The Wire — Week of September 21, 2026
Colorado providers scale back under a two-thirds rate cut 100 days before the MediDrive handoff, the enrollment moratorium lifts next week, CMS work requirements enter the outreach phase, OIG has NEMT payment audits in progress, and Louisiana's ARPA money runs out in one week.
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. Colorado providers scale back as July rate cuts bite — with the statewide broker handoff 100 days out
The fallout from Colorado's July 1 rate changes is now visible on the ground. HCPF's budget-reduction guidance cut the per-trip base for taxicab (A0100) and mobility/ambulatory vehicle (A0120) trips to $12.40, and taxi/ambulatory and wheelchair-van mileage to $2.80 per loaded mile — with an additional 2% across-the-board reduction applied on top. Colorado Springs-area provider Van With a Plan, which carries children to and from ABA therapy, told KOAA it is reducing service after its per-trip reimbursement fell from $36.40 to roughly $12.15; Grand Junction's Sunshine Taxi says the cuts are shrinking options on the Western Slope, and MedRide discontinued ambulatory Medicaid transportation in El Paso County in August. For operators, the squeeze lands at the worst possible moment: the same providers being asked to absorb a two-thirds cut are the network MediDrive needs signed up before the statewide broker model goes live January 1.
Sources: HCPF — Medicaid Provider Rate Reductions Q&A (FY 2025-26 / 2026-27); KOAA News5 — Colorado Medicaid transportation cuts force local provider to reduce services
2. Colorado countdown: enrollment moratorium ends Sept. 30, new providers can enroll Oct. 1
Two dates hit next week. Colorado's NEMT provider enrollment moratorium — in place since October 2023 — runs through September 30, and on October 1 new companies can enroll as Health First Colorado NEMT providers for the first time in three years. Existing providers have been able to contract with MediDrive statewide since September 1; members start scheduling through the MediDrive app, website, and phone line December 1, and everything runs through the broker January 1, 2027. If you're an incumbent, expect new competition in your service area for the first time since 2023 — and if you've been waiting to enter Colorado, next Wednesday is the door opening. Our full transition guide is here.
Source: Colorado HCPF — NEMT transition hub
3. Medicaid work requirements are in the outreach phase — trip volume is the exposure
States must implement the federal 80-hour-per-month community engagement (work) requirement for certain adult Medicaid enrollees by January 1, 2027, under the interim final rule CMS issued June 1 — and states targeting January implementation are required to be in member outreach now, this fall. For NEMT operators the mechanism to watch is eligibility churn: members who miss reporting deadlines lose coverage, and every disenrolled member is a rider who stops generating trips. Operators in expansion states should ask their brokers and MCO partners how disenrollment projections are being built into 2027 trip forecasts.
Sources: CMS fact sheet — Medicaid Community Engagement Requirement interim final rule (CMS-2454-IFC); Federal Register, June 3, 2026
4. HHS-OIG has NEMT payment audits in progress — records are the whole game
A reminder that the federal microscope is on: the HHS Office of Inspector General has an active audit series (announced in May, first audit now in progress, series running through an estimated FY2028) examining whether selected states complied with Medicaid payment requirements for NEMT services. OIG's stated focus is exactly the paperwork operators control — prior authorization supported by a practitioner's order, lawful authorization to provide transportation, and records supporting every service billed. State audits roll downhill to provider record requests; if your trip documentation wouldn't survive a records pull today, fix that before your state is the one selected.
Source: HHS-OIG Work Plan — Audits of Medicaid NEMT Services (SRS-A-26-028)
5. Deadline watch: Louisiana's ARPA NEMT program ends in one week
Final call: Louisiana's ARPA-funded NEMT supplement sunsets September 30, with final provider payments issuing by October 31. If you're still carrying trips under the program, confirm which riders revert to standard Medicaid NEMT arrangements and lock in October scheduling this week. We covered the wind-down in detail here.
Source: Louisiana Department of Health — Medical Transportation Provider Resources
States in this piece:ColoradoLouisianaNational / Federal