Companies that provide effective non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) across the nation must build nimble, flexible transportation networks. That’s because NEMT needs vary across health plans and in different geographic areas, but the end goal remains the same: Ensuring that every health plan member can access the care and resources they need, wherever they live.
Non-emergency medical transportation is a benefit available to all Medicaid enrollees and to eligible Medicare Advantage health plan members. NEMT provides rides to healthcare appointments and sometimes to non-medical resources that can contribute to healthier outcomes, such as the grocery store to buy healthy food or the gym to stay fit.
For NEMT brokers like SafeRide Health, transportation needs vary from one state to another, and often within a state or a county. For instance, in rural Illinois, rideshare transportation (now permitted in Illinois for ambulatory NEMT) is often unavailable. But in Chicago, Uber and Lyft are easily accessible, but drivers must contend with rush-hour traffic and hospitals with multiple entrances and wings.
Many state Medicaid plans offer public transportation vouchers as part of their NEMT benefit for members. That’s valuable for Chicago residents who have access to the El and many bus lines, but less helpful to people who live on country roads far from the nearest bus stop. In those cases, mileage reimbursement and rural transit authorities can help fill the gaps.
Ensuring Every Member Gets the Right NEMT Ride
Wherever a health plan member lives, SafeRide Health’s customizable platform and advanced network ensure that the best, most appropriate and closest vehicle and driver are sent to pick them up. The SafeRide platform safely and privately stores all necessary information about every member—their contact preferences, address with notes, plan coverage, remaining benefits, etc.—and matches them with the best modality.
Rideshare is only appropriate when members can walk outside and to the vehicle unassisted; members who use a wheelchair or need a driver’s help getting from their home to the vehicle require more specialized NEMT service.
“We’re able to layer rideshare on top of our NEMT network, and we do so very differently from other brokers,” said Chris Koenig, SafeRide Health Vice President of Transportation Operations. “Often it comes down to gatekeeping, or how we identify a member’s qualifying criteria for rideshare versus NEMT. We’re able to match up the member correctly and give them what they want and need.”
When entering a new market, SafeRide maps available supply from rideshare and NEMT companies to ensure there is adequate supply, whether it’s an urban or rural area. The goal is to contract with transportation companies that can handle larger volume, and to help smaller transportation providers grow where supply is needed, Koenig said.
Once a ride is booked, SafeRide’s proprietary automatic assignment algorithm or routing team identifies the closest available vehicle that meets the member's requirements. Automated per-vehicle routing reduces administrative costs while enhancing vehicle efficiency, resulting in more rides per vehicle per hour and better supply. About 86% of SafeRide Health’s rides are managed by the auto-assigner algorithm, allowing our scheduling teams to focus on the remaining 14% of rides that may require additional attention.
When a ride is dispatched, the health plan member is contacted via text (if approved) with the vehicle make, driver information, and ride ETA, and the driver receives a map pin showing the exact location of the member’s address and any special notes about the member’s needs, so there’s no confusion.
SafeRide Health’s network is now nearly 95% digitized, which means rides can be tracked to ensure they are on time, follow the correct route, and are successfully completed so that members get to their healthcare appointments. Fulfillment is the No.1 metric for any NEMT company, and SafeRide’s average fulfillment rate is 98%. Its technology-first infrastructure and comprehensive networks translate to very high fulfillment rates almost immediately after SafeRide service begins working with a health plan, Koenig said.
Providing Non-Emergency Medical Transportation in Busy Urban Settings
Some of the challenges of providing NEMT in a city like Chicago include heavy traffic, urban infrastructure, and the need to dispatch drivers who speak members’ languages.
“In an urban area, you’re going to have peak times for traffic that you have to plan for: There's the pre-work rush hour, there's a lunch hour, and then there's the end of day,” Koenig said. “You also have to plan from a medical appointment perspective. For example, most of our health plans have dialysis members, and there's typically three different shifts throughout the day, so you need to make sure there are vehicles available.”
SafeRide seamlessly handles rides to and from sprawling hospitals or apartment buildings by dropping map pins at the correct entrance or location, minimizing confusion during pick-ups and drop-offs. Mileage reimbursement and bus or subway passes are also helpful tools for Medicaid members who want to remain independent while using their covered benefit. SafeRide makes it easy for members to register and use those benefits, and for health plans to track how they are being used.
The end goal of all this technology is to give health plans peace of mind that their members are getting to crucial healthcare appointments in a safe, pleasant, and timely manner—whether they live in bustling cities or quiet, rural towns.