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Medicaid is a health coverage program for low-income people, funded jointly by states and the federal government, and administered by states. Medicaid non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is an important benefit for beneficiaries who need to get to and from medical services but have no means of transportation. Today, FTA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Medicaid Transportation Coordination Fact Sheet, which encourages partnerships between the state departments of transportation (DOTs) and state Medicaid agencies to improve the accessibility and efficiency of NEMT for low-income individuals, people with disabilities, and older adults.
Building from CMS’s Medicaid Transportation Coverage Guide issued in 2023, this fact sheet helps clarify and encourage partnership at the state level and includes commonly asked questions and relevant resources. Stakeholders, such as state DOT staff, provided input into the document.
Many FTA public transit grantees offer NEMT, providing vital access to health care for low-income Medicaid beneficiaries, particularly in rural areas. By improving federal and state coordination of public transit and NEMT, we improve access to critical health care services for people who have been underserved in the past.
Working together, state Medicaid agencies and state DOTs can:
- Improve access to care;
- Help meet Federal requirements;
- Maximize funding by using Federal fund “braiding” opportunities;
- Save health care dollars by reducing missed appointments; and,
- Improve the experiences of consumers and transportation providers.
CMS and FTA are celebrating 20 years of partnership on the federal interagency Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility (CCAM). CMS and FTA invite communities to take advantage of a newly announced joint national technical assistance (TA) center that will launch in early 2025 and provide NEMT related resources, trainings, case studies of promising practices, and a grant program that offers funding for multisector planning and pilot projects to develop and test innovative transportation solutions.
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