Colorado’s non-emergency medical transportation program is going through its biggest structural change in years. The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) is consolidating NEMT under a single statewide broker, MediDrive, replacing the patchwork that providers have navigated under Transdev Health Solutions (formerly IntelliRide) and county-administered service areas. If you move Health First Colorado members, this affects how you get trips, how you get paid, and what you have to do to stay in the network.
This guide explains who MediDrive is, what it will manage, the rollout timeline, and the concrete steps Colorado NEMT providers should take now so the July 1, 2026 transition doesn’t interrupt their trips or their cash flow.
What’s actually changing in 2026
For years, Colorado’s NEMT has been administered through a mix of a statewide broker for the Denver metro region and individual county arrangements elsewhere. HCPF is replacing that with one statewide broker model under MediDrive. The goal is a single, consistent front door for trip intake, scheduling, provider credentialing, and payment across the whole state, rather than different rules and contacts depending on the county.
For providers, the headline is simple: the entity that assigns your trips and pays your claims is changing. The relationships, portals, and contracts you’ve maintained under the prior broker don’t automatically carry over. To keep receiving trips after the cutover, you need to be contracted and credentialed with MediDrive.
Who is MediDrive and what will it manage
MediDrive was selected by HCPF as the broker to run the statewide NEMT program. Its scope is broad. According to the state’s transition materials, MediDrive will handle provider credentialing and network management, trip intake and scheduling, dispatch to transportation providers, member support (including no-shows and schedule changes), trip verification, and provider reimbursement.
Beyond the day-to-day, MediDrive is also responsible for out-of-state travel authorization and payment, transit pass and voucher distribution, provider auditing, and oversight of a NEMT advisory board and community council. In practice that means MediDrive becomes the hub for nearly every operational and financial interaction a provider has with the program.
The rollout timeline
The transition is phased to avoid disrupting members. It begins in the nine-county Denver metro area — Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson, Larimer, and Weld counties — where members will start using MediDrive first. The statewide broker model then expands to all remaining counties so that NEMT across Colorado is managed by MediDrive.
The key date is July 1, 2026. Trips for appointments on or after that date in the nine-county metro cannot be assigned to transportation providers who are not contracted with MediDrive. Provider enrollment with MediDrive begins earlier, on May 1, 2026, but only for providers who are up to date on their credentialing — which is the part most providers underestimate.
What providers should do now
The single most important thing is to make sure your credentialing is current so you are eligible to enroll with MediDrive when the window opens. That means having completed credentialing and keeping your vehicle and driver rosters updated in your ProCredEx account. Providers who let rosters drift out of date risk missing the enrollment window and losing trip assignments at the cutover.
Practically, providers in the nine-county metro should aim to be contracted with MediDrive as soon as possible rather than waiting until the deadline. Confirm your roster accuracy, complete the MediDrive contracting steps, and make sure your operations and billing teams know that trip intake and claims routing will change. Treat July 1 as a hard line: a provider who isn’t contracted simply won’t receive metro trips dated on or after it.
What it means for your day-to-day operations
Under a broker model, much of the eligibility and verification work shifts to the broker. Providers in the MediDrive network receive trip assignments and, in many cases, document trips on broker-assigned tablets rather than performing the full independent verification process themselves. That can reduce administrative load — but it also means your systems need to integrate cleanly with how MediDrive sends trips and collects trip documentation.
This is where your own scheduling and dispatch software still matters. Even with a broker assigning trips, you are managing drivers, vehicles, routes, on-time performance, and the trip records that support payment. Providers who run a capable platform — one that can ingest assigned trips, optimize routing, capture compliant trip documentation, and reconcile payments — will absorb the transition far more smoothly than those still working from spreadsheets and paper.
Winners, risks, and the bottom line
A single statewide broker should bring consistency: one set of rules, one credentialing pathway, one payer relationship. For organized providers, that’s an opportunity to scale across counties without juggling different county arrangements. The risk falls on providers who treat the transition as paperwork to handle later — lapsed credentialing, an outdated roster, or a missed contracting deadline can mean a sudden loss of assignable trips.
The bottom line for 2026: get credentialed, keep your ProCredEx rosters current, contract with MediDrive early, and make sure your scheduling, dispatch, and documentation tools are ready to plug into the new model. The providers who prepare now will keep moving members — and getting paid — without missing a beat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Colorado’s NEMT broker in 2026?
MediDrive was selected by Health First Colorado (HCPF) as the single statewide NEMT broker. It is taking over provider credentialing, network management, trip scheduling, dispatch, and reimbursement, replacing the prior arrangement under Transdev Health Solutions (formerly IntelliRide).
When does the MediDrive transition take effect?
The statewide broker model begins in the nine-county Denver metro area, with July 1, 2026 as the key date — trips for appointments on or after that date cannot be assigned to providers who are not contracted with MediDrive. Provider enrollment with MediDrive opens May 1, 2026 for providers current on credentialing, and the model then expands statewide.
What do Colorado NEMT providers need to do to keep getting trips?
Make sure credentialing is complete and your vehicle and driver rosters are up to date in ProCredEx, then contract with MediDrive as early as possible. Providers who aren’t contracted and credentialed by the cutover will stop receiving assignable trips in the affected counties.
Related Reading
- Health First Colorado NEMT Provider Enrollment Requirements (2026)
- NEMT Clean Claims Software for Colorado Providers
- NEMT Member Eligibility Verification in Colorado: Batch 270 & Staying Audit-Ready
Ready to see it in action?
NEMT Cloud Dispatch brings scheduling, dispatch, routing, billing, and fleet management onto one platform built for NEMT providers. Request a free demo at www.nemtclouddispatch.com or call (623) 226-8966.
