10/01/2026
These get quoted as if they are one step apart. They are two different businesses.
A wheelchair van carries a rider seated in their own mobility device, secured for transport. One driver. Ramp or lift. The rider is upright and can be positioned by one trained person.
Stretcher service carries a rider lying down. That changes the vehicle, the equipment, the staffing, and the rate. It is also the level most often requested by a facility that has not confirmed what the authorization actually covers.
Where operators lose money is accepting stretcher trips against wheelchair assumptions. The trip takes longer, occupies more capacity, and often needs a second person aboard. Priced off a wheelchair rate it does not just earn less. It removes a vehicle from your board for a block you never planned for.
The other risk runs the opposite way. Dispatch a wheelchair van to a rider who cannot sit, and your driver is at the door making a judgment call nobody prepared them for.
Both are legitimate services. The failure is always the mismatch, never the level.
If you take stretcher trips, is the rate separate on your sheet?
