Medicaid Beneficiaries Are Unequally Served by Non-Emergency Medical Transportation

Medicaid beneficiaries of different races and ethnic backgrounds may not have equal access to non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT), suggests a new study from the Medical Transportation Access Coalition (MTAC). While only a small number of Medicaid beneficiaries use NEMT, it is more common among beneficiaries with complex, costly medical needs. When breaking down NEMT utilization by race and ethnicity, MTAC (staffed by Faegre Drinker Consulting, in partnership with the National Opinion Research Center) found that the number of riders was not proportionate to overall enrollment distribution, which “indicates that NEMT is not serving beneficiaries of different races and ethnicities equally and may suggest a need for focused education about NEMT to certain groups.” Researchers and policymakers should focus on finding and addressing the root causes of these differences, the authors asserted. American Indian and Alaska Native beneficiaries had the highest utilization rates, followed by Black enrollees, then white enrollees.

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