Free Transportation for Medical Appointments in Georgia

Why this Georgia NEMT directory looks “broken up”

Here’s what probably happened to you.

You googled “free ride to the doctor in Georgia.” You found a phone number. You called. And you got bounced.

Wrong region. Wrong program. Wrong eligibility. Wrong kind of ride.

And you walked away thinking there must be one master list you’re missing.

There isn’t.

I built this directory to match the way Georgia actually works: not as one system, but as multiple systems stacked on top of each other—each funded differently, run by different agencies, and guarded by different gatekeepers. That’s why this page is split into sections instead of pretending one clean statewide list exists.

The hidden rule is simple:

In Georgia, the money decides the phone number.

If Medicaid is paying, you enter a broker world. If the VA is paying, you enter a VA travel-office world. If nobody is paying, you’re hunting in local transit programs, charities, churches, hospitals, and county services—each with their own rules.

This directory is organized the way the real world is organized: by which lane you qualify for.

---

The real reason there is no single statewide list

When people say “NEMT directory,” they imagine a phone book of ride companies.

But the biggest transportation systems in Georgia do not publish their full provider lists.

They publish a front door.

That’s not a design quirk. It’s how these programs are built.

• Medicaid NEMT is managed through brokers, and the broker’s subcontractor network changes constantly. The public-facing “directory” is the broker contact map—because that’s the only number you’re allowed to use.
• The VA often routes transportation through a parent facility’s Beneficiary Travel or travel office—because many smaller clinics don’t have transportation staff with booking authority. That’s why you’ll see parent travel office numbers in the VA section.
• Outside Medicaid and the VA, there is no single statewide operator. Transportation help is local: county transit, regional ride programs, senior programs, nonprofits, volunteer drivers, faith-based groups, and healthcare organizations.

So this page is not “one list.”

It’s a stitched-together map of the real gateways that actually get rides booked.

---

How to use this page (fast)

Don’t start by searching for a van company.

Start by answering one question:

Which lane are you in?

1. If you have Georgia Medicaid, start in the Medicaid section and call the broker for your region.
2. If you’re a Veteran using VA care, start in the VA section and use the Beneficiary Travel / travel office numbers.
3. If you have Medicare, start in the Medicare help section because the “ride” may be tied to plan benefits and eligibility rules.
4. If none of the above fits (or you need a backup), go local: regional ride programs, county/city programs, charities, faith-based rides, and healthcare organizations.

The table of contents on this page isn’t decoration. It’s the structure of the system.

---

1) Medicaid NEMT is a broker world

If Medicaid is paying, you do not “find a ride company.”

You find your broker.

Georgia Medicaid NEMT runs through a brokerage system, with brokers coordinating rides across regions. That one design choice explains most of the frustration:

You can’t call the subcontracted van provider directly, because Medicaid NEMT isn’t built as a marketplace. It’s built as a dispatch-and-control system.

So the “directory” for Medicaid is not a list of vans. It’s the official broker entry points published by Georgia Medicaid. (Georgia Medicaid Non-Emergency Medical Transportation)

And if you’re wondering why your county matters so much: your county decides your region, and your region decides your broker, and your broker decides your vehicle.

That’s why Medicaid gets its own section on this page. It isn’t just “one more option.” It’s a separate universe.

---

2) VA transportation is a travel-office world

The VA lane is its own system with its own vocabulary and power structure.

The person who can actually book or authorize help is often not sitting at the clinic you visit.

They’re sitting at the parent facility—usually in Beneficiary Travel or a travel office—because that’s where authority lives.

That’s why, in the VA section of this directory, you’ll sometimes see a “parent travel office” number instead of a small clinic’s front desk number: calling the clinic often just gets you transferred anyway, so this directory tries to skip the transfer.

This is also why VA transportation information is hard to centralize. It’s not one statewide dispatch. It’s multiple VA health care systems, each with their own travel workflow.

---

3) Medicare is not a ride program—so the “directory” is different

This is where people waste the most time.

They assume Medicare works like Medicaid: “I have Medicare, therefore I should have a Medicare ride line.”

Traditional Medicare generally doesn’t operate a statewide NEMT dispatch program the way Medicaid does. When Medicare beneficiaries have transportation help, it’s often coming from somewhere else—like a Medicare Advantage plan benefit, a local aging program, or a nonprofit.

That’s why this page includes Georgia SHIP.

SHIP is a counseling program that helps people with Medicare understand coverage and benefits and navigate their options. (Georgia SHIP; SHIP locator for Georgia)

In other words: this section exists because “transportation help” for Medicare is often locked behind plan details and paperwork, not behind a dispatcher phone number.

---

4) Local and regional ride programs are a geography world

If you’re not in Medicaid and not using VA travel, most transportation help in Georgia becomes local by necessity.

That means two things:

• The phone number changes when you cross a county line.
• The rules change when you cross a county line.

Some counties have demand-response vans. Some have senior shuttles. Some have almost nothing—until you find the one regional operator quietly covering multiple counties with one dispatch line.

This is also the section where rural transit systems matter. In many rural areas, the practical “medical ride” option is the local demand-response public transit provider, not a taxi, not a rideshare, and not a hospital shuttle.

So this directory has to list local and regional programs as a separate lane, because there is no statewide umbrella that publishes them in one consistent format.

---

5) Condition-specific help is a disease world

Cancer care, dialysis, and other recurring treatments create a different transportation problem: frequency.

A one-time appointment is hard.

Three rides a week for months is brutal.

That’s why some of the most effective ride help is buried inside disease-specific ecosystems: cancer support programs, dialysis social workers, foundation grants, volunteer driver networks tied to a diagnosis.

These programs often won’t show up in a generic “NEMT list,” because they don’t present themselves as transportation providers. They present themselves as patient support.

This page separates them so you can find them without wading through Medicaid rules or county transit eligibility first.

---

6) Faith-based rides are a relationship world

Faith-based groups often fill the cracks nobody else covers:

• last-minute rides
• short trips that don’t qualify elsewhere
• help for people who don’t “fit” a government program

But the catch is consistency. Many of these rides depend on volunteers, and availability can change week to week.

That’s why this directory isolates faith-based rides as its own section: the rules are different, and the reliability profile is different.

---

7) Healthcare organization rides are a hospital world

Hospitals and clinics sometimes have transportation help that never appears in any public directory:

• shuttles between campuses
• ride vouchers
• contracts with local van companies for certain patients
• foundation-funded transport for specific service lines

But you usually can’t access that help by calling a generic number. You access it through the clinic, the discharge planner, or the social work department.

So this page treats “healthcare organization rides” as its own lane: it’s not about finding the perfect ride company—it’s about finding the right person inside the healthcare system who can unlock what already exists.

---

8) County & city programs are a government world

Counties and cities often run transportation programs that look like NEMT, even when they aren’t labeled that way:

• senior transportation
• paratransit
• dial-a-ride
• community shuttles

These are real lifelines—but they are also fragmented, because Georgia doesn’t run them as one statewide service. Counties build what they can afford, and they publish it (or don’t) in their own way.

That’s why this directory has a county/city section instead of pretending one statewide PDF exists.

---

The source portals that make this directory possible

This page is “broken up” because the underlying sources are broken up.

Here are some of the primary public portals this directory pulls from and cross-checks:

Organization	What it covers (why it matters)
Georgia Medicaid NEMT page	The official entry point for Medicaid rides (broker-based routing by region).
Verida Georgia member info	Medicaid broker portal information for regions routed to Verida.
Modivcare Georgia page	Broker information and facility scheduling resources for Modivcare regions.
HMHBGA Public Resource Portal	A statewide searchable resource portal (including transportation) with thousands of listings across all Georgia counties.
Georgia SHIP	Medicare counseling support—useful when transportation is tied to plan benefits and eligibility details.
Georgia Mobility and Accessibility Planner (G-MAP)	An example of where directories are heading: tools that help people navigate barriers, not just read phone lists.

If you’ve ever wondered why transportation help feels impossible to “just find,” this is the answer: Georgia doesn’t run one medical transportation program. It runs multiple lanes. This directory is split so you can get into the right lane faster.