulance service under MIEMSS, but that in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties it falls outside MIEMSS to the extent WMATC regulates it. See stretcher van before you buy one for county work.

What to do first

1. Call the NEMT Program at 301-856-9555. Ask which ride types it buys from outside companies now, who holds each contract, and when each one ends.
2. Register as a county vendor in SAP Ariba, and on eMMA, well before any bid opens.
3. File a Public Information Act request for the current NEMT vendor contracts, rates, and end dates.
4. Get WMATC and PSC authority before you bid, since most van trips in the county start and end inside WMATC’s district.
5. Ask about discharge trips. Hospital discharges are the one trip the program guarantees, so ask how it books them and which vendors take them. See hospital discharge transportation.

Neighboring programs buy rides another way. Montgomery County offers one standard contract to every company that qualifies, and Baltimore City assigns each rider to one of its contracted companies.