What is an adult day program?

An adult day program (adult day care or adult day health) provides supervision, meals, social activity and, in health models, nursing and therapy services during weekday hours for older adults and adults with disabilities who live at home. Participants attend several days a week, and many programs are Medicaid-funded through waiver programs that also cover transportation.

Why adult day programs matter for NEMT

Adult day programs produce group, recurring, multi-loadable trips: the same participants to the same site every morning and home every afternoon. Programs either contract directly with a transportation provider or rely on Medicaid waiver transport. For a provider, one program can fill a vehicle's morning and afternoon peaks while dialysis fills the middle, which is the kind of route structure that makes NEMT profitable.

Related terms

• Acute Healthcare
• Assisted Living Community
• Case Manager
• Dialysis Center
• Discharge Planner