Dive Brief:
- Lyft has partnered with Acuity Link to expand non-emergency medical transit options for hospitals, the latest in the ride sharing app's expansion into healthcare.
- Acuity's HIPAA-compliant dashboard will power Lyft’s ride-hailing platform.
- Providers can discharge patients through the new logistics management system.
Dive Insight:
Tech and ride-sharing companies are seeing NEMT as an opportunity to grow revenues while serving providers with an easy, cheaper option than taxi vouchers.
Uber this month launched Uber Health, a new platform for providers to use the app to get patients to their facilities.
Several days later, Allscripts launched its cloud-based Avenel EHR product and announced a partnership with Lyft to integrate NEMT ordering into Allscripts’ Sunrise EHR for physicians.
Echoing sentiments from Uber, Lyft officials wrote in a blog post an ambitious goal to eliminate transportation barriers to healthcare, which affect about 3.6 million Americans today — many of whom are low-income patients. Lyft said it would like to halve this statistic by 2020.
Aside from Allscripts, a number of healthcare organizations already use Lyft's Concierge API, including American Medical Response, American Logistics Company, CareLinx, GoGo Grandparent and One Call.
Ride-share partnerships may help providers get revenue they otherwise would have missed if a patient does not show up, though evidence on the power of ridesharing for health is still in early days.
Payers and providers are increasing looking at social determinants of health, like access to reliable transportation, in an effort to improve the overall health of their communities. Tech companies are taking notice as well. A recent report by Transparency Market Research said health IT will drive a population health management industry expected to reach $69 billion by 2025.