Transportation for Imaging and Biopsies Under Sedation

Who this is for

Patients sedated for the imaging itself. Claustrophobia in an MRI tube is common enough that oral or IV sedation is routine. Oral sedatives in particular catch people out because they don’t feel like anesthetic — but they impair driving for hours.

Patients having an image-guided procedure. A CT-guided or ultrasound-guided biopsy is a procedure, with local anesthetic and often sedation, and a recovery period afterwards.

Patients who can’t sit up for the scan or the journey. Some imaging appointments need a stretcher both ways, particularly for patients coming from a skilled nursing facility.

Patients whose mobility is the reason for the scan. Someone being imaged after a fall or for a suspected fracture frequently cannot use a car at all.

How the ride works

Tell us the level of service honestly. If the patient is coming from a bed and going back to one, that’s a stretcher trip, and booking it as a wheelchair trip means the vehicle can’t take them.

These are usually short. An MRI is often under an hour. Waiting — $75 an hour for a wheelchair or ambulatory vehicle — is frequently cheaper and always faster than scheduling a return leg.

Facility bookings get three hours. If you’re a SNF or hospital scheduling an outpatient scan, three hours’ notice is all we need, including for stretcher.

Contrast and fasting matter. A patient who has fasted since midnight and then had contrast is not at their best. Tell us and the crew will allow for it.

What it costs

A one-way ride is $90 plus $3 a mile for ambulatory or wheelchair transportation. A round trip — out and back on the same booking — is $55 per leg with five miles included on each, which works out cheaper than two one-ways under about eight miles.

Our full rate card and trip estimator is published — you can work out the price before you call. Medicaid members with a covered scan should book through their plan’s transportation broker. Facility accounts book directly with us.

What we can’t take

H&M Transport runs non-emergency medical transportation. We carry people to scheduled medical care and back home again, and the ride itself is transport rather than treatment.

That means there are trips we can’t take. We are not an ambulance service. We don’t provide medical care or monitoring on board, we don’t transport anyone to an emergency room, and we don’t move patients from one hospital to another for a higher level of care. Those are ambulance trips, and they need a crew and a vehicle equipped for them.

If this is a medical emergency, call 911.

If you’re not sure which you need, call us and describe the situation. We would rather tell you to dial 911 than send the wrong vehicle.

Common questions

Can I take an Uber or taxi home after a colonoscopy or surgery with sedation?

Most endoscopy and surgery centers won’t release a sedated patient to a rideshare or taxi driver. H&M Transport is different: our driver comes inside, meets you at discharge and takes you door-through-door to your home, and most local centers accept us as your ride. Confirm with your center when you schedule, and tell us the procedure time so we can plan the pickup. A family member is welcome to ride along.

What if the appointment runs long or I don’t know my return time?

Book the return as a will-call. If you can, call dispatch a little before your appointment wraps up, and we’ll start a driver your way so you wait as little as possible. If you can’t call until you’re finished, that’s fine: we’ll route the closest available driver, and our standard is to pick you up within 45 minutes of your call. The earlier you call, the shorter your wait. If you’d rather have the driver wait on site, prescheduled wait time is $75 an hour for wheelchair trips and $100 an hour for stretcher trips.

How do I ask for H&M Transport through Virginia Medicaid?

Call the transportation number on your Medicaid ID card; the brokers we work with are MTM Health and SafeRide Health. Request H&M Transport specifically when you book your ride. Covered rides to medical appointments cost the member nothing.

Book the ride

Same-day requests are usually possible for ambulatory and wheelchair trips. Stretcher trips are easier with more notice.

Call dispatch at (703) 304-7889, any hour, or start on our reservations page and we’ll call you back.

We serve Northern Virginia, Washington DC and the Maryland suburbs, and we hold WMATC authority 3449 for crossings into the District and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.