The short answer
No. Original Medicare (Part A and Part B) does not pay for routine, non-emergency rides to medical appointments. If you have Original Medicare and you need a lift to a check-up, dialysis or physical therapy, that ride is not a covered benefit and you will be arranging it another way.
This surprises a lot of people, and it is worth being clear about it early, because the assumption that "Medicare will cover it" is a common reason a ride gets booked late or not at all.
What Medicare does cover
Emergency ambulance transport
Medicare Part B covers emergency ambulance transport when any other method of getting you to care would endanger your health. That is a genuine emergency standard — not "I could not find a ride."
Some non-emergency ambulance transport
Part B can cover non-emergency ambulance transport in limited circumstances, generally where a doctor certifies in writing that ambulance transport is medically necessary. This is a narrow route and it means an ambulance, not a passenger vehicle.
Medicare Advantage plans are a different story
Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans are offered by private insurers and many of them include non-emergency transportation as a supplemental benefit — often a set number of one-way trips per year to plan-approved destinations.
If you are on Medicare Advantage, this is worth ten minutes of your time: call the member services number on the back of your card and ask two specific questions.
- "Does my plan include a non-emergency transportation benefit?"
- "If it does, how many trips per year, and do I have to use a specific transport company?"
That second question matters. Where a plan does include transport, it usually routes through a contracted broker, which means you will not be choosing your own provider.
What if you have Medical Assistance too?
If you are dually eligible — Medicare and Minnesota Medical Assistance (Medicaid) — your transport route is usually through Medical Assistance, not Medicare. Minnesota Medical Assistance does cover non-emergency medical transportation for eligible members who have no other way to get to a covered appointment, and it is free to the member.
We have written that up separately: how to get a free ride to a medical appointment in Minnesota.
So what do people actually do?
In the Twin Cities, most people on Original Medicare without Medical Assistance end up using one of four options.
- Family or a neighbour. Free, and genuinely the right answer when it is available and reliable. It stops being the right answer when it is a 6:00 AM dialysis run three times a week and the favour is wearing thin.
- Metro Mobility or local senior transport. Worth checking eligibility, though schedules and service areas vary and advance booking is usually required.
- Rideshare. Cheap and immediate, but the driver will not walk you to a clinic entrance, will not wait, and is not trained or insured for medical transport. For someone steady on their feet going to a simple appointment, fine. For someone unsteady leaving a procedure, not fine.
- Private-pay medical transport. You pay out of pocket, and in exchange you get a scheduled, door-to-door service from a provider that is licensed for medical transport specifically.
Where Mediride fits
Mediride is a private-pay and facility-invoiced ambulatory transport service in the seven-county Twin Cities metro. We are a Minnesota STS-certified provider, certificate #385451.
Being straight with you about two things:
We do not bill Medicare, Medicare Advantage, or Medical Assistance. If your plan includes a transport benefit, using that benefit will cost you less than paying us, and you should use it. Call your plan first.
We transport ambulatory passengers only — people who can walk to and from the vehicle and sit in a standard passenger seat, with a steadying arm and door-to-door help if needed. We are not certified for wheelchair or stretcher transport and we will refer you to someone who is.
Where we are the right call: you do not have a transport benefit, or you have used it up, or you want a scheduled ride from a provider you can actually reach on the phone. Call (612) 888-1188 and we will quote the trip.
Frequently asked
Does Medicare Part B cover a ride to dialysis?
Not a routine passenger-vehicle ride, no. Part B covers the dialysis treatment itself, and can cover ambulance transport where it is certified as medically necessary, but it does not cover ordinary transport to and from the clinic.
Will Medicare reimburse me if I pay for a ride myself?
No. There is no reimbursement route under Original Medicare for routine non-emergency transport, so paying up front and claiming later is not an option.
Does Medicare cover a ride home after a procedure?
Not as a transport benefit. Facilities that require an escort for discharge are asking you to arrange that yourself, which is a common reason people book a private-pay ambulatory ride.