Non-Emergency Medical Transportation
Non-Emergency Medical Transportation in Massachusetts & Rhode Island
A scheduled, wheelchair-accessible ride to dialysis, therapy, a hospital or a specialist — with a driver who comes to the door, helps you inside, and does not leave you at the kerb. Pickups from 4:00 am, across Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
★★★★★ 5.0 from 71 Google reviews
The short answer
Non-emergency medical transportation is a pre-booked, wheelchair-accessible ride to and from healthcare for a passenger who needs help travelling but does not need emergency treatment on the way. Carry On Services Inc provides it across Massachusetts and Rhode Island, from 4:00 am, for wheelchair users and for passengers who can walk.
There is no clinical care on board, because none is needed. What there is instead is a vehicle the passenger can enter without leaving their wheelchair, and a driver trained to help them from their front door to the reception desk and back again.
4:00 am
First pickups of the day
2 states
Massachusetts & Rhode Island
10% off
Dialysis & physical therapy rides
5.0 ★
71 Google reviews
What is non-emergency medical transportation?
Non-emergency medical transportation, usually shortened to NEMT, is transport to and from healthcare for someone who needs help getting there but does not need emergency care on the way.
That covers a great many people. Someone travelling to dialysis three times a week. Someone six days out of a hip replacement who cannot lower themselves into a car seat. Someone whose wheelchair does not fold, whose family car has no ramp, and whose appointment is twelve miles away on the other side of a city.
The distinction that matters is a clinical one. An ambulance carries trained clinicians, equipment and the ability to treat a person while the vehicle is moving. Non-emergency medical transportation carries none of that, because none of it is needed: the passenger is stable, the trip is planned in advance, and what they genuinely need is a vehicle they can get into and someone who will help them.
That is also why the two services cost such different amounts, and why calling an ambulance for a routine check-up is the wrong tool for the job.
A ride with Carry On Services Inc is booked ahead, priced before you confirm it, and driven by someone trained to assist. The vehicle takes a wheelchair without the passenger having to transfer out of it, and passengers who walk are carried just as readily. The service is wheelchair and ambulatory accessible. Nobody has to prove they are disabled enough to use it.
The company was founded by someone who worked in group homes and watched residents with mental illness and disabilities miss appointment after appointment for one reason: there was no way to get there. That is the problem this service was built to solve, and it is still why most people call.
Who uses handicap transport services?
People search for handicap transport services near them at a particular moment. Something has changed, and the way the family used to manage the journey no longer works.
The passengers this service is built around are:
- Wheelchair users, manual or powered, whose chair will not go into a standard car and who should not have to transfer twice for every single trip.
- People recovering from surgery, a stroke or a fall, for whom kerbs, steps and car seats have all become obstacles at the same time.
- Dialysis patients, travelling to the same centre several times a week, often leaving very early and coming home tired.
- Adults with disabilities in group homes or supported housing, where staff cannot leave the house short-handed to drive one resident to an appointment.
- Older adults who no longer drive, whose adult children work full time an hour away.
- People injured at work, whose travel forms part of a workers’ compensation claim.
The common thread is not a diagnosis. It is that “walk to the kerb, stand on it, and fold yourself into a saloon car” has stopped being a realistic set of instructions for this person today.
Handicap transport services exist for exactly that gap. The vehicle, the securement equipment and the driver’s training are all built around passengers who cannot use ordinary transport, and that is the whole difference. It is worth saying plainly: needing a ramp is not a reason to stay home.
- **Wheelchair users**, manual or powered, whose chair will not go into a standard car and who
- **People recovering from surgery, a stroke or a fall**, for whom kerbs, steps and car seats
- **Dialysis patients**, travelling to the same centre several times a week, often leaving very
- **Adults with disabilities in group homes or supported housing**, where staff cannot leave the
- **Older adults who no longer drive**, whose adult children work full time an hour away.
- **People injured at work**, whose travel forms part of a workers' compensation claim.
Where our wheelchair vans take passengers
A wheelchair van service is only worth anything if it goes where you actually need to go. These are the destinations this service covers:
- Hospitals — appointments, admissions and discharges
- Clinics and medical offices
- Dialysis centres
- Physical therapy centres
- Rehabilitation centres
- Primary care check-ups
- Specialist appointments
Dialysis and physical therapy are the two that repeat. A dialysis schedule can mean three round trips a week, every week, for years, and physical therapy after an injury runs for months. Both carry a 10% discount for that reason, because the cost of a single ride is not the number that matters to those families. The cost over a year is.
Round trips are the norm. You are collected, taken to the appointment, and collected again afterwards. One-way trips are equally available for a hospital discharge, when the journey out was made by ambulance and the journey home does not need to be.
This page covers medical destinations. If the trip is a grocery run, a church service or a family wedding, that is covered on our [senior transportation](/senior-transportation/) and [private transportation](/private-transportation/) pages.
- Hospitals — appointments, admissions and discharges
- Clinics and medical offices
- **Dialysis centres**
- **Physical therapy centres**
- **Rehabilitation centres**
- **Primary care check-ups**
- **Specialist appointments**
How to book a ride
Booking is deliberately short, because most people are arranging this while also arranging six other things.
1. Start the booking form, or call. The form is on the website; the phone number is (855) 638-2568 and the direct line is (508) 642-3995. Either route reaches the same place.
2. Tell us who is travelling. You choose wheelchair or ambulatory — that is, whether the passenger stays in their chair or walks with assistance. This decides which vehicle comes.
3. Choose one-way or round-trip. A round trip books the return leg at the same time so nobody is left waiting outside a clinic at the end of a long afternoon.
4. Give the pickup address, the destination and the appointment time. If the passenger cannot manage the stairs at their own front door, say so here. Our drivers are trained for it and it changes nothing except that we know before we arrive.
5. Check the cost estimate, then confirm. You see the estimated cost of the ride before you confirm the booking, not after the trip. If it does not work for you, you close the tab.
Plans change, especially medical plans. You can cancel whenever you want.
Door-to-door vs a standard rideshare
Rideshare apps are cheap, fast and everywhere, and for a great many journeys they are the right answer. For transport services for wheelchair users they usually are not, and the reason is mechanical before it is anything else.
The phrase people use for the difference is door-to-door, and it is worth spelling out because it is used loosely. Door-to-door means the driver comes to the door the passenger actually leaves from, helps them out of the building, and at the other end walks them inside the facility rather than pointing at the entrance.
For someone with a powered chair, poor balance or a recent surgery, the twenty feet between the kerb and the reception desk is not a detail. It is the part of the journey where people fall.
| Carry On Services Inc | Standard rideshare or taxi | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting in | Ramp or lift; the passenger stays in their wheelchair | Passenger must transfer into a car seat |
| The wheelchair | Secured to the vehicle floor for the journey | Folded into a boot, if it folds at all |
| Where the trip ends | At the door, and inside with them | At the kerb nearest the address |
| Driver assistance | Trained to assist, including passengers who cannot manage stairs | Driver normally stays in the vehicle |
| The return leg | Booked as a round trip in advance | Re-requested, and may not be available |
| Paying for it | Medicaid, Medicare, waivers, workers’ comp, private insurance, card or cash | Card only, entirely private pay |
Insurance, Medicaid and payment
Non-emergency medical transportation is one of the few kinds of transport that is often paid for by something other than the passenger, which is exactly why it is worth checking before you assume you cannot afford it.
10% discount on dialysis and physical therapy rides, because those are the two schedules that repeat for months or years rather than once.
Whether a specific plan will pay for a specific trip is decided by the plan, not by us. Coverage rules for Medicaid-funded transport are set at state level and published by [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services](https://www.cms.gov/), and Massachusetts publishes its own programme information at [mass.gov](https://www.mass.gov/). If you are travelling for dialysis, the [National Kidney Foundation](https://www.kidney.org/) is a useful starting point for what to ask your care team.
| Accepted | Notes |
|---|---|
| Medicaid | Accepted |
| Medicare | Accepted |
| ABI / MFP Waiver | Accepted |
| Private insurance | Accepted |
| Workers’ compensation | Accepted — common after a workplace injury |
| Cash | Accepted |
| Debit and credit cards | Accepted |
Serving Boston, Braintree and Rhode Island
Carry On Services Inc operates across Massachusetts and Rhode Island, which includes Boston and the Greater Boston hospitals many medical trips end at.
Main office: 25 Braintree Hill Office Pk #200, Braintree, MA 02184 Satellite office: Fall River, MA
Braintree puts us close to the Boston medical centres; Fall River covers the South Coast and the Rhode Island line, which is why cross-border trips are routine here rather than exceptional. A passenger living in Massachusetts whose specialist is in Providence is an ordinary booking, not a special case.
Book the ride, then think about the rest
Tell us who is travelling, where they are going and when. You will see the cost before you confirm anything, and you can cancel whenever you want.
Call (855) 638-2568 or (508) 642-3995, or email support@carryonservicesinc.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ten questions, answered plainly. None of them repeat on any other page of the site.
What is non-emergency medical transportation?
It is a pre-booked ride to and from healthcare for a passenger who needs help travelling but not emergency treatment on the way. The vehicle is wheelchair accessible, the trip is planned in advance, and the driver assists the passenger door to door.
Is non-emergency medical transportation the same as an ambulance?
No. An ambulance carries clinicians and equipment to treat someone while moving. Non-emergency medical transportation carries neither, because the passenger is stable and the trip is scheduled. If there is a medical emergency, call 911 rather than booking a ride.
Can you transport someone who does not use a wheelchair?
Yes. The service is wheelchair and ambulatory accessible. Passengers who walk with a stick, a frame or an arm to lean on are carried just as often as wheelchair users, and you choose which applies when you book.
How does a passenger get into a wheelchair van?
Through a ramp or lift, still seated in their own chair. There is no transfer into a car seat and no folding of the wheelchair. Once on board the chair is secured to the vehicle floor for the journey.
What does door-to-door actually mean?
The driver comes to the door the passenger leaves from, not the kerb outside. At the destination the driver assists them inside the facility rather than pointing at the entrance. The assisted part of the trip includes both buildings, not just the road between them.
Will the driver help me inside the hospital or clinic?
Yes. Drivers assist passengers inside facilities rather than dropping them at the entrance, which for someone using a powered chair or recovering from surgery is usually the part of the journey that needed help most.
My father's house has front steps and he cannot manage them. Is that a problem?
No. Drivers are trained to assist passengers who cannot manage stairs. Mention it when you book so the right help arrives with the vehicle, and nothing else about the booking changes.
How early in the morning can you collect someone?
From 4:00 am. Early starts are normal in this work, particularly for dialysis chairs and for hospital admissions with a morning report time, so the day begins well before most transport services open.
Is there a discount for dialysis or physical therapy rides?
Yes, 10% off both. They are the two treatment schedules that repeat for months or years, so the discount is applied to the rides where the annual total, rather than the single fare, is what the family is actually weighing up.
Do you cover Rhode Island as well as Massachusetts?
Yes. The service runs across both states from the main office in Braintree and a satellite office in Fall River, so a Massachusetts passenger with a Rhode Island appointment is an ordinary booking rather than a special arrangement. —
Book the ride, not the worry
Tell us what the week looks like and we will arrange it, including the trips that repeat every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.