Non-Medical Transportation (Code 338)

The one-sentence answer

Code 338 covers getting the participant to the places their plan is about — work, community activities, programs — as distinct from medical appointments, which are covered elsewhere.

It is commonly used for mileage, and it sits in the Employment and Community Participation budget category.

What this means for you

"Non-medical" is the whole distinction. Rides to medical appointments are generally a Medi-Cal matter, not a spending plan one. This code is for the rest of life — getting to a job, a class, a volunteer placement, a community activity.

Transportation is where the most misunderstood rule in the program lives, and it is worth getting right before you plan around it:

Buying or leasing a vehicle	Not allowable
Disability-related modifications — lifts, ramps, hand brakes (code 377)	Allowable
Maintaining those modifications	Allowable
Routine vehicle maintenance — tires, batteries, oil changes	Not allowable
Cosmetic upgrades — rims, paint	Not allowable

The logic is that the budget covers the disability-related part, not the ordinary cost of owning a car. Everyone who owns a vehicle buys tires. Not everyone needs a wheelchair lift. Once you see the line that way the rule stops feeling arbitrary — and it helps you predict how a request will be treated before you make it.

Note that vehicle modifications are code 377, not 338. Different codes, different budget categories. Mileage and rides are 338; the physical adaptation of the vehicle is 377. Getting this wrong on a spending plan means a line in the wrong place and a conversation you did not need to have.

For the detail-oriented

338 — Non-Medical Transportation sits in the Employment and Community Participation category (codes 331–340). 377 — vehicle modifications and adaptations sits in the Health and Safety category, and applies to the participant's primary transportation vehicle.

Three different things this code pays for

People tend to think of 338 as "mileage", and it is broader than that. It covers:

1. Reimbursing your own employees for driving they do during working hours. If a support worker drives you somewhere as part of the shift you are paying them for, the miles are reimbursable.
2. Rideshare fares and public transport for the participant, where the transport is needed and is not available through natural supports. It does not have to be somebody driving their own car.
3. Paying a vendor for mileage they incur while delivering a service to you.

The second one is the one most often missed. If the practical answer to getting somewhere is a rideshare rather than a person with a car, that is within the code.

What rate applies

Usually the IRS standard mileage rate for business use, which is the same figure the rest of the economy uses and which the IRS resets each year.

It moved twice in 2026, which is unusual. DDS directive D-2026-Rates-007 records the increase from $0.725 to $0.76 per mile effective 1 July 2026, and updated its rate models to match — regional centres were told to implement the new posted rates. A mid-year change is rare, so a figure you were quoted early in a year may already be out of date.

A vendor can be paid a different rate where there is a reason. The IRS figure is built around an ordinary vehicle. Where a vendor runs something genuinely more expensive to operate and maintain, a different rate can be agreed. It needs justifying, not just asserting — the reason should be on the record before the invoices start.

If a rate question cannot be settled locally, DDS names ratesquestions@dds.ca.gov in its own directives for exactly this.

Still to come: what documentation is required for a mileage claim, which varies between providers, and whether paying a family member to drive is treated differently from paying anyone else — see legally responsible person, which governs the related question of who may be paid at all.