New York program
Rides to appointments (Medicaid, through MAS)
Medicaid can cover approved rides to covered appointments through Medical Answering Services, or MAS.
What it is
Medicaid can cover approved rides to covered appointments through Medical Answering Services, or MAS.
Regular treatment can mean a lot of travel. MAS arranges Medicaid rides and reviews the kind of transport your child needs. An attendant and long-distance expenses need their own approval.
Eligibility rules
- Your child needs Medicaid, and the trip must be for covered care.
- Downstate MAS serves the five New York City boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Putnam. Upstate serves all other counties.
What you get
- No charge for approved rides to Medicaid-covered appointments.
- An approved attendant can travel with your child.
- Approved attendant meals and lodging can help with longer trips.
What the help includes
- The approved ride can be public transit, a car or an ambulette, depending on the medical and travel need.
- Attendant transportation, meals and lodging require advance approval.
If you decide to apply
- Ask MAS about your child's appointment schedule and the right transport for their medical needs.
- Have the Medicaid ID, appointment dates, times and addresses ready.
- Ask whether you can travel as the approved attendant and what long-trip costs need approval beforehand.
MAS downstate: 844-666-6270; upstate: 866-932-7740 · Official page ↗
After you ask
- A trip confirmation should list the ride and approved attendant.
- The clinic can help document the appointment and need for a particular vehicle.
Good to know
A family member can be an approved attendant, but Medicaid does not pay that family member a salary.
Other details
- Emergency transport is a different route from a scheduled MAS appointment ride.
- MAS can consider standing orders for regular treatment. It reviews the suitable ride, necessary attendant and any distant-treatment meals or lodging. A relative is not paid an attendant salary. Your clinic or social worker can ask MAS to confirm routine and urgent booking lead times, long-distance processing, expense caps and approvals before you commit to travel costs.
Official sources
“Could MAS cover our treatment trips and let me accompany my child? What needs advance approval, and could you help us arrange it if this would ease the travel?”
Why I’m asking: We want reliable transport to treatment and a clear idea of which travel expenses Medicaid covers.
More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules
Who does what
The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.
You
Book each trip or the recurring series, ask for attendant authorization, and keep confirmations.
Your social worker
The social worker sets up recurring treatment trips and escalates failed rides.
The care team
Records and letters when the application asks for them.
- Who decides
- Medical Answering Services, the statewide broker, under state Medicaid rules; its prior-authorization official approves an attendant and any meals or lodging.
- Ask your social worker
- “Can you set up standing MAS rides for the treatment calendar, get me authorized as the attendant, and tell me who to call when a driver does not come?”
How to apply
First step: Call MAS (downstate 844-666-6270; upstate 866-932-7740) as soon as the treatment calendar is set, and ask for standing rides and attendant authorization.
- Set up standing rides for the treatment calendar with MAS.
- Ask for attendant authorization, and for meals and lodging before any long-distance trip.
- Keep confirmation numbers; tell the clinic when a ride fails.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Call MAS: downstate 844-666-6270 (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Nassau, Putnam, Queens, Staten Island, Suffolk, Westchester); upstate 866-932-7740.
What to gather
- Child's Medicaid ID
- Appointment dates, times and addresses
- Any medical need for a specific vehicle
How long: MAS reviews medically necessary transport to covered Medicaid care, the suitable vehicle and any attendant. Meals or lodging require approval; a family attendant receives no salary. MAS confirms current booking lead times, processing and expense caps before travel arrangements.
What a yes looks like
A confirmation number for each trip and the attendant listed on it.
What a no looks like, and the next move
"Not a covered trip" or "no attendant": ask the clinic to confirm the appointment and medical need, then call the plan or MAS again.
Watch out
- MAS reviews medically necessary transport to covered Medicaid care, the suitable vehicle and any attendant. Meals or lodging require approval; a family attendant receives no salary. MAS confirms current booking lead times, processing and expense caps before travel arrangements.
- Meals and lodging for the attendant are by prior authorization only, and a family attendant is never paid a salary. Ask before you travel; the dollar caps were not found.
- Central New York families 25 miles or more from Syracuse: the Ronald McDonald House lodges families at no charge by hospital referral (a referral is not a reservation).
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 9, 2026.
What it is worth
MAS reviews medically necessary transport to covered Medicaid care, the suitable vehicle and any attendant. Meals or lodging require approval; a family attendant receives no salary. MAS confirms current booking lead times, processing and expense caps before travel arrangements.
- $3 (historical guidance; confirm with MAS) — Lead time for a routine trip (2013 broker brochure; current statewide rule not found)
Covers: Ride arrangement (car, ambulette, public transit as appropriate) · An authorized attendant to accompany the child · Attendant transportation, meals and lodging when authorized in advance
What it costs the family: None.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Medicaid
- yes
- Covered trip
- yes
- Attendant
- any individual authorized by the prior-authorization official to accompany and assist the enrollee; services can include the attendant's transportation, meals, lodging and salary, but no salary to a family member
- Lead time
- MAS confirms current routine and urgent booking lead times; historical 2013 three-day/five-day guidance is not a current statewide promise.
- Meal lodging caps
- NOT FOUND
Decisions this site cannot make: Trip and attendant prior authorization by the broker
Expect friction on: Lead time · Regional phone
The trap: MAS reviews medically necessary transport to covered Medicaid care, the suitable vehicle and any attendant. Meals or lodging require approval; a family attendant receives no salary. MAS confirms current booking lead times, processing and expense caps before travel arrangements.
Where I read this
- VNS Health Plans, Transportation (MAS regional numbers) — VNS Health Plans (Medicaid plan), read September 8, 2026
- NYSDOH, Medicaid Transportation Overview — New York State Department of Health, read September 8, 2026
- Medical Answering Services, Transportation brochure (2013) — Medical Answering Services (state transportation broker), read September 8, 2026
- NY Medicaid/eMedNY, Transportation Manual Policy Guidelines (2023-08-25) — eMedNY / NYSDOH, read September 8, 2026
- Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central New York, Stay With Us — Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central New York (nonprofit), read September 8, 2026
- State Medicaid Director letter 23-006: non-emergency medical transportation guide — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, read September 7, 2026