NEMT Broker Changes in 2026: Who Runs Your State Now

In 2026, at least 17 states changed who arranges some of their Medicaid rides. Some were state decisions, like Georgia moving to Verida on April 1, Colorado’s Denver metro to MediDrive on July 1 and Montana to Modivcare on October 1. Most were a single health plan switching ride vendors, usually announced in the plan’s own notice rather than a state bulletin. If your broker changes, your credentialing doesn’t carry over. Call the incoming broker’s provider relations the week it’s announced, have your insurance and driver files ready, be ready for lower rates at first, and keep running for your current broker until the switch happens.

Adam, who runs A.S. Reliable Transport in Fort Wayne, Indiana, went through his switch at the start of 2025, a year before this wave, so his story already has an ending. He’d been averaging about 500 trips a month. Then, as he tells it, while MTM was buying Access2Care, the Access2Care contract he ran went to WellTrans, a broker he wasn’t credentialed with. For the next four months he ran under 50 a month. By July 2026 he was running over 1,000.

The trips never disappear in a broker change. They change hands, and the providers already credentialed with the incoming broker get them first. Below is the map, what changed and what’s still coming, with the longer timelines for Colorado, Minnesota and Arizona, then a provider’s path through a switch: what happens to you, getting credentialed fast, rates, and making the next switch survivable.

Which states changed NEMT brokers in 2026?

At least 17 states changed who arranges some of their Medicaid rides in 2026: seven through a state or county decision, and ten more only through their health plans. UnitedHealthcare’s plans alone switched in six states, and each of those rows covers that plan’s members, not the whole state. The tables are current as of October 8, 2026, and every row links its source; for the full current map, see who runs NEMT in each state today.

Seven came from a state or county decision:

Thirteen more switches came through health plans, in 11 states (Texas and Virginia had two each):

Ten of those 13 came out in the plan’s own provider news, flyer, FAQ or manual rather than a state bulletin, so watch both channels.

California, Texas and Florida have no statewide broker for most riders, so their changes come one plan at a time. In California each Medi-Cal plan either picks its own ride vendor or, like IEHP, arranges rides itself; our guide shows how each California plan arranges rides. In Texas, since Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas moved on October 1, SafeRide Health and MTM Health arrange nearly all Medicaid managed care rides; see who runs NEMT for each Texas health plan. In Florida, the Children’s Medical Services plan moved from Sunshine to Molina on October 1, 2026, on the state Medicaid agency’s schedule. MTM ran its rides under Sunshine, so ask Molina which vendor runs them now; our guide to who is the NEMT broker in Florida has each plan’s vendor.

Behind the switches, the brokers consolidated. MTM announced in August 2024 that it would buy Access2Care and had closed the deal by October 8, 2024, after buying Veyo in 2022 and MTBA, an Arizona broker, in 2023. Adam traces his switch to that deal, and the Access2Care name retired from Texas Medicaid plans on May 14, 2026. Modivcare filed for Chapter 11 on August 20, 2025 and emerged on December 29, 2025 with its funded debt cut by more than 85 percent, per its emergence release. And Verida, Georgia’s broker and Louisiana’s fee-for-service NEMT broker, is the company formerly called Southeastrans.

Which NEMT broker changes are still coming?

An award isn’t a start date. Five more changes have start dates, the next on November 1, 2026, when Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico moves its Medicaid rides to MTM Health. Two of the five, Michigan’s and Arizona’s, are rebids whose winners aren’t picked yet. Five others are stuck on a protest, an open bid or a missing date:

DC’s switch slipped past October 1 on a protest. New Jersey named MTM for its statewide NEMT broker contract in August, then canceled that award on Modivcare’s protest and sent it back for award to Modivcare. Colorado’s award was appealed and picked again, and Maine’s went to the state’s top court. Wisconsin named Verida in May and set no date, and South Carolina is on its third solicitation. Even the dates you’re told can be soft. A rural Colorado transit operator told me in July that for the rural counties “we only have an estimate,” and the estimate was “sometime in September.” HCPF, Colorado’s Medicaid agency, now says every trip goes through MediDrive from January 1, 2027.

So get credentialed with the incoming broker as soon as it’s named, and keep running your current broker’s trips until the new contract actually starts.

How Colorado, Minnesota and Arizona got here

Colorado, Minnesota and Arizona all have changes in motion, and their records show how long the road from an award or a law to a start date can run:

What happens to providers when the broker changes?

Your credentialing doesn’t transfer: the incoming broker vets you from scratch, and the trips, even rides already booked past the switch date, go to providers it has already approved. Blue Cross Community Health Plans in Illinois and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico told providers that recurring trips and trips already scheduled past the switch “will be fulfilled by MTM Health.” Michigan’s rebid says the winner “will be required to establish their own network,” though it “may consider adopting existing providers.”

Montana went further. Modivcare took over enrollment itself, and Montana’s July 2026 Tribal NEMT Program Overview told providers they “must complete enrollment with the new vendor” to keep delivering NEMT through Montana Medicaid after October 1.

That’s what Adam ran into. When the contract he ran went to WellTrans, he had to register with the state and go through WellTrans’s verification before he could take a trip. “The onboarding is very different,” he told me. “It wasn’t easy.” It was close to four months before WellTrans gave him his first trip.

Here’s the other side, though: a switch can reset incumbency for everyone, including whoever had the inside track before you. In October 2025, with Modivcare in Chapter 11, I said on our episode on how to retire rich from NEMT that owners on my demos kept telling me their contracts had moved. I called it a “chaotic time” and said the riders were “the same set of people.” Somebody drives them after the switch, and it can be you.

None of this makes brokers villains. They answer to contracts, penalties and procurement calendars, not to any one provider. Marqus Johnson, a Tampa operator and coach, put it plainly on our July 2026 episode about turning drivers into a sales force: “If you allow a broker to send you as many trips as humanly possible, they’re happy to do so. And as long as you complete them, they could care less.”

How do you get credentialed with a new broker fast?

Start the week the change is announced, not the day your trips stop. The dates on 2026’s notices and awards ran from about ten months before a switch to two weeks after one.

Here they are, by the date printed on each provider notice or bulletin. IEHP’s is dated May 11 for its May 12 switch: one day. Maine’s midcoast bulletin came June 24 for July 1, a week. Virginia’s fee-for-service bulletin came September 15 for October 1, 16 days. Montana’s July 9 provider notice came 84 days before October 1. The Blue Cross notices in Texas and Illinois, June 26 for October 1, gave 97 days, and New Mexico’s, July 15 for November 1, gives 109. Colorado named MediDrive in August 2025, ten to eleven months before its July 1, 2026 start, though the re-pick came by late January 2026. Indiana’s bulletin naming WellTrans came out January 15, two weeks after the switch.

Now put the other clock next to it. WellTrans’s 2026 seminar deck for Indiana providers says its credentialing “can range from 7-21 calendar days” once you’re enrolled in Indiana Medicaid, and that enrollment “can take from 1-3 months.” Adam’s took close to four months. On our live episode on October 1, I said these applications “can sometimes take 6 months, a year,” and you don’t want to pay insurance on a van that sits that long. Of all those windows, only Colorado’s ran past four months.

The incoming broker often books before go-live, and it can only send those trips to providers it has already credentialed. UnitedHealthcare’s Texas plan took reservations “after Dec. 15, 2025” for January 1 service, and MTM took bookings for UnitedHealthcare’s Nebraska members from December 10.

So don’t wait on the web form. Call the incoming broker’s provider relations team and tell them your fleet, hours, counties and how many more trips you can take. On our October 1 episode I agreed with a guest that knowing the person who reviews applications “helps make sure you get trips.”

Have the paperwork ready before anyone asks. Each broker sets its own insurance limits and certificate wording, so a policy the old broker accepted can fall short with the new one. Our guide covers what brokers require on your insurance certificate.

What to do this week:

• Sign up for both channels: your state Medicaid agency’s provider bulletins and every plan’s provider notices.
• Call provider relations the week a change is announced, not the week your trips stop.
• Get the new broker’s requirements sheet before your next insurance renewal, and compare the certificate wording and limits line by line.
• Keep one credential folder: insurance certificate, driver roster with checks and cert dates, vehicle list with inspections, W-9 and licenses.

Can you negotiate rates with a new broker?

At the switch, not if the outgoing broker was your only one, and new rates can come in lower; bargaining power comes back later, from a clean record and from capacity the broker can’t find elsewhere.

WellTrans’s rates came in lower, and Adam signed anyway, because the vans couldn’t sit. “If you were only working with Access2Care, you don’t have any other brokers to work with,” he told me, and “you can’t even negotiate any price.” The moment you finally get through is the worst moment to bargain.

So set up the later conversation now. Before you sign, price the rate card against your own cost per trip. On calls I tell owners to add up what they pay the driver, gas and maintenance, then compare that with what the broker pays. Read the fine print too, because no-show windows, wait times, submission deadlines and on-time penalties are where a transition year leaks money. Then ask for the rate sheet again after a year of clean on-time work, and lead with what’s scarce where you drive: wheelchair vans, stretcher capacity, rural coverage, weekend hours.

How do you broker-proof your NEMT business?

Make sure no single broker contract can sink you: limit what any one payer can do to your schedule, build trips you control, and keep records any broker or auditor can read on day one.

On our episode about calling facilities for contracts, Christopher Buell said he gives any one broker 10 percent of his time and effort to start, maybe 15 after a year of doing business together. Rachel Scholler kept her broker availability at 10 percent when she still took broker trips, as she said on our episode about growing a high-margin NEMT business. Plenty of good operators run far more, and some markets leave no choice. On the Buell episode I described a case I’ve seen: a 20-vehicle company doing all its work for one broker, a disagreement on price, zero trips, and the company went under.

The trips you control are the hedge. A private-pay rider books and pays you directly, and a facility that pays for its own transfers pays you under your agreement with it. Neither moves when a procurement office scores proposals. Our guides cover starting and pricing private pay and winning facility contracts.

Then keep records any broker can read. Colorado’s HB26-1328 orders HCPF to adopt rules requiring providers, the broker or both to use digital dispatch software that records each trip’s pickup and drop-off addresses, GPS coordinates and times. In New York, the statewide broker, MAS, won’t release the approval number you bill with until the trip’s GPS checks out, and MAS doesn’t pay you; the state does, through eMedNY. On calls I warn owners that many brokers ask which dispatch software they run. And Ray Hagan, then a vice president at WellTrans, said in early 2025 that electronic trip records cut one to two weeks off the time WellTrans took to pay providers.

Hagan also described Indiana in early 2025, where four brokers each covered all 92 counties and none could see what the others sent the same provider: “You’re sending out your trips and hoping that they take your stuff.” His advice to every provider, however big or small, was to run software that takes in trips from all its brokers. That’s what Duet does: it brings broker trips onto one board. MTM, Modivcare and MediDrive trips land there through direct integrations, and SafeRide, Verida and WellTrans trips come in by trip file import, beside your private-pay and facility work. You still credential with, and answer to, each broker.

Seven of 2026’s switches landed on January 1 or 2, so here’s the test: if your biggest broker vanished on January 1, would you still make payroll in April? Adam came back bigger, at about double his old volume. But when he told me about the switch, he said, “We had to switch everything over,” and “It’s not easy to start.” Build so you never have to start over.