Tina Brant sees herself and her employees as more than just drivers—they’re caregivers, a crucial link in people’s medical journey, providing non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) whenever someone needs a ride to dialysis, their primary care provider, or another healthcare appointment.
Brant owns Freedom Wheels in Fort Myers, Florida, a company she started in October 2023 after moving from St. Paul, Minnesota, where she helped run a similar NEMT company. Freedom Wheels currently has six NEMT vans and three subcontractors equipped to transport people with wheelchairs or other limited mobility on behalf of her clients, including SafeRide Health.
“This was a passion thing for me, from the start. It’s not just doing something that’s important, but the people are amazing. There are so many underserved elderly people,” Brant said. “Throughout the years, I've had so many people who, after their family members passed, have written me and called me and thanked me for the service that we gave and the changes that we made in their loved one’s lives. Those are some of the most satisfying things to me, even though they’re sad. I never hire a driver that’s just giving people a ride. I want to know that driver has heart, because these people are precious cargo.”
Freedom Wheels is just one of about 100 NEMT providers that SafeRide Health works with in Florida, all carefully chosen to ensure that health plan members have the best experience possible, said Winston Calvo, SafeRide’s senior network vendor manager in Florida. SafeRide believes in supporting quality NEMT providers in the state and helping them grow by paying competitive rates, being transparent about current and future ride volume, and acting as an industry consultant and sounding board, he said. In return, he expects preferred providers to go above and beyond.
“To be part of SafeRide, you have to be the transportation provider that is ready and willing to do what other providers are not,” he said. “For example, go where other transportation providers are not willing to cover, be reliable, build a reputation for yourself by making the job easier on our routers so they come back to you with more trips.”
SafeRide believes it’s better to have fewer transportation providers that perform well—and to help them grow—than having many providers who don’t perform consistently. That performance is measured with every ride, thanks in part to GPS technology and member outreach. SafeRide gathers and shares member feedback, complaints and grievances, fulfillment and on-time rates, and more with its internal teams, clients, and providers. Transportation providers that consistently perform poorly are removed from the network.
These efforts have led to SafeRide’s success in Florida, with a 98% fulfillment rate, 97% on-time performance rate, and average ride rating of 4.87/5 in the state, with metrics in some counties even higher.
Transportation providers in Florida appreciate that SafeRide pays fair rates, especially since NEMT vehicles cost so much and insurance is so high, said Jorge Munoz, owner of Skytop Transportation in Port St. Lucie, Florida. When NEMT brokers don’t pay providers enough to cover their costs, the risk is that they may start to cut corners. “You get what you pay for,” he said.
Munoz said he started in the business 15 years ago in Miami as a driver, then became a dispatcher, and finally decided to open his own business in a community with less volume than Miami. His old company, Transportation America, was “doing about 8,000 trips a day,” in Miami, he said. “I tell everybody: Don't get into a business if you don't know the business,” Munoz said. “Try to learn the business before you launch a business, or you could lose your savings.”
Today, Skytop Transportation has 40 vehicles and contracts with local governments as well as NEMT brokers like SafeRide. The company drives many children who are enrolled in Medicaid and need transportation assistance to go to school from home or pediatric extended care facilities.
“A lot of those kids live in areas where their parents are low-income and have to go to work, and they appreciate us when we show up on time, we take care of the kids,” he said. “We put stickers and toys on the buses to keep them happy. The parents call and say, ‘We appreciate you guys.’ Because there was another company doing it before us that was involved in fraud, big time.”
SafeRide Health has a dedicated team committed to proactively combatting fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA), researching and reporting suspicious activity to health plans and state regulators to ensure that its transportation providers across the country are effective, ethical, and compliant with all regulations. Additionally, our tiered national network structure ensures that the best-performing transportation providers are rewarded with faster payment and more ride volume.
SafeRide recognizes its power and role in lifting up and empowering small businesses and local communities, working with a wide variety of Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs). They include small and local companies, women-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses, and minority-owned NEMT companies, which make up 38% of SafeRide's current NEMT network.
“I’ve been to conferences throughout the country and what I’ve seen is that there are many companies that are men-owned but women-run,” Brant said. “It’s very difficult for a woman to break into the Florida market who’s not from Florida. But there's no question in my mind that in five years we'll have 20 vans. We’re going to just keep on growing.”