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Hospital discharge rides, plan by plan.

A hospital discharge is the Medi-Cal trip a provider can’t plan the night before. DHCS sets a three-hour limit for some of them, and each plan adds its own rules about notice, paperwork and who takes the trip when the van can’t get there in time.

From DHCS and each plan’s own documents, checked on . Not legal or billing advice.

The DHCS rule

DHCS’s All Plan Letter 22-008 requires plans to provide NEMT from an acute care hospital to a skilled nursing or psychiatric facility within three hours of the request. These transfers, and transfers from an emergency room to an inpatient setting, need no prior authorization. If a scheduled provider is late or doesn’t arrive, the plan must arrange urgent NEMT so the member doesn’t miss the appointment.

Discharge rules by plan

What each plan’s own documents say about discharges
PlanDischarge rule
Partnership HealthPlanPicked up within three hours of the request; a provider contracted with Partnership that accepts the trip is paid at its contract rate.
San Francisco Health PlanModivCare’s provider has up to three hours (one hour from an emergency room). If it can’t, the trip may go to the hospital’s contracted provider at ModivCare’s cost; a provider already on site gets a new trip number to bill ModivCare.
L.A. CareSame-day notice for NEMT discharges and transfers, against two business days for other NEMT.
IEHPExempt from the five-day notice. Since June 2026 hospital and skilled nursing requests have “Wait and Return” fields.
Anthem Blue CrossNo advance notice for facility discharges (or dialysis, chemotherapy, radiation, urgent care and wound care).
Health NetUrgent services, discharges included, with up to four hours’ lead time.

Health Plan of San Joaquin’s documents say approval isn’t needed for non-emergency transportation between medical facilities.

Paperwork on a discharge

  • No PCS form, no prior authorization: emergency room to inpatient, and acute hospital to a skilled nursing, intermediate care or inpatient psychiatric facility right after an inpatient stay.
  • Other discharges home or elsewhere follow the plan’s usual NEMT rules; for urgent care the plan can approve by phone and the PCS follows. See Medi-Cal PCS forms by plan.
  • Fee-for-service Medi-Cal: transport from an acute care hospital to a long-term care facility needs no TAR, prescription or signature.

Fitting discharges into a day already planned

A three-hour discharge arrives when every run is already out. The question is which van can take it without making another rider late, and only the day’s live plan can answer it: where each van is, what it carries and the pickup windows still ahead. That is the job of NEMT dispatch software; the same thinking covers will-call returns, which also arrive without a time.

Questions

How fast must a Medi-Cal hospital discharge be picked up?

DHCS requires plans to provide NEMT from an acute care hospital to a skilled nursing or psychiatric facility within three hours of the request. Partnership HealthPlan and San Francisco Health Plan apply three hours to discharges, and San Francisco Health Plan one hour from an emergency room.

Does a hospital discharge need a PCS form?

Not for a transfer from an emergency room to an inpatient setting, or from an acute care hospital right after an inpatient stay to a skilled nursing, intermediate care or psychiatric facility. Other discharges follow the plan's usual NEMT rules.

Sources

Checked on . Rules change: check the current version with the payer before you bill.

Plan by plan

Each plan’s page has its notice periods, PCS form and billing rules; the rules every plan shares are on NEMT in California.

See a day of your Medi-Cal trips in MileCall.

Bring a day of trips and a broker file. We’ll map it, plan and dispatch the day, drive it in the driver app and show how each payer’s legs bill.

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