NET Transportation in Franklin County, Ohio: The County Ride Contract and Per-Mile Rates (2027)

Franklin County, home to Columbus, does not hand its county Medicaid rides to one vendor or to a broker. Job and Family Services (FCDJFS) takes each request itself and sends the ride to one of dozens of companies on a county contract that pays by the mile. That same contract carries riders for three other county agencies, so one award opens several lines of work at once.

Who arranges NET rides in Franklin County

Ohio counties run their own NET programs under rule 5160-15-10, while health plans cover wheelchair van rides and longer trips through their brokers. The Ohio guide covers that split, and county NET contracts in Ohio compares how counties buy rides.

Here the office is the FCDJFS Transportation Unit, on 614-233-2381, open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. except county holidays. Rides are for Medicaid eligible county residents who have no way to reach a medical appointment, and every doctor and facility must be a Medicaid provider. Riders call at least 24 hours before the appointment, and the same number takes after-hours and weekend bookings with that notice.

The rider side shapes your day. The county asks riders to be ready one hour before the appointment, and the driver goes only where the county’s dispatcher sends them. At drop-off, the driver hands the rider a return slip, and the rider calls the number on it to summon a cab home or to the next appointment, so the ride home works as a will-call trip.

The county contract that carries the rides

Franklin County buys these rides through Consolidated County Transportation Services (Lift, Non-Lift and Escort), a contract its Purchasing Department runs for four agencies: Job and Family Services, the Office on Aging, the Veterans Service Commission, and the Office of Justice Policy and Programs. The county’s 2018 bid specifications list FCDJFS Non-Emergency Medical Transportation, lift and non-lift, as one of the services it covers.

The current round, in order:

1. August 10, 2023. Purchasing opened proposals under RFP 2023-02-05.
2. January 9, 2024. The commissioners awarded contracts to 43 companies (Resolution 0027-24), estimated at $25,000,000, for February 1, 2024 to January 31, 2026.
3. November 18, 2025. They raised the ceiling to $34,232,250 for the 30 companies still active (Resolution 0847-25).
4. February 17, 2026. They extended 29 companies from March 1, 2026 to January 31, 2028, with a 2% rate increase and a ceiling of $39,380,000 (Resolution 0109-26). One more one-year option remains.

The 2024 resolution says the number of referrals each company gets depends on client need, client choice, and the company’s service cost. Every company bid its own rate, and the 2024 and 2026 resolutions list every company’s rate.

Service	Unit	Rates, February 2024	Rates from March 1, 2026
Non-lift (car, minivan, or a rider who transfers)	Per mile	$5.90 to $8.00, most often $6.45	$6.02 to $8.16, most often $6.58
Lift (wheelchair van)	Per mile	$8.50 to $12.00, most often $9.65	$8.67 to $10.71, most often $9.84
Escort	Per hour	$40.00 to $50.00	$40.80 to $51.00

In the 2018 specifications, one unit of NET service was one mile, and FCDJFS used no escort service. Of the 29 companies extended in 2026, 11 have taxi or cab in their names, and 16 bid a lift rate. See NEMT mileage billing for how per-mile work adds up.

What the county asks of ride companies

The county’s 2018 bid specifications, for bids due October 30, 2018, set the terms below. Ask Purchasing for the current specifications before the next bid, since terms can change between rounds.

To bid at all

• A business registered and in good standing with the Ohio Secretary of State, already running paid rides in central Ohio.
• At least three years of business history and three years of general liability coverage with no lapse.
• A physical office in central Ohio, a phone line for ride requests, and a second number for the county.
• A Bureau of Workers’ Compensation certificate and a signed business associate agreement for rider privacy.
• Sixty days’ written notice to Purchasing before any change in name, ownership, or tax ID, or a sale.

To run FCDJFS rides

• Service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in every Franklin County ZIP code. Out-of-county trips are not paid at bid rates and are negotiated one by one.
• No pickup more than one hour before the appointment, and drop-off at least 10 minutes before it.
• No rider on board more than one hour, and a return pickup within one hour of the rider’s call.
• Prompt service for same-day requests, and a phone number that riders on the county’s will-call list, such as people prone to asthma attacks, can call directly when FCDJFS is closed.
• A service ticket signed by the rider for every trip, and records kept six years.

A substantiated late first pickup could cost $50, and failing to bring a rider home could cost $250 and the contract. The county could also refuse to pay for a trip after a substantiated complaint.

Drivers and vehicles

Non-lift drivers had to hold a City of Columbus taxicab or livery driver license. Lift drivers had to meet the state ambulette driver rules, and lift vans needed their yearly state inspection. Other vehicles needed a yearly inspection by a certified mechanic or the State Highway Patrol. Every vehicle needed a documented daily check, your company name on both sides, a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, a biohazard kit, and a seatbelt cutter. The state’s vendor screening under rule 5160-15-14 applies to every county ride company.

The City of Columbus License Section at 4252 Groves Road issues vehicle for hire licenses, open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Its forms dated August 27, 2026 list these costs:

License	Fee	What you also need
Owner license, taxicab or livery	$225, plus $20 application and $32 BCI check, on an application that lists one vehicle	Mechanical inspection within 60 days, Livery/Limo registration with the BMV for livery vehicles, business name registered with the state
Owner insurance	$300,000 minimum for a taxicab, with a separate minimum for livery vehicles on the form	The License Section named as certificate holder
Driver license	$35, plus $20 application and $32 BCI check	Six months of driving, a certified BMV abstract dated within 30 days

Children’s day treatment rides

The county also funds rides for Medicaid eligible youth in St. Vincent Family Center’s day treatment programs, through subawards to the center. The commissioners approved $800,000 for that transportation on July 30, 2024, and $600,000 on September 23, 2025. A company that wants that work talks to St. Vincent Family Center, not to Purchasing. See behavioral health transportation.

How to get Franklin County NET work

1. Register as a county vendor. Purchasing builds each bid’s notice list from registered vendors’ NAICS codes, so list every transportation code that fits you.
2. Sign up for JFS email updates on the county’s Additional RFPs and Opportunities page.
3. Watch for the next bid. It will appear on the Purchasing bid page and in the Columbus Dispatch. The extension ends January 31, 2028, and the one-year option would carry it to January 31, 2029. The last round opened proposals about six months before its contracts began.
4. Build what the bid will ask for. Three years of history, unbroken general liability coverage, a central Ohio office, and your Columbus or ambulette licenses take time, so start them now.
5. Price by the mile. Your bid is a per-mile rate with no base fare in the rate table, so know your cost per mile before you bid. If you run cabs already, see adding NEMT to a taxi business.
6. Take plan and wheelchair work meanwhile. Health plan brokers and Ohio Medicaid’s wheelchair van enrollment are open outside the county bid, as the Ohio guide explains.

Other large Ohio counties buy rides differently. Hamilton County pays two companies a flat rate per trip, and Cuyahoga County uses one vendor.