The Wire — Week of September 14, 2026
Oregon convicts two NEMT owners for billing rides given to the dead, Colorado hits two more transition milestones, Wisconsin's broker handoff stays dateless, Modivcare reshuffles leadership, and Louisiana's ARPA money runs out in two weeks.
The Wire is NEMT Wire's weekly news brief: the contract awards, rate moves, and regulatory decisions that decide who carries the trips. Five items this week.
1. Oregon convicts two NEMT owners for billing rides given to the dead
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced Thursday that two Portland NEMT operators — Abraham Kindane Kashay of Pride Transit LLC and Tedros Gebrezgabhere of Hope Medical Transport LLC — pleaded guilty this month to false-claims charges after billing Medicaid for transportation provided to members who had died. Kashay pleaded guilty September 10 (36 months' probation, $6,420 restitution, $5,000 fine); Gebrezgabhere pleaded September 15 ($12,695 restitution, $5,000 fine). Both are barred from operating any business that receives Medicaid funding — and both cases were referred by a managed-care plan, Trillium Community Health Plan, not by the state. The takeaway for operators: your payer's claims data is the front line of fraud detection, and deceased-member billing is the easiest flag there is.
Source: Oregon DOJ media release, Sept. 17, 2026
2. Colorado: statewide webinar held, new-provider enrollment opens Oct. 1
HCPF and MediDrive held the statewide broker transition provider webinar September 15; a recording and materials will be posted to the HCPF NEMT page. Two dates matter next: the provider enrollment moratorium (in place since October 2023) runs through September 30, and on October 1 new companies can begin enrolling as Colorado NEMT providers for the first time in three years. Statewide contracting for already-enrolled providers has been open since September 1, and everything runs through MediDrive on January 1, 2027 — if you haven't started MediDrive onboarding and your ProCredEx credentialing, the window is closing. Our full transition guide is here.
Source: Colorado HCPF NEMT transition hub
3. Wisconsin's Verida handoff still has no date
Four months after Wisconsin DHS announced its intent to award the statewide NEMT contract to Verida (May 21), the department still lists no timeline for the transition from MTM Health. DHS says members should keep booking through MTM and will be notified when the switch comes. For providers: nothing to do yet, but expect Verida network contracting to open with limited lead time once a date lands — Georgia's April 1 statewide expansion shows how fast Verida moves when a start date is set.
Source: Wisconsin DHS — 2026 NEMT vendor announcement
4. Modivcare installs new Personal Care CEO as post-bankruptcy rebuild continues
Modivcare named Marshalina "Marsha" Ramos, DNP, RN, chief executive of its Personal Care Services segment on September 8, following the September 1 start of new Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Matt Williams. The leadership rebuild is worth watching for NEMT operators in Modivcare states: how the reorganized company staffs and structures its segments will shape provider relations, payment timeliness, and whether it defends its broker contracts as they come up for rebid. Our look at the post-Chapter 11 broker market is here.
Source: Modivcare newsroom — Ramos appointment
5. Deadline watch: Louisiana's ARPA NEMT program ends September 30
Two weeks out: Louisiana's ARPA-funded NEMT supplement sunsets September 30, with final provider payments issuing October 31. Operators carrying trip volume under the program should confirm which riders revert to standard Medicaid NEMT arrangements and get October scheduling squared away now. We covered the wind-down in detail here.
Source: Louisiana Department of Health — Medical Transportation Provider Resources