Transportation for Radiation Therapy

What makes radiation different

The appointments are short and the schedule is rigid. Treatment itself is often fifteen minutes. But the linear accelerator is booked in tight slots, and a patient who misses their window doesn’t simply slide to the next one — they may lose the day, and gaps in a radiation course have clinical consequences.

Fatigue builds week on week. Radiation fatigue is cumulative and it does not track the dose. Patients are usually fine for the first week or two and considerably less fine by week four. A rider who walked to the vehicle in week one may need a wheelchair by week five.

Skin reactions make the seat matter. Depending on the treatment site, sitting can become genuinely uncomfortable partway through a course. Telling us lets the crew adjust the transfer and the positioning rather than improvise.

The timing is the same every day. That makes the course a natural fit for a standing order.

How the ride works

Book the whole course once. Tell us the start date, the days and the slot time, and every session goes on our schedule as a standing order. The same crews tend to carry the same riders, so by week two the driver knows the entrance and how long the visit takes.

Waiting usually beats a return leg. For a fifteen-minute treatment, having the vehicle wait — $75 an hour for wheelchair or ambulatory — is faster and often cheaper than scheduling two separate trips. We’ll advise once you tell us the slot time.

Book the level of service you’ll need in week five, not week one. Or tell us at the point it changes. Either is fine; discovering it at the door is not.

Tell us about the treatment site only so far as it affects the ride — whether sitting is painful, whether there’s a dressing, whether the rider needs help with the transfer.

What it costs

A radiation round trip by ambulatory or wheelchair transportation is $55 per leg with five miles included each way and $3 a mile beyond. For twenty-five to thirty-five sessions, that per-leg rate is the one to plan with. A stretcher round trip is $230 per leg.

You can price the whole course on our published rate card and trip estimator. 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.

Radiation trips that need an ambulance

We drive patients to daily treatment and home again; the ride is transport, never treatment.

We are not an ambulance service: no monitoring or medical care on board, no emergency room runs and no transfers 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.

Unsure which you need? Call and describe the patient, and if it’s an ambulance trip, we’ll tell you.

Common questions

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

Book the return as a will-call. Call dispatch as the session wraps up and a driver heads your way; call once you’re done and a driver arrives within 45 minutes. Calling early shortens the wait. For a short treatment, a driver can 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 radiation cost the member nothing.

Can I use my HSA or FSA, or deduct medical transportation on my taxes?

Usually, yes. Under IRS rules, transportation that is mainly for and essential to medical care counts as a medical expense, and that is the same test HSA and FSA plans use. So a ride to a medical appointment can generally be paid from an HSA or FSA or counted toward an itemized medical deduction. We’ll send an itemized receipt for any trip on request. Your plan administrator makes the final call on reimbursement, and a tax advisor can confirm the deduction for your situation.

Book the ride

Give us the start date, the end date and the daily slot time in one call and the whole course goes on our board.

Phone dispatch at (703) 304-7889 day or night, or use our reservations page and we’ll ring back. We need three hours’ notice for a same-day ride, a booking the day before is guaranteed, and confirmation comes by call or text within two hours. Change or cancel more than two hours before pickup at no cost; later, or a no-show, is $50.

Our vans cover Northern Virginia, the District and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties: WMATC authority 3449 for DC and Maryland legs and Virginia DMV Certificate #524 for Virginia legs.