Texas program
Medicaid rides, meals and lodging (NEMT)
Medicaid help getting your child to covered appointments, including rides or mileage when you drive.
What it is
Medicaid help getting your child to covered appointments, including rides or mileage when you drive.
The Medicaid plan’s transportation team reviews each trip. Longer trips can include a parent’s travel needs. Treatment approval and travel approval are separate, especially for out-of-state care.
Eligibility rules
- A child under 15 travels with an adult; a teenager can travel alone only with your written permission.
What you get
- Approved rides or mileage for covered appointments.
- Meals and lodging for a child through 20 and an accompanying parent when approved.
What the help covers
- Planned out-of-state care and travel usually need separate approvals. Texas Medicaid generally treats enrolled providers within 50 driving miles of the Texas border as in-state. Customary-care and emergency exceptions can change the steps. That classification does not automatically approve a service, ride or hotel. The coordinator can check treatment and travel separately.
- The plan’s travel vendor handles the trip; the plan or TMHP separately reviews the medical care.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the transportation team on your child’s Medicaid card about the appointment, ride or mileage, and any overnight stay.
- Have the appointment details and clinic contact ready. Ask your service coordinator to coordinate distant treatment and travel approvals.
Transportation number on the plan card; 877-633-8747 without a plan
If you decide to arrange a trip
- The plan’s transportation service normally asks for at least two days’ notice. Hospital discharge, an urgent condition needing care within 24 hours, and trips to obtain covered medicines or supplies can need shorter notice. The clinic and transportation service can arrange the appropriate exception rather than treat late notice as an automatic refusal.
- Without a Medicaid plan, 877-633-8747 serves fee-for-service Medicaid and CSHCN travel. Plan members use their plan number.
Good to know
Airfare or a hotel bought without advance approval may not be repaid.
Other details
- An approval for treatment alone does not pay a hotel bill. The counselor can check that the trip approval includes the parent, meals and lodging.
Official sources
“Could Medicaid cover our rides or mileage and any overnight stay, and could you help coordinate both travel and treatment approval?”
Why I’m asking: I need to know which travel costs we would have to pay ourselves.
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
Give the appointment details and ask for the ride, mileage, attendant and overnight needs in advance.
Your social worker
Coordinates long-distance requests and makes sure the treatment authorization and the travel authorization are both in place.
The care team
Confirms the covered appointment and documents urgent or special travel needs.
- Who decides
- The plan's transportation vendor authorizes the trip. The plan or TMHP separately authorizes out-of-state care
- Ask your social worker
- “Who is getting both the treatment authorization and the travel authorization for our distant appointment?”
How to apply
First step: Call the transportation number on the plan card at least two business days before the appointment. For an out-of-state referral, ask the service coordinator to start the out-of-network authorization first.
- Book two business days ahead through the plan.
- For out-of-state care, get the treatment authorization first, then travel.
Where it starts: Transportation number on the plan card; 877-633-8747 without a plan
What to gather
- Medicaid card and plan
- Appointment address and provider
- The approved referral
- Driver, attendant and lodging details the plan asks for
How long: Two-day booking. Urgent discharge exceptions exist.
What a yes looks like
A booking or authorization number naming the mode, date, destination and approved expenses.
What a no looks like, and the next move
Ask whether the denial is about the service, the destination, a missing authorization or the mode. Use the plan's written appeal.
Watch out
- Call the number on the child's Medicaid plan card. 877-633-8747 is only for fee-for-service (no plan) and CSHCN.
- Out-of-state care needs three approvals: the provider enrolled in Texas Medicaid, the treatment authorized, then the travel.
- Do not buy airfare or a hotel expecting reimbursement without an authorization number.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 8, 2026.
What it is worth
Rides or mileage to covered care and, for a child through age 20, meals and lodging with a parent when treatment is far away. Approved trip by trip.
Covers: Rides or mileage · Transit tickets · Meals and lodging for the child and a parent for overnight trips · Attendant travel
What it costs the family: None.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Medicaid
- yes
- Covered trip
- yes
- Meals lodging through age
- 20
The trap: Call the number on the child's Medicaid plan card. 877-633-8747 is only for fee-for-service and CSHCN.
Where I read this
- Medical Transportation Program — Texas Health and Human Services, read August 27, 2026
- TMPPM Volume 1 §1.1 and §1.9 (out-of-state provider enrollment); SMPA fax 512-514-4213 — Texas Medicaid & Healthcare Partnership, read September 7, 2026