The Wire — Week of October 26, 2026
A Saratoga County NEMT owner is charged with billing $714,664 for rides that never happened as New York’s Medicaid fraud sweep widens, Colorado puts the January 1 MediDrive rules in writing with a trading-partner deadline this Friday, Michigan’s broker bids are due, the federal fraud rule that names NEMT sits at the White House, MediRoutes moves dispatch into the browser, and Uber says more than half of states have cleared it for Medicaid rides.
The Wire is NEMT Wire's weekly news brief: the contract awards, rate moves, and regulatory decisions that decide who carries the trips. This week: a $714,000 Medicaid transportation arrest upstate as New York's fraud sweep widens, Colorado puts the January 1 rules in writing, Michigan's broker bids are due Friday, and the federal fraud rule that names NEMT is sitting at the White House.
1. New York: Saratoga County NEMT owner charged with billing $714,664 for rides that didn't happen
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Saratoga County District Attorney Brett Eby, Sheriff Jeffrey Brown and Acting Medicaid Inspector General Frank Walsh announced October 23 that Rohan Crosdale, 40, of Ballston Spa, owner of Smart Choice Temp Agency Inc., was arrested on two counts of second-degree grand larceny, one count of third-degree grand larceny and one count of prohibited practices. The Sheriff's Office brought the case to the Comptroller in May 2024; a forensic audit found the company billed Medicaid $714,663.95 over four years "using various schemes including for rides that did not occur," according to the release. Crosdale, a Medicaid-enrolled provider since February 2020 and the company's sole owner, is due back in Saratoga County Court November 25; the charges are accusations and he is presumed innocent. It is the second Capital Region NEMT case in a month — on September 28, brothers Junaid and Jawad Choudhary of Clifton Park pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny over $1.6 million in false claims through A1 Rides and NY Jet Transport, with sentencing set for December 14 — and it landed the same week federal and state agents searched adult day care centers across New York City in a Medicaid fraud probe the governor's office says covers more than 100 providers. What it means for you: New York's enforcement machine now runs county sheriff to state comptroller to OMIG in one chain, and the trip log is the evidence. If you run MAS-authorized trips, every claim should tie to an attestation, a GPS trace or a signed trip ticket you can produce two years later.
Sources: NY State Comptroller — Saratoga County Medicaid Transportation Provider Arrested for Allegedly Stealing Over $700,000 (Oct 23, 2026); NY OMIG — Two Capital Region brothers plead guilty in $1.6 million Medicaid transportation fraud (Sept 29, 2026); NY1 — More than 100 adult daycare providers targeted in Medicaid fraud investigation (Oct 20, 2026)
2. Colorado: the October bulletin spells out January 1 — no MediDrive approval, no payment — and a trading-partner deadline hits Friday
HCPF's October 2026 Provider Bulletin puts the statewide transition in the plainest language yet: starting January 1, 2027, "all Non-Emergent Medical Transportation (NEMT) trips must be scheduled and approved through MediDrive, and all provider reimbursements will be processed through MediDrive. Providers will not be reimbursed for trips that are not scheduled and approved through MediDrive." Trips performed before that date can still be billed directly to the Department within the 365-day timely-filing window. The bulletin also publishes a third version of the transition memo (Operational Memo OM26-060), tells providers to contract with MediDrive under "the exact same business name and National Provider Identifier (NPI)/Medicaid ID" used with Health First Colorado — not a dba — and warns that MediDrive onboarding "can take approximately a week or longer." Facilities and RAEs outside the Denver metro should enroll now in MediDrive's facility portal (facility.medidrive.com), which from January 1 handles discharges, standing orders and scheduling. Two dates outside the hub page: HCPF's October 23 newsletter says every provider that submits batch claims or receives the 835 remittance through a trading partner or clearinghouse must confirm enrollment on the new Trading Partner Enrollment and Testing site before October 30, 2026 — files left in MOVEit will not transfer — and Health First Colorado posted its member webinar for December 8 (12 to 1:30 p.m., Zoom, Spanish and ASL). Members outside the nine metro counties start booking through MediDrive December 1 for trips on or after January 1 (our full transition guide). Sixty-six days.
Sources: Colorado HCPF — October 2026 Provider Bulletin, B2600543 (PDF; "Transportation Providers," "Statewide Broker Transition," "NEMT Communications"); Colorado HCPF — Provider News & Resources, Oct 23, 2026, Issue 155 (PDF; Trading Partner Deadline October 30); Health First Colorado — Webinar: Learn about NEMT changes coming January 1 (posted Oct 20, 2026); Colorado HCPF — NEMT statewide broker transition hub
3. Michigan: broker proposals are due Friday — and the state audit of the current program has slipped to "Late 2026"
Bids on MDHHS's RFP-491-260000002254, the fee-for-service NEMT broker contract for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties "with possible expansion to all Michigan counties" that we covered last week, are due October 30 as posted on SIGMA Vendor Self Service (one trade outlet has reported a November 6 extension; check SIGMA before relying on either). The contract runs August 1, 2027 through July 31, 2030 with up to five one-year renewals, pays a monthly per-member capitated rate, and puts the winner in charge of eligibility calls, scheduling, provider reimbursement rates, volunteer-driver recruitment and prior authorizations through CHAMPS. Today Modivcare holds the tri-county contract (190000000912); everywhere else, local MDHHS offices still authorize rides. Meanwhile the Office of the Auditor General's performance audit of Medicaid NEMT — $160.5 million in spending from October 1, 2024 through March 31, 2026 — now lists an estimated release of "Late 2026," after reading "October 2026" earlier this month. Operators outside metro Detroit: whoever bids this week is already sizing a statewide network, and the audit will be the state's argument for why.
Sources: RFP-491-260000002254-1 listing — NEMT Broker for Medicaid FFS Beneficiaries (posted Aug 27, 2026; response deadline Oct 30, 2026); Michigan SIGMA Vendor Self Service (search Opportunity ID 260000002254); Michigan Office of the Auditor General — Medicaid Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Services, work in progress; MDHHS Contract 190000000912 — ModivCare Solutions, NEMT Broker for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties (PDF)
4. Federal: the CMS fraud rule that names NEMT is at the White House — and CMS wants to rebuild its fraud contractors by November 4
Two federal program-integrity moves to watch. First, the Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare proposed rule (CRUSH, CMS-6098, RIN 0938-AV97) has been "Pending EO 12866 regulatory review" at the Office of Management and Budget since August 7, with a Unified Agenda target of October 2026 — which means it can publish any day. The February request for information that preceded it listed "Nonemergency medical transportation" among the Medicaid "service areas that have been identified as high risk for fraud in certain states" and asked whether high-risk providers should revalidate more often than every five years. Second, on October 5 CMS posted a Request for Information on "Fraud Defense Contracts" (sam.gov Notice 270536) that would reshape the Unified Program Integrity Contractor model, with CMS taking over lead generation and prioritization and contractors executing investigations; the response form asks, among other things, how Medicaid investigations should be coordinated with state agencies and Medicaid Fraud Control Units. Responses are due November 4 at 11 a.m. Eastern. Neither document changes a rule today. Together they say where enforcement is heading: NEMT is on the federal high-risk list by name, revalidation is likely to get more frequent, and the investigators will be steered from Baltimore.
Sources: reginfo.gov — OMB EO 12866 review: CRUSH (CMS-6098), RIN 0938-AV97, received Aug 7, 2026; Federal Register — Request for Information Related to Comprehensive Regulations To Uncover Suspicious Healthcare (Feb 27, 2026, 91 FR 9803); sam.gov — Request for Information: Fraud Defense Contracts, Notice 270536 (published Oct 5, 2026; responses due Nov 4, 2026); Discoveries in Health Policy — CMS Wants Your Views on its Fraud Contractors (Oct 7, 2026)
5. Operations: MediRoutes moves dispatch into the browser, a week after shipping trip-history ETAs
Phoenix-based MediRoutes announced October 21 that its rebuilt dispatch platform now runs entirely in a web browser — laptop, tablet or phone — with batch scheduling (trips auto-assigned by appointment time, vehicle capacity, space type and driver availability), a single map view of vehicles and trips, multi-loading of compatible trips, one-bar search, and a "Where's My Ride" tracking link sent to riders or facility staff by text or email with no app to install. It follows the company's October 13 release of Predictive ETAs, which estimates route times from a machine-learning model trained on its own customers' completed GPS trips rather than consumer map times. The company says the new dispatch is included at no extra cost for existing customers and that it has supported more than 100 million NEMT trips since 2008; those are MediRoutes' figures. Why it matters: broker scorecards run on on-time percentage, and the dispatch-software vendors are now competing on how well the 6 a.m. promise holds up at 2 p.m. — and on whether the person fixing a late pickup has to be sitting at a desk.
Sources: PR Newswire — MediRoutes Launches a New Dispatch Experience, Bringing Dispatch to Any Browser (Oct 21, 2026); PR Newswire — MediRoutes Launches Predictive ETAs (Oct 13, 2026)
6. Rideshare: Uber says more than half of states have approved it for Medicaid rides
In a Forbes profile published October 20, Uber Health's global head Jen Shepherd said the unit, now in its eighth year, has been approved for Medicaid programs in more than half of U.S. states covering 82 percent of Medicaid enrollees, serves more than 5,000 health and social-care customers a month, and more than doubled both its U.S. customer base and trips per customer between the first half of 2022 and the second half of 2026 — all company-reported numbers. The piece also cites Uber's Veterans Health Administration work (over 260,000 rides for 38,000-plus veterans) and says the company's next moves are more rider control over booking, rural expansion, and "door-to-door" support for people who need help beyond curb to curb. The article never mentions brokers, but operators should read it that way: ambulatory volume is the slice brokers can route to rideshare at a lower rate, and "door-to-door support" is Uber describing the part of your service it does not have yet.
7. Watch list: New Mexico Sunday, CMTA next Friday, DC, Wisconsin, Maryland
New Mexico: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico's Medicaid rides move from Modivcare to MTM Health this Sunday, November 1 — scheduled and recurring trips carry over automatically; if you are not credentialed with MTM Health, that volume goes to someone who is. California: CMTA's annual meeting is Friday, November 6 at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport, where the 2027 rate-bill ask gets set. Washington, DC: no Contract Appeals Board decision in MTM's protest of the Verida award (P-1231) has surfaced; MTM Health remains the fee-for-service broker through December 31 under the bridge extension. Wisconsin: DHS's vendor page is still dated August 25 and still says there is no timeframe for the move from MTM to Verida. Maryland: a correction to earlier editions — the Maryland Department of Health did post a solicitation titled "Statewide Administration of Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) for the Maryland Medicaid Program" on September 19, 2025, closing November 20, 2025; we have found no award or cancellation notice since, and will keep checking eMMA.
Sources: BCBSNM provider notice — MTM Health To Provide Nonemergency Medical Transportation for Medicaid Members, Effective Nov. 1, 2026; CMTA — Annual Meeting 2026; DC Council — CA26-1002, Proposed Contract No. CW89317 with Medical Transportation Management, Inc. (deemed approved Sep 27, 2026); Wisconsin DHS — 2026 Announcement for Wisconsin's NEMT Vendor; BidNet Direct — Statewide Administration of NEMT for the Maryland Medicaid Program (published Sept 19, 2025; closed Nov 20, 2025)
States in this piece:CaliforniaColoradoMarylandMichiganNew MexicoNew YorkWashington, DCWisconsinNational / Federal