Medi-Cal Coverage of Transportation Services

Executive Summary

While Medicaid provides certain kinds of medically assisted transportation, all states have the ability to bolster transportation services and extend them to all Medicaid beneficiaries. California’s Medicaid agency, Medi-Cal, provides Emergency Medical Transportation, Non-Emergency Medical Transportation, and Nonmedical Transportation (i.e., picking up drug prescriptions, visiting sick child in hospital). In this fact sheet, National Health Law Program notes that California has recently clarified that Nonmedical transportation covers all the state’s Medicaid beneficiaries. “These transportation services address the realities of Medi-Cal recipients, who by nature are more likely to lack reliable transportation to and from crucial medical services. By expanding nonmedical transportation to cover all Medi-Cal enrollees, California has addressed a pressing need to ensure enrollees have transportation not only for treatments and tests from providers, but also for other important aspects of medical care, like picking up prescriptions and prosthetics, or visiting a sick child in the hospital.”