Lost and Found Log for NEMT Vans: Phones, Mobility Aids, and Medicine Left Behind

Riders leave things in vans every week: phones, canes, glasses, pill bottles, discharge papers, and now and then a walker or an oxygen tank. Some of those items cannot wait until tomorrow, and some carry a rider’s health information. This log follows each item from the van floor to the person who took it back, and the sections under it explain the privacy, medicine, broker, and state rules behind each step.

How to use this template

1. Check every seat and the floor after each drop-off. The after-each-rider list in the vehicle cleaning checklist includes a floor check for anything left behind. An item spotted at the curb can often go back before the rider is through the door.
2. Log the item before the shift ends. Write it in Part 1 with the van, the spot, and the time. Savannah, Georgia gives drivers 12 hours to report found property and deliver it to the company office (City Code section 6-2048), which makes a good rule anywhere.
3. Match it to a trip. Use the daily manifest or the trip record to find the rider who most likely sat in that spot.
4. Sort it by the urgency key under Part 1. A wheelchair, walker, oxygen tank, medicine, or set of keys gets a call right away. Everything else gets a call the same day.
5. Have the office make the call, not the driver. MTM Health’s Rhode Island handbook (updated July 1, 2026) bars drivers from contacting members, their families, or their escorts for any purpose other than completing the trip. On a voicemail, leave only the company name, a phone number, and a request to call back, as HHS suggests for health care providers (FAQ 198, last reviewed December 28, 2022).
6. Give it back only to the rider or a person the rider names. Write the name, the date, and how it went back in Part 2, and get a signature or the staff member’s initials.
7. Never bill the return drive. CMS says miles driven with no Medicaid beneficiary on board generally cannot be paid (SMD 23-006, September 28, 2023). Return the item on the rider’s next ride with you, hold it at the office for pickup, or deliver it at your own cost.
8. Close out unclaimed items in Part 3. Set the hold date from your state and city rules below, and keep the log with your dispatch records.

The template

Part 1: Items found

No.	Date and time found	Van and spot (seat, floor, lift)	Item and description	Likely rider and trip (date, trip number)	Found by	Urgency	Kept where

Urgency key: 1, call now: wheelchair, walker, cane, oxygen, breathing machine or other medical device, medicine, keys. 2, call today: phone, wallet, ID card, cash, bag, glasses, hearing aid, dentures, papers with health information. 3, call by the next business day: clothing, umbrella, food containers, other.

Kept where: L for the locked drawer (medicine, papers, phones, wallets, cash, ID cards) or S for the office shelf. Never leave medicine, a phone, or an oxygen tank in a parked van.

Part 2: Contact and return

No.	Calls to the rider (date, time, by whom, result)	Who may collect it (named by the rider)	Returned how (next ride, office pickup, delivery)	Returned to (name and relationship)	Date and time returned	Signature or staff initials

Part 3: Items no one claimed

No.	Hold until (date)	Last call or letter (date)	Turned over to (police, sheriff, other) and receipt number	Final step and date	Two sets of initials

Medicine and papers with health information never go in the trash. See the sections below for where they go.

Part 4: Locked drawer check (once a week)

Date	Items in the drawer	Matches Parts 1 and 2 (yes or no)	Problem found and what was done	Checked by

Medicine, papers, and rider privacy

A pill bottle shows the rider’s name, the drug, and the prescriber. Discharge papers, lab results, appointment cards, and a dialysis schedule say even more. Treat each one as protected health information, whether or not anyone asks.

• Lock it up. If your company is a HIPAA covered entity, 45 CFR 164.530(c) requires appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, and reasonable safeguards against any use or disclosure the rules do not allow, intentional or not. A locked drawer, a short list of staff with the key, and the weekly check in Part 4 are those safeguards. Whether you are a covered entity or a broker’s business associate is explained in HIPAA for NEMT providers.
• Hand it only to the right person. A covered entity may share information with a family member, a close friend, or any other person the rider identifies, limited to what bears on that person’s part in the rider’s care. When the rider is present, get the rider’s agreement or a chance to object. When the rider is not, professional judgment may allow a person to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies, X-rays, or similar items for the rider (45 CFR 164.510(b)).
• Fix a wrong handoff fast. A pill bottle or discharge packet given to the wrong rider is a disclosure the rules do not allow. It is presumed a breach unless a risk assessment shows a low probability that the information was compromised (45 CFR 164.402). Get it back, then record it in the HIPAA breach log.
• Never throw papers away whole. HHS says covered entities may not dispose of health information in dumpsters or other containers the public can reach, and it names shredding as a proper method for paper (FAQ 575, last reviewed November 6, 2015). Unclaimed discharge papers and appointment slips go through the shredder, never the trash.

Broker contracts carry the same duty. MTM Health’s Rhode Island handbook (July 1, 2026) requires drivers to keep members’ health information out of other passengers’ view.

Controlled medicine: return it, never dispose of it

Opioid pain pills and other controlled medicines carry federal limits on who may take them for disposal. Only two groups may collect controlled substances from patients for destruction: DEA-registered collectors and law enforcement acting in its official duties (21 CFR 1317.30). Collectors are registered manufacturers, distributors, reverse distributors, narcotic treatment programs, hospitals and clinics with an on-site pharmacy, and retail pharmacies (21 CFR 1300.01). A van company is none of these.

1. Return it to the rider or the caregiver. Use Part 2 the same way as for any other item.
2. If the rider says “just throw it out,” say you cannot. Point the rider to a take-back location instead. FDA calls a take-back location or a prepaid mail-back envelope the best way to get rid of unused medicine. Take-back sites can be retail, hospital, or clinic pharmacies or law enforcement facilities, and they accept controlled medicine. FDA also tells people to scratch out personal information on the label first (page current as of October 31, 2024). The DEA’s year-round location search is in the resources below.
3. If no one claims it by the hold date, call your local police department and ask how it takes found medicine. Law enforcement may collect controlled substances through take-back events, mail-back programs, or collection receptacles inside its own building (21 CFR 1317.35).

Some medicine cannot sit in a hot van. FDA says insulin is best kept refrigerated at about 36°F to 46°F, can stay unrefrigerated at 59°F to 86°F for up to 28 days and keep working, and loses strength the longer it is exposed to extreme heat or cold. Frozen insulin should not be used (page current as of September 28, 2026). Bring it into the office, keep it at room temperature and out of the sun, and tell the rider how long it sat in the van so they can ask their pharmacist.

Wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen

A rider without a walker or wheelchair may be stuck at home or at the clinic, so these items go back the same day, often on a separate drive you pay for. Call before you send anyone, so the rider is there to take it.

• Mobility devices. MTM Health’s Virginia handbook (approved August 10, 2026) makes members responsible for all personal items they bring into a vehicle, including mobility devices, medication, documents, purses, and bags. A rider’s responsibility does not change what you do once the item is in your hands.
• Oxygen. A tank left behind comes into the office until it goes back. Keep it out of closed boxes and small closets, and at least 6 feet from space heaters, candles, and any other fire source, as MedlinePlus advises oxygen users (reviewed January 14, 2026). How to carry and secure tanks on a ride is in transporting riders with oxygen.

What brokers say about riders’ belongings

Broker rules settle who is responsible during the ride. None of the manuals below sets a return procedure, so this log fills that gap.

• Drivers are not responsible. MTM Health’s standard agreement (January 1, 2023, as Pennsylvania posts it) says drivers and attendants do not accept responsibility for members’ personal items, and a sign inside the vehicle must say so (section 3.P). Georgia’s NEMT manual says drivers and attendants are not responsible for passengers’ personal items (section 907.17, October 1, 2026). Modivcare’s Mississippi manual (February 2024) says the same, and adds that drivers make sure packages are safely stored before the vehicle moves. In Texas, drivers stow mobility aids and folding wheelchairs, but not a member’s personal items (Uniform Managed Care Manual 16.4, effective August 1, 2021).
• Drivers are responsible during the ride. MTM Health’s Rhode Island handbook (July 1, 2026) makes drivers responsible for passengers’ personal items during transit.
• Riders keep track of their own things. CareOregon’s manual (version 1.3, February 2024) asks members not to leave items in the vehicle between trips, and Virginia’s MTM handbook lists the same duty.

Post the personal items notice your broker requires, as the passenger conduct policy shows. A notice still does not let you keep or toss an item once your driver has it. In California, anyone who takes charge of a found item becomes a depositary for the owner, must tell a known owner within a reasonable time, and must return it without charge beyond a reasonable cost of saving and caring for it (Civil Code 2080).

When a rider says an item was stolen, it is no longer a lost and found matter. Georgia’s manual counts theft as an incident, and the broker must report every incident to the state as soon as it learns of it (sections 920.9 and 920.10). Log it in the complaint log, fill out an incident report, and follow how to handle rider complaints filed with a broker.

When no one claims an item

Finder rules differ by state and city. In the three examples below, an item no one claims either goes to the police, who hold it for 90 days, or stays with your company for at least 60 days. Check your own state’s code and any city ordinance that licenses NEMT vans before you set the hold date in Part 3.

Place	What the rule requires	How long it is held
California	Unclaimed items worth $100 or more go to the city police, or the sheriff outside city limits, with an affidavit (Civil Code 2080.1)	The owner has 90 days to claim it from the police or sheriff (2080.2)
Florida	Report an item with no identifiable owner to a law enforcement officer (Statutes 705.102)	The agency keeps lost property it takes in for 90 days (705.103)
Savannah, Georgia	The driver reports and delivers it to the company office within 12 hours, with details to identify the owner (City Code 6-2048)	The company keeps it at least 60 days

A few details matter:

• California’s affidavit states when and where the item was found and describes it. If an item worth $250 or more goes unclaimed for 90 days, the police or sheriff publish a newspaper notice, and title can pass to the finder seven days later once the publication cost is paid. Under $250, title can pass after 90 days with no notice (Civil Code 2080.3).
• Florida’s rule covers property with no identifiable owner left on public property, on a public conveyance, on business premises, or in another place open to the public (705.101). Keeping it, or refusing to hand it over when required, is theft (705.102).
• Savannah’s rule applies to vans carrying passengers for hire to and from medical appointments inside the city (City Code 6-2002). The Savannah NEMT page covers the rest of the city’s permit rules.

Write one more rule into your driver handbook: drivers never keep a found item, whatever its value. Every item goes through this log.