Lyft and Unite Us, a technology company that builds coordinated care networks to connect health and social care providers, are teaming up to provide ride-enabled referrals.
As officials from both companies noted in an announcement, transportation is a barrier for people to access social care. Getting a ride to a job interview, a community center, a food pantry, or other community-based organization (CBO), is one step towards an individual meeting their goals.
For healthcare specifically, lack of transportation can lead to missed appointments and delayed care. It’s been estimated that nearly 4 million U.S. patients cannot access healthcare due to lack of transportation, which can lead to more emergency room visits and hidden costs—up to $150 billion a year.
With this new collaboration, though, officials contend that integrating Lyft's ridesharing services with Unite Us' coordinated care network will improve access to health and social care services for thousands of people across the country. Via the partnership, coordinators and service providers who use Unite Us to make social care referrals can now order or schedule a Lyft ride on-demand to help patients access the care they need, they say.
The New York City-based Unite Us works to bring together CBOs that provide services to meet people's needs which impact social determinants of health (SDOH) into an ecosystem to coordinate and track outcomes across communities.
Meanwhile, Lyft's entry into the healthcare sector began in 2016, when the rideshare company identified an acute and unmet need for on-demand non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) services. Today, Lyft partners with thousands of healthcare organizations — including health plans, transportation managers, and health systems — in all 50 states, aiming to reduce transportation barriers to care and improve access to programs and services that promote overall health.
"At Lyft, we recognize the role that transportation plays in unlocking access to health and social care, and we're proud to partner with forward-thinking healthcare organizations who share this goal," said Megan Callahan, vice president of healthcare at Lyft. "Our partnership with Unite Us represents a significant step towards improving community health and evolving the way that people can access critical medical and social care services. I'm excited to see the impact that a partnership like this will bring to local communities."
