[By Bruce Japsen]
The ride-sharing company Lyft, establishing a long-term commitment to healthcare transportation, signed a multi-year deal with Logisticare Solutions, which coordinates non-emergency medical transportation across the country.
LogistiCare is known for its business helping state governments and commercial health insurance companies manage their non-emergency medical transportation, coordinating everything from the healthcare providers and drivers to social service agencies. Lyft first signed a three-year deal with LogistCare in 2017 and executives said that arrangement has been a success, facilitating “access to millions of rides” across 48 states and the District of Columbia.
It’s the latest in a parade of new business announced this year by Lyft and rival Uber to tap the growing business of transporting patients to and from health facilities. The ride-share companies are signing up hospitals, health insurers and other arrangements linking their businesses more seamlessly to the U.S. healthcare system.
As health insurers move away from fee-for-service medicine to value-based care and population health models that make sure patients are getting quality care in the right place and at the right time, ride-sharing companies say they can have a key role.
“This collaboration ensures millions of Americans will get to their medical appointments in a dependable way, even the most vulnerable who may not otherwise get the care they deserve,” Dan Greenleaf, CEO at Providence Service Corporation, LogistiCare’s parent company. “We appreciate the professionalism of drivers on the Lyft platform and couldn’t be more pleased to have extended our relationship.”
The partnership enables patients to “request on-demand and scheduled Lyft rides through LogistiCare in real-time,” the companies said in a statement Thursday. Based on the first three years of the relationship, Lyft executives say their client base has seen improved health outcomes for patients.
“As an industry, we’re starting to recognize the impact of transportation on overall health,” Lyft’s vice president of healthcare, Megan Callahan, said.
