What is non-emergency medical transportation?
Non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is prearranged ground transportation that takes a passenger to a medical appointment and back when the trip is planned and the person's condition is stable. The vehicle is a sedan, an SUV or a wheelchair-accessible van, never an ambulance, and the driver's job is transportation, not care. If the situation is urgent or the passenger needs treatment or monitoring along the way, that is a 911 call instead.
The phrase comes from the healthcare world, where emergency transport means an ambulance and everything else ended up grouped under non-emergency. In daily life in New York people call the same thing medical transport, dialysis transportation, or simply a ride to the doctor. What separates it from flagging down a yellow cab is the planning: a specific pickup time, an address the driver already has, and a vehicle chosen for how the passenger really travels.
- Dialysis several mornings a week, same clinic, same hour
- Infusion or chemotherapy visits, where the passenger is tired on the way back
- Post-surgery follow-ups and the ride home after a hospital discharge
- Physical therapy, wound care, imaging and lab appointments
- Adult day programs and standing specialist visits
How is NEMT different from an ambulance?
An ambulance carries medical personnel and equipment and responds to emergencies. NEMT carries a passenger, a companion and their belongings, and nothing else. That single difference decides who you call, how far ahead you plan, and what the driver can and cannot do: nobody on an NEMT trip provides clinical care, takes vitals, administers oxygen or makes medical decisions.
- Ambulance: unscheduled, dispatched through 911, staffed to treat someone on board
- NEMT: booked in advance for a known date and time, no clinical staff, no medical equipment
- Ambulance: for emergencies or transfers that require monitoring on the way
- NEMT: for stable passengers who mainly need door-to-door help getting there and back
If you are not sure which one a trip needs, ask the clinic or the discharge planner before booking anything. They handle this every day and they will tell you whether the patient can travel in a regular vehicle.
Who uses non-emergency medical transportation in New York City?
The most common NEMT passengers are people on a repeating treatment schedule, older adults who no longer drive, wheelchair users, and patients going home after a procedure. Many of them can walk a block without trouble. What they cannot do is count on finding a cab at 6:40 in the morning in the Bronx, or stand outside in February waiting after dialysis.
In a city where the same trip can mean two subway transfers and a long walk at the other end, the value of NEMT is predictability rather than speed. The ride is on the calendar, the addresses are already in the system, and somebody is expected at a specific door at a specific time.
- Dialysis and infusion patients with a fixed weekly schedule
- Wheelchair users who need a ramp, not a folded chair in the trunk
- Older adults traveling with a walker, a cane or equipment they manage themselves
- Patients being discharged who need help from the lobby to the car
- Family caregivers who cannot take a full day off work for every appointment
What kind of vehicle do you get for an NEMT ride?
Most non-emergency medical rides happen in an ordinary vehicle: a sedan for one passenger who walks on their own, an SUV when there is a companion and equipment, and a wheelchair-accessible vehicle (WAV) with a ramp when the passenger stays seated in their own chair. Ready Go USA runs sedans, SUVs, black cars and WAVs in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.
Say what you need when you book, not when the car pulls up. Wheelchair can mean a foldable manual chair that fits in a trunk or a power chair that only travels by ramp, and those are two different vehicles on two different schedules.
- Whether the passenger stays in the wheelchair or transfers to a seat
- Whether the chair is manual and foldable or powered
- How many steps there are at the door, and whether the building has an elevator
- Whether a companion, aide or interpreter is riding along
- Whether there is a return trip and roughly when
How does an NEMT trip work, step by step?
You book ahead, you confirm both addresses and the appointment time, and the car comes to the pickup address on the scheduled day. The driver handles the door-to-car part of the trip: the bag, the ramp, the seat belt, and the drop-off at the entrance you asked for. Everything clinical stays on the clinic's side.
- Book by app, phone or WhatsApp with the date, the time and both addresses
- Say what the passenger needs: wheelchair, walker, companion, extra stops
- Leave margin before the appointment, because New York traffic is unpredictable and no one can promise a clock time
- On the day, the driver arrives at the pickup point and helps from the door to the vehicle
- Arrange the return when you book, or call once the appointment is over
Scheduled reservations run Monday through Saturday. For anything with a fixed weekly rhythm, dialysis above all, it is easier to set the whole pattern at once than to rebook every single week.
How do you pay for non-emergency medical transportation?
With Ready Go USA, the passenger or the family pays the company directly. The company does not bill Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance and is not part of any insurance network, so the trip is arranged and paid for the same way as any other car service ride. What it costs comes from the app or from the phone line at the moment you book.
Separately from that, public health programs in New York run their own transportation benefit for the people enrolled in them, coordinated through the program's own transportation manager rather than through a car service. If that is your situation, the program is who you ask about it. On our side the arrangement is simple: it is a ride, paid directly.
How do you book NEMT in the five boroughs?
There are three ways: the Ready Go USA app for iOS and Android, a phone call to 212-448-1088 or 917-562-8568, or WhatsApp. Scheduled rides are taken Monday through Saturday, and a recurring treatment schedule is easier to hold at the same hour each week when it is set up early.
- Have both addresses ready, including the entrance or building name
- Give the appointment time and say whether the passenger wants to arrive early
- Mention the wheelchair or mobility device before the vehicle is assigned
- Ask about the return trip in the same call
- Keep the confirmation where another caregiver can find it and repeat the booking
If the trips start or end in one particular borough, the local pages cover pickups there in more detail, and the NEMT page goes deeper into how these medical rides are handled.