As people age, they often lose the ability to confidently and safely transport themselves to and from medically necessary locations and appointments.

Patient transportation is already a huge industry, but it's continuing to grow quite quickly. More and more transportation businesses are seizing the opportunity to help seniors and infirm folks get where they need to go.

On top of this, government medical programs such as Medicaid actually incentivize this type of service. Patient transportation doesn't just exist for those wealthy enough to pay for it out of their own pockets. Everyone covered by lower-income government medical plans can take advantage of this kind of service. Medical transportation is steady work, as the life expectancy of Americans continues to trend upward decade over decade. Not a bad business to get into.

But how do you ensure patient well-being and financial security in this field? The elderly and infirm are certainly more prone to injury during transportation than the rest of us. So wouldn't the insurance surrounding this field be prohibitively expensive?

Luckily, it's not. Just as the entire industry has grown, so has the availability of insurance for medical transportation. Now, there is such a wide range of insurance options on the market that with your help, your clients can find great medical transportation coverage solutions that match their unique needs.

Insuring Medical Transportation

Just as with other forms of passenger transportation, medical transportation requires specific types of insurance. The government requires certain levels of insurance for most forms of medical transportation to ensure the safety of federal medical program beneficiaries.

Regardless of what type of medical transportation your client plans to get involved with, they'll need insurance for it. Without coverage, they open themselves up to all sorts of liability beyond the damage to their vehicles and other damage their fleet may accidentally cause.

Nonemergency Medical Transportation

The most common type of passenger medical transportation across the US is known as nonemergency medical transportation (NEMT). Most forms of NEMT are funded by Medicaid programs, meaning they are designed for low-income or elderly people, such as retirees. Medicaid funding also means that NEMT programs or businesses are funded by a wide variety of state Medicaid programs. States have different forms of Medicaid all across America, each with different rules, regulations and amounts of funding.

While Medicaid funding and universal demand create a great business opportunity, working directly with Medicaid as your main source of payment can be challenging. Most Medicaid programs are state-funded bureaucracies, making it difficult to communicate with them and making the consequences for accidentally running afoul of them dangerous.

Legislation such as the False Claims Act allows for the prosecution of government contractors (such as NEMT businesses) for incorrect bills sent to state or federal Medicaid agencies.1 No insurance provider will be able to protect you from accidentally defrauding the state or federal government, so make sure to alert your clients to this risk.

Acquiring NEMT Insurance

Just like regular car insurance, NEMT insurance rates depend on a combination of factors.2 Many of these factors are the same as normal car insurance, such as:

  • Vehicle age and condition
  • Driver's history and record
  • History of past insurance claims

Because NEMT is only for nonemergencies — like picking up prescriptions or traveling to medical appointments — the vehicles used for NEMT purposes often don't need to have special features. Vans are often perfect for NEMT needs, as they provide a lot of seating and head room, and some accommodate wheelchairs. Of course, the more seats a vehicle has, the higher the insurance rates are likely to be, especially when insuring the vehicle for commercial or medical use.

When seeking blanket coverage for a fleet of vehicles, your NEMT clients must provide all of this information to the insurance provider, along with standard information about each vehicle, such as:

  • Vehicle identification number (VIN)
  • Make, model and year
  • Safety features or lack thereof
  • Average projected distance per year

Having all of this information on hand will help speed up the process.

Medical transportation insurance is a must-have for any client interested in getting into patient transportation, NEMT or another type of medical transport. Although it may seem more complicated than private or other types of commercial insurance, it's really quite similar. One important thing to remind clients is that each state has different insurance requirements, so it's essential to check for individual regulations.

Sources

1"The False Claims Act," Civil Division US Department of Justice, updated 4 Apr 2023.

2"How Can Mid-Sized Fleets Reduce NEMT Auto Insurance Costs?" Tobi, updated 9 Jan 2024.