Your questions, answered plainly.

Non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is transportation for someone who has no medical emergency but needs help getting to and from medical appointments, treatments, or facilities — often because a mobility or health limitation makes a car or rideshare hard.

Rainbow Road Transport runs four levels of ground service — ambulatory, wheelchair, bariatric wheelchair, and Stretcher-Alternative — door through door, across Chicagoland and all of Illinois.

It isn’t an ambulance: there’s no emergency or in-transit medical care. In an emergency, call 911.

Transportation is scheduled 24/7. The contact center is staffed weekdays 7:00 AM–10:00 PM and weekends 8:00 AM–5:00 PM; outside those hours a limited team plus our assistant, Iris, handles intake so a booking is never held up until morning.

Yes — most of our calls come from family members and care teams. Tell us who the transport is for and any mobility needs, and a companion is always welcome to ride along at no extra charge.

Door-through-door. Your Transportation Specialist comes inside to get you, stays with you to the vehicle, and walks you inside when you arrive — to the check-in desk, or to the exam room if needed.

The trip home ends inside your home, too. You’re never left to manage on your own.

If your loved one uses a cane, walker, or rollator, a rideshare driver won’t help them from the door to the car or walk them in — a Transportation Specialist does, on every transport.

Every Specialist is background-checked, vetted, and current on CPR and First Aid, so families get someone they can trust instead of a stranger.

If a client walks easily on their own, a rideshare may cost less — but for anyone who needs a steady arm, this service is built for them.

By any major debit or credit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay, with a card on file to confirm the booking. You can also pay with Klarna, Afterpay, PayPal, or Affirm — some offer 0% interest installments, subject to approval.

Facilities can be set up on monthly invoicing. We don’t bill insurance directly, but select Medicare Advantage plans and other health plans we partner with may cover the ride for their members — see our Partners page, or call (847) 585-8888 and we’ll check.

Usually not. Original Medicare covers a non-emergency ambulance only when it’s medically necessary — the ambulance is the only safe way to move the client — and a doctor orders it. Even then, the client typically owes 20% after the Part B deductible, and if Medicare decides the ambulance wasn’t necessary, the full bill can come to the client.

Original Medicare doesn’t cover wheelchair or Stretcher-Alternative vans. Some Medicare Advantage plans include rides, so check with the plan.

If the client doesn’t need medical care on the way, a Rainbow Road Transport van is usually the more affordable choice — and you approve a clear quote before anything is booked.

Trips inside the six-county core are our everyday routes. Statewide and long-distance transport is quoted individually by distance and transport type — call and we’ll give you a clear number before anything is booked.

Yes. The first family member, companion, or caregiver rides free; a second person is $25 each way. Tell us at booking how many are coming so we send the right vehicle.

Yes — add Wait & Return, an optional paid add-on, at booking and your Specialist stays for the appointment and takes you home.

Please ride in your own wheelchair — that’s what we ask of every client, except hospital discharges, where we bring our own transport wheelchair.

If you ride in our van’s wheelchair, it’s for the transport only: at the clinic or hospital, you’ll move into the facility’s wheelchair, with help from their staff. We can’t leave our chair behind, because the return trip may be a different Specialist and every van needs its chair for the next discharge.

Yes, as long as it measures 34" or less wheel to wheel (the width of our cabin floor) and the ramp’s 1,000 lb load rating. Tell us the make and model at booking if you’re unsure.

Often, yes. Our vans fit wheelchairs up to 34 inches wide, wheel to wheel, and the ramps are rated to 1,000 lb. Because bariatric chairs vary, tell us the chair’s make, model, and width — and the client’s weight — when you book, and we’ll confirm the right vehicle and securement before the trip.

With a 4-point securement system — QRT retractable tie-downs plus a lap-and-shoulder belt — on every vehicle. Your wheelchair is locked down before we move, and our Transportation Specialists are securement-certified and trained in safe loading and transfers.

No. Stretcher-Alternative transport is non-emergency: a trained Transportation Specialist transports a stable client who simply can’t sit upright, reclined in a fully-reclining transport chair.

There is no clinical care or monitoring en route.

If your loved one needs medical care on the way — or it’s an emergency — call 911 or an ambulance service instead.

Stable, non-emergency clients who can’t sit upright for the length of the trip — coming home from a hospital or facility, heading to imaging (MRI, CT) or an outpatient procedure that calls for a bed-to-bed transfer, or taking a comfort-first or hospice trip.

If your loved one can sit up for the transport, wheelchair or ambulatory transport may be the better fit.

Every vehicle is a brand-new (2022–2026), ADA-compliant, rear-entry wheelchair van.

The majority are Toyota Sienna Hybrids with the Vantage Mobility (VMI) conversion; we also run a Chrysler Voyager with the BraunAbility Simple Stow commercial conversion.

Whichever van shows up, it’s clean, maintained, and secured the same way.

It’s a deliberate, client-first choice.

Loading from the back lets us pull up and deploy the ramp almost anywhere — no scramble for an accessible parking spot and no being boxed in — and the wheelchair rides centered down the cabin, a smoother, more stable position than being tucked to one side.

Often, yes — same-day discharge requests are welcome. Call (847) 585-8888 with the floor and the target window and we’ll tell you honestly what we can do and work to your unit’s timing. Transportation is scheduled 24/7.

Directly. We confirm the floor, room, elevator access, and target window with your team so the transport lines up with the discharge — and the family doesn’t have to relay it.

No — we bring our own transport wheelchair to every discharge, so the hospital or facility keeps theirs. If the client does need to use the hospital’s or facility’s wheelchair, we have to bring it back, so the trip is billed as a round trip.

We can also bring along the oxygen the hospital or facility sends home with the client — every van has an oxygen bag holder to secure it — and we carry a portable ramp for homes with up to four steps. Mention both at booking.

Almost always, yes. If you receive any anesthesia or sedation, you can’t safely drive, operate machinery, or head home alone — and most surgery centers won’t discharge you until transportation home is arranged and confirmed.

We make that part simple: a background-checked Transportation Specialist gets you there on time and brings you home, door through door.

Where your facility permits a professional escort, your Transportation Specialist can serve as your accompanying adult: they receive your discharge instructions and see you safely home.

Some surgery centers still require a family member or friend for anesthesia discharge, so confirm your facility’s policy when you schedule.

We provide transportation and non-clinical assistance — not medical or post-operative care.

No. Dialysis is most of our recurring work, but the same standing schedule works for any ride that repeats — outpatient rehab (we currently drive clients to Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and other rehab facilities three times a week), adult day care and day programs, chemotherapy or radiation, ECT, wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and clinical research visits.

Our team stays in contact with your dialysis center or rehab facility about your end time, so the return is lined up. Round-trip returns are still will-call: you or the center call when the appointment is done and a Transportation Specialist comes back — no second booking.

Wait time (after the appointment) may be up to 60–90 minutes during peak times. Rainbow Road Transport will do its best to pick up the client as early as possible.

If you’d rather not wait at all, add Wait & Return — an optional paid add-on — and your Specialist stays on site and brings you back right after.

No. We take seniors to doctor’s appointments — and to everything else, too: weddings, funerals, birthday and surprise parties, restaurants, the movies, concerts, parades, the hair salon, the dentist, and the grocery store.

If they want to go, just ask.

Non-emergency, medically stable clients — including those who need monitoring, oxygen via an FAA-approved portable concentrator, or medication management in flight. Our intake screens for stability before we confirm a trip.

A registered nurse, on every trip — from the bedside pickup, through the airport and the flight, to the handoff at the other end. There are no lower levels of escort to choose between.

Yes. The nurse traveling with your loved one holds a nursing license in the state they’re flying to, and all care follows the client’s physician orders.

Yes — we can arrange a stretcher on a commercial flight with an RN onboard for monitoring of a stable client.

We don’t operate air ambulances. ICU-level, ventilator-dependent, or unstable clients need one, and Flight Nurse Companion is the cost-effective alternative for clients who can safely travel commercial.

If an air ambulance is the right answer, we’ll tell you plainly, help you arrange one through an air-ambulance provider, and can handle the ground transport between the aircraft and the bedside in Chicagoland.

Every case is a custom, itemized package — airfare for every leg, the nurse’s days on the trip, oxygen and equipment, and ground at both ends all move the number. We compare fares across airlines, cabins, and nearby airports, and you approve the package before any ticket is bought. There’s no published rate card; partners can choose a line-item build or one all-inclusive case rate.

Because the nurse has to get to your loved one, and home again afterward. When the trip starts away from Chicagoland, the quote covers three legs: escort positioning (the nurse flies out to meet them), the main mission (they fly together, bedside to bedside), and escort return (the nurse flies home). All three are itemized up front, so the package you approve covers the whole trip.

Yes. Assistance companies, travel insurers, and cost-containment teams can be invoiced directly on Net-30 terms — itemized by leg, or as one all-inclusive case rate.

We don’t bill health insurance. Families paying privately get the same itemized invoice, which they can submit to a travel-insurance policy that reimburses medical escort costs.

Yes. We complete the airline’s Medical Information Form (MEDIF) with the client’s physician, and handle the airline’s advance-notice requirements — including for a portable oxygen concentrator or a stretcher.

Both. We coordinate domestic flights and international repatriation — any origin, any destination — paired with our own ground transport for the first and last mile.

Yes, via an FAA-approved portable oxygen concentrator, with airline advance notice handled. Compressed or liquid oxygen generally isn’t permitted onboard.