House Passes ANCOR-Backed Legislation Making Non-Emergency Medical Transportation a Mandatory Medicaid Benefit

The House unanimously passed by voice vote the Protecting Patients Transportation to Care Act, H.R. 3935, which codified non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) as a mandatory Medicaid benefit. ANCOR supports this legislation, which now heads to the Senate where bill supporters hope it will be incorporated into a year-end health package to increase its odds of passage. This legislation is result of a stand-off between Congress, which sought to preserve NEMT as a mandatory Medicaid benefit, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which sought in the past two years to turn NEMT into an optional benefit.

NEMT is essential to people with disabilities, many of whom would not be able to access critical health services, like dialysis, primary care, preventive care and care for substance use disorders without it.