Transportation for Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation

The circular problem

There is a loop in outpatient rehabilitation that everyone working in it recognizes. The patient needs therapy because they can’t move well. They can’t get to therapy because they can’t move well. So they miss sessions, so they recover more slowly, so the mobility problem lasts longer.

It is sharpest in the first few weeks after a joint replacement or a stroke, which is also when therapy does a great deal of good.

The practical obstacles are specific. Someone with a new hip cannot bend past ninety degrees, which rules out many car seats. Someone using a walker cannot manage a walker and a car door at the same time. Someone recovering from a stroke may have one side that doesn’t cooperate at a curb.

None of those are problems in a van with a ramp or a hydraulic lift with a driver trained to assist.

How the ride works

Book the course once as a standing order. Give us the clinic, the days and the session times, and every visit stays on our schedule until the course ends. The same crews tend to see the same riders, so a driver who has done the run before knows the clinic door, how long a session really takes, and whether this rider wants the vehicle warm before getting in.

Bring the equipment. Walkers, crutches, canes and wheelchairs travel with the rider at no extra charge. Tell us what’s coming so the crew allows for it.

Tell us about weight-bearing restrictions. Non-weight-bearing on one leg changes the transfer completely, so mention it first when you book.

Sessions are usually 45 to 60 minutes, which puts them right at the point where waiting and returning cost about the same. We’ll advise.

Levels of service change during a course of PT, and usually in the good direction. A rider who starts in a wheelchair may be ambulatory by week eight. Tell us when it changes.

What it costs

A PT round trip by ambulatory or wheelchair transportation is $55 per leg, five miles included each way, then $3 a mile. On a two- or three-times-a-week schedule, that per-leg figure is the one to budget with. A stretcher round trip is $230 per leg.

Our rate card and trip estimator are published, so you can price a whole course of sessions before you call. For 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. In DC we serve UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of the District of Columbia members through SafeRide Health, and we are not a Maryland Medicaid provider. Original Medicare doesn’t pay for these vans, but a Medicare Advantage plan whose ride benefit runs through MTM Health or SafeRide Health can send the trip to us.

PT trips that need an ambulance

We drive therapy patients to their sessions and home again; the van is transport, not treatment.

So some trips aren’t ours. We are not an ambulance service: there is no medical care or monitoring on board, we don’t take anyone to an emergency room, and we don’t move patients between hospitals for a higher level of care. If a rider becomes unwell, the driver stops safely and calls 911.

If this is a medical emergency, call 911.

Not sure which you need? Call and describe the patient; if it’s an ambulance trip, we’ll tell you so.

Common questions

What if a PT session runs long or I don’t know the return time?

Book the ride home as a will-call. Ring dispatch as the session winds down and a driver starts your way; if you call once you’re done, a driver is there within 45 minutes. The earlier the call, the shorter the wait. A driver can also wait on site at $75 an hour for wheelchair trips or $100 an hour for stretcher.

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 therapy cost the member nothing.

Can you help a PT patient with the stairs at home?

Yes. If the rider can walk the steps with the driver’s help, there’s no charge. If they can’t, a stair chair team comes for $75 each way. Mention steps at both ends when you book so the right crew arrives.

Book the ride

Give us the schedule the clinic gave you and we’ll hold it.

Call dispatch at (703) 304-7889 any hour, or start on our reservations page and we’ll call you back. Same-day rides need three hours’ notice, a booking the day before is guaranteed, and we confirm by call or text within two hours. Changes are free more than two hours before pickup; a later change or a no-show is $50.

Therapy rides run across Northern Virginia, Washington DC and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, under WMATC authority 3449 for the District and both counties and Virginia DMV Certificate #524 inside Virginia.