Uber and Lyft Want to Help You Stay Healthy

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Not everyone can operate motor vehicles, and traditionally some patients who do not drive have relied on medical transport vans and public transportation to get to their doctors’ offices – if they don’t end up skipping their follow-up consultations altogether. For patients who have been severely injured, or suffered a critical illness or injury (like a heart attack or brain injury), skipping this appointment can be dangerous.

Uber, Lyft, and other rideshare companies think they have the solution: a partnership with local healthcare providers (Uber Health) and medical records companies (Lyft Concierge) designed to help patients get to their appointments.

How do the services work?

Both Uber and Lyft work directly with healthcare providers. The office schedules the rideshare service to pick up a patient and drop him/or her off, and pays for the cost of transport. As USA TODAY explains, “With both Uber and Lyft, health care providers use a custom desktop platform that allows them to schedule multiple rides at once. Providers determine who is eligible based on need, and costs are covered by providers and sometimes defrayed by insurance.”

The benefits of using Uber and Lyft for rides

Uber and Lyft are offering an affordable service which enables patients to keep track of their transportation more easily, and healthcare professionals can schedule multiple appointments and rides to said appointments simultaneously and quickly. It is also more efficient, because y scheduling the rides themselves, healthcare providers can ensure that a patient will actually return. Continuing care is important, especially after a serious illness or injury, and can lower overall health care costs for the patient over time.

All of this is good for the patients, but it’s even better for the providers. “Nationally, missed appointments cost health care providers $150 billion a year, with no-show rates as high as 30%,” USA TODAY reports. Theoretically, it seems like a win/win.

There are still some obstacles and concerns

One of the more pressing concerns with the service has to do with the vehicle that are used. Very few Uber vehicles are equipped to handle patients with mobility issues, and some disability advocates have said that the service unfairly discriminates against those patients. (Lyft has no options at all for wheelchair-bound patients.)

Secondly, Lyft and Uber drivers are not trained professionals. If a patient has a heart attack in the middle of a ride, there is no guarantee the driver will know what to do – or have any ability to drive to a hospital or clinic faster, like an EMT would. While this particular scenario can happen to any person in any Uber (regardless of why he or she is in the car), this new service is specifically marketed to healthcare providers. A little training should be required.

The Delaware personal injury attorneys at Silverman, McDonald, & Friedman work hard to protect clients throughout the state. We have offices in Wilmington, Newark, Seaford for your convenience. For a free consultation, please fill out our contact form, or call 302-888-2900.