Uber launches healthcare platform | Healthcare Dive

"Every year an estimated 3.6 million Americans miss their appointments due to a lack of reliable transportation1. At Uber, we recognize that the path to health may not be easy, but we know the road to care can be."

“Within days of using Uber Health to arrange trips for our patients, we stopped using traditional transportation services. Coordination is seamless for us and rides are easy for patients.”

• The ride-sharing company Uber is officially launching a new platform for providers to use the app to get patients to their facilities.
• The dashboard, Uber Health, allows a healthcare worker to book a ride on demand or schedule a future ride for a patient. The passenger is alerted by text or phone call with trip details.
• The product has been tested by about 100 hospitals and doctor's offices so far, according to The Atlantic.
• The news may not come as a shock, but it does draw a line in the sand for competitors.
  Lindsay Elin, director of federal and community affairs at Uber, told Connected Health Conference in 2016 that the company was investing in a team to work solely on healthcare. 
  "I'd say there are two major things driving Uber's interest," Naveen Rao, health innovation analyst and founder of Patchwise Labs told Healthcare Dive.
  "First, they see how much Lyft has rolled up their sleeves in healthcare, so the official trigger was a simple reaction to their main competitor. Second, is they've been involved as an enabling partner in the non-emergency medical transport space for a couple of years now and seen the demand." 
  Companies like Veyo are targeting Medicaid and Medicare patients and Circulation is offering a platform connecting ride-share services like Uber and Lyft for NEMT.Ralph Decaro, Manhattan Centers for Women's Health

One study found when Uber enters a city, ambulance use decreases by at least 7%. However, using Uber as an ambulance can put a driver in an awkward position for suddenly taking on a job they weren't trained for.

Earlier this year, Uber and MedStar Health announced a partnership aimed to help alleviate patient no-shows for the Columbia, MD-based health system while presenting it as a forward-thinking, digital-savvy operation. With about a year's worth of experience under the partnership's belt, representatives from both Uber and MedStar shared their insights into the partnership and where such collaborations are going at the Connected Health Conference on Monday in the Washington, DC area.

Getting there for care

"Half our battle is getting the patient to the appointment," Pete Celano, director of consumer health initiatives at MedStar Institute for Innovation, said at a panel discussion on cities that promote health. Missed appointments are a costly problem for health plans and physician offices, with some estimates as high as $150 billion a year in the U.S., according to a Washington Business Journal report from earlier this year, a stat Lindsay Elin, director of federal and community affairs at Uber, also shared during the panel. An estimated 3.6 million people in the U.S. miss or delay medical care each year because of issues related to transportation.

For years, MedStar used taxis in effort to reduce no-shows. However, according to Celano, taxis came with three issues: They were expensive, clunky from an operations perspective and drivers historically wouldn't go the extra mile for patients.

MedStar was the first healthcare provider to partner with Uber but Elin said there has been increased interest from other healthcare providers. In fact, Uber is investing in the creation of a small team at the company that will do nothing but work with healthcare providers, Elin stated. Currently, Uber is doing over 5 million rides a day, she shared, adding 75% of the U.S. population lives in a county that has access to Uber. "We firmly believe with partnerships with healthcare providers, senior centers [and] transit agencies that we can do even more and reach more people," Elin said.

How it's working

While the partnership started in January beginning with UberX services, Uber created a a dashboard tool called UberCENTRAL with MedStar. The product allows healthcare providers to request and manage a ride on behalf of their patient who doesn't need to own a smartphone, an important fact to consider when dealing with low-income patients. MedStar moved to the UberCENTRAL platform two months ago.

Celano stated the system is already seeing returns on the partnership. With UberX, for example, the cost to the system is about 60% of the cost of a cab in DC, Northern Virginia or Maryland, according to Celano. In addition, using an UberX means having the ability to hail a car inside an hour which reduces the chance of an appointment going unfilled.

"For patients who can afford it, we say 'Please Uber if and as you want to,'" Celano said. "It could be less expensive to go to Georgetown University Hospital for example on an Uber from most places than to park there, if we even have parking spots available."

For patients with a medical and financial need (about 30% of the patients in the U.S. health system), MedStar can cover the Uber transportation fee. About half of indigent patients are able to get a ride to the facility, Celano shared. "People ask me how it's going and I say it's all about the power of going door-to-door," he said. The average roundtrip cost is $18 which can move an appointment that does not occur to one that does occur, whereby a given healthcare system can recognize new revenue or cost savings. These face-to-face visits can help result in better health outcomes for patients, Celano indicated.

We can expect more innovation cross-over from consumer oriented technology into the health space.

Uber launches healthcare platform | Healthcare Dive