NEMT Wait Time Cost Calculator (2027): What Waiting Costs and What Wait Pay Covers

What the wait time cost calculator does

A wait happens when your driver drops a rider at an appointment and stays to take them home. The van sits parked, the driver stays on the clock, and no other trip gets done. Some payers pay a little for that time. Many pay nothing.

The calculator answers three questions about a month of waits:

• What the waiting costs you in driver pay. Every minute counts, including the minutes no one pays for.
• How much your payer’s wait rate brings back. Wait pay is counted in half-hour units after any unpaid part, the way code T2007 is billed.
• What else the van could have done. The trips it could have run in the same hours, and what they would pay.

Use it before you accept a standing order with long waits, when you ask a broker for a wait rate, and when you set the wait charge on your private-pay rate sheet. The guide to NEMT wait time billing covers the claim itself: the codes, how to count units, and the records each wait needs.

How to use the calculator

1. Count the trips a day where your driver stays and waits. Use a normal week from your trip logs and divide by the days worked.
2. Enter the average wait, from drop-off to the moment the rider is back in the van.
3. Enter the part of each wait your payer does not pay for, and what it pays for each half hour after that. Enter 0 for the rate if the payer pays nothing for waiting.
4. Enter your working days a month and what an hour of driver time costs you.
5. Enter how many trips a van runs in an hour on a normal day, and what an average trip pays you.

The results change as you type. Reset to example brings back the example numbers, and Show the formula lists each step of the math.

What each number means

Box	What to enter	Where to find it
Trips with a wait a day	Trips where the driver stays for the ride home	Trip logs or manifests for a normal week, ÷ days worked
Minutes per wait	The average wait, drop-off to the rider’s return	The wait start and stop times on your trip records
Minutes before wait pay starts	The unpaid part of each wait	Your state’s transportation manual or your broker’s rate sheet
Wait pay per half hour	What one half hour of waiting pays	Your state fee schedule for T2007, or the broker’s rate sheet
Working days a month	Days you run trips	Your schedule
Driver cost per hour	Hourly pay plus payroll taxes and benefits	Payroll records
Trips a van runs in an hour	Trips in a normal shift ÷ the shift’s hours	Trip logs
Average pay per trip	What a trip pays you, mileage included	Remittance advice or broker payment reports

The trip log template has columns for the clock time each wait begins and ends. Indiana requires those start and stop times on the driver’s ticket for any wait you bill, and Medi-Cal wants them on the claim, in Box 19 or on an attachment.

Minutes before wait pay starts and the rate

These two boxes come from your payer. Here are three Medicaid fee-for-service programs that pay for waiting, and one that does not:

Program	Rate for each half hour (T2007)	Unpaid part	Other limits	What to enter
Arizona AHCCCS	$4.59, urban or rural, from October 1, 2026	None, but a wait under 30 minutes pays nothing	Round trips only, to a service more than 10 miles away when driving back to base is not practical, with the same van and driver both ways	0 minutes and $4.59
Indiana Medicaid	$7.43 with modifier U3 (ambulatory) or U5 (wheelchair), from January 1, 2026	The first 30 minutes	The member rides 50 miles or more one way, and the van stays parked outside the provider	15 minutes, as explained below, and $7.43
Medi-Cal	Up to $11.30 (rate page updated September 2023)	The first 15 minutes	Wheelchair and litter vans, 90 minutes paid at most, and only time spent waiting to load the patient	15 minutes and $11.30
Illinois Medicaid	None	All of it	The handbook (March 11, 2024) lists charges for waiting time among the costs it does not pay	$0

Indiana’s rounding. Indiana bills the whole wait, one unit per 30 minutes, and rounds a leftover of 15 minutes or more up and a leftover under 15 minutes down. Then it does not pay the first 30 minutes (Transportation Services module, version 6.1, published August 19, 2025). So a 45-minute wait bills 2 units and pays 1. The calculator counts only full half hours after the unpaid part. Entering 15 minutes instead of 30 makes it count the way Indiana does: a 45-minute wait pays one half hour, a 70-minute wait one, and a 75-minute wait two.

Caps. The calculator has no cap. If your average wait runs past the paid maximum, as a 3-hour wait does in Medi-Cal, set minutes before wait pay starts to your minutes per wait minus 90. For a 180-minute wait, enter 90, and the calculator pays 3 half hours, which is Medi-Cal’s limit.

Broker trips. On broker trips, your contract sets the rate. MTM Health’s Missouri provider page says rates are discussed and set with each provider individually, as of September 2026. In Indiana, Verida pays fee-for-service trips on a rate schedule based on the state fee schedule and may agree higher rates with each provider (Transportation Services module, version 6.1). If your rate sheet has no wait line, enter 0.

Federal rules explain why so many programs have no wait line. CMS says states generally may not cover long waits as a separate service, because the rider is not in the vehicle. Since September 28, 2023, a state may pay waiting in limited cases, when the distance makes it more economical for the driver to stay, once it submits a state plan amendment to CMS. States may also build the cost of long waits into their trip rates instead (SMD 23-006).

Driver cost per hour

Enter what an hour of your driver’s time really costs: the wage plus your payroll taxes, workers’ comp, and benefits. The employer’s share of Social Security and Medicare tax is 7.65% of wages (IRS Topic 751, updated September 24, 2026). The driver cost calculator works it out, overtime included.

The calculator charges driver pay for the whole wait, the unpaid minutes included, because federal wage rules do. An employee who must stay with the van is “engaged to wait,” and that time is hours worked (29 CFR 785.15). The rule’s own example is a truck driver who waits for the return trip while taking care of the employer’s property (29 CFR 785.16). Waiting is off the clock only when you tell the driver in advance that they are free until a set time, and the break is long enough to use for themselves. See NEMT driver pay and 1099 or W-2 drivers.

Trips a van runs in an hour

This is what the van does when it is not waiting. Divide the trips in a normal shift by the shift’s hours: 12 trips in a 10-hour shift is 1.2 an hour. The trips per day calculator works it out from ride, loading, and drive times.

A worked example

The calculator opens with example numbers. The wait rate and the unpaid 30 minutes are Indiana’s. At a 60-minute wait, entering 30 or 15 gives the same one paid half hour. The rest are round numbers that show the math, not market rates, so replace them with your own.

Step	Math	Result
Waits a month	2 a day × 22 working days	44 waits
Hours spent waiting a month	44 waits × 60 minutes ÷ 60	44 hours
Driver pay for waiting a month	44 hours × $20	$880.00
Paid half hours per wait	(60 minus 30 unpaid minutes) ÷ 30	1
Wait pay at this rate a month	1 × $7.43 × 44 waits	$326.92
Driver pay still uncovered a month	$880.00 minus $326.92	$553.08
Trips you could run in that time	44 hours × 1.2 trips an hour, rounded down	52 trips
Pay those trips would bring in	52 × $45	$2,340

Wait pay covers 37% of the driver pay for waiting here. The other $553.08 a month, about $12.57 a wait, comes out of what your trips earn.

The last two lines show what the same driver hours could earn if the van ran trips instead. That is pay, not profit. Those trips burn fuel and add miles, and they only exist if riders need pickups near the clinic. Treat $2,340 as the ceiling on what the waiting holds back, not a sure gain.

How much a wait rate covers

Here are the same 44 waits of 60 minutes under each program’s rules and current rate:

Program	Paid half hours per wait	Wait pay a month	Driver pay still uncovered	Share of driver pay covered
Arizona ($4.59 from October 1, 2026)	2	$403.92	$476.08	45.9%
Indiana ($7.43 from January 1, 2026)	1	$326.92	$553.08	37.2%
Medi-Cal (up to $11.30)	1	$497.20	$382.80	56.5%
Illinois (not paid)	0	$0.00	$880.00	0%

The Medi-Cal row counts one full half hour after the first 15 minutes. Ask Medi-Cal or your plan how a partial half hour is counted.

Longer waits change the picture. Here is one wait at $20 an hour of driver time, counted the way the calculator counts:

One wait	Driver cost	Arizona	Indiana	Medi-Cal
1 hour	$20.00	$9.18	$7.43	$11.30
2 hours	$40.00	$18.36	$22.29	$33.90
3 hours	$60.00	$27.54	$37.15	$33.90, the 90-minute cap

None of them covers the driver at $20 an hour. An hour of paid waiting is worth $9.18 in Arizona, $14.86 in Indiana, and $22.60 in Medi-Cal up to its cap, and the unpaid part comes off the top first.

To find the half-hour rate that would cover your driver:

Rate that covers the driver = minutes per wait ÷ 60 × driver cost per hour ÷ paid half hours per wait

For the example’s 60-minute wait with 30 minutes unpaid, that is $20.00 ÷ 1 = $20.00 per half hour, 2.7 times Indiana’s $7.43. For a 2-hour wait under Indiana’s rules, it is $40.00 ÷ 3, about $13.33. Bring your own number to a rate talk.

Wait, or leave and come back

CMS says either can be the cheaper choice. A second driver doing the return can cost less than a long wait, but “in some cases, even a long driver wait time may be the most economic and efficient means to provide a return trip” (SMD 23-006, September 28, 2023).

Leaving tends to win when:

• the appointment is long enough to fit paid trips in the gap, such as a dialysis treatment;
• other riders need pickups close to the clinic;
• the payer pays nothing for waiting.

Waiting tends to win when:

• the clinic is far from your base and your other riders, so leaving means two long empty drives;
• the appointment is short, or its end time is hard to predict;
• the payer pays for waiting, and you would lose that pay by leaving.

Once the driver leaves, the wait pay is gone. Arizona pays no wait time if the odometer changes between drop-off and pickup, or if a different van or driver makes the return. The return becomes its own trip, often a will-call the rider or clinic calls in when the visit ends. The guide to managing will-call trips covers how to keep those returns on time.

A quick check before you leave:

Leaving pays when the pay from trips in the gap, minus the cost of the extra empty miles, is more than the wait pay you give up.

Here is an example with made-up numbers. A 2-hour wait in Arizona pays $18.36. If the driver can fit one $45 trip into the gap and the extra empty driving costs $12 (20 miles at $0.60), leaving comes out $14.64 ahead. If the extra empty driving would cost more than $26.64, waiting wins. Driver pay is the same either way, because the driver is working in both cases. The deadhead cost calculator prices the empty drives.

How to use the answer

• Decide which waits to take. Run the calculator for each standing order with a wait. A wait that leaves a large uncovered cost and blocks a busy part of the day is the first to change to a drop-off and a will-call return. The guide to dialysis transportation shows how long treatments fit into a route.
• Ask your broker for a wait rate, in writing. Bring the uncovered cost and the rate that would cover your driver. Ask which code it pays, how long the unpaid part is, how partial half hours are rounded, whether there is a cap, and what proof it needs. See how to negotiate broker rates.
• Price waiting on private-pay rides. Outside Medicaid, you set the wait charge. Put the free minutes, the unit, and the rate on your rate sheet, and quote the total before the ride. At the example’s $20 an hour, $10 per half hour pays for the driver alone, before the van or any profit. The trip price calculator prices the whole ride.
• Never bill a Medicaid rider for the wait. A Medicaid provider accepts the program’s payment as payment in full (42 CFR 447.15).
• Record every wait you bill. Keep the clock times in and out, the odometer at drop-off and pickup, and proof that the same driver and van made both legs. Programs that pay for waiting also audit it. See NEMT trip documentation.