Ride-sharing company Lyft, today announced its plans to expand its collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Institute, as well as work with LogistiCare to encompass certain Humana Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. CMS continues to update MA plan flexibility to allow for additional services that address holistic health, and one of the key social determinants of health is access to services and programs.
Transportation is the key to unlocking that access, and Lyft is a cost-effective, reliable, safe and convenient option for MA members, seniors, and payers. This announcement reflects Lyft’s commitment to providing transportation for a broader range of health needs outside of just NEMT to leverage the flexibility provided by CMS to test and make these new models a reality for patients.
In April 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced new flexibility for MA plans to innovate with services that promote member health and wellness. Beginning in the 2019 plan year, MA plans have an even broader canvas for addressing social determinants of health, primarily through new flexibilities in benefit design that allow innovative payers to broaden the scope of services to include transportation.
Two years ago, Lyft and LogistiCare joined forces to provide NEMT services to the hundreds of cities in which both companies operated. Now, as we expand our relationship with the nation’s largest NEMT provider, we are working to extend our platform to members of select Humana MA plans, through LogistiCare, with the potential to provide rides not just to and from medical appointments, but also to pharmacies, and fitness centers.
“Lyft has been an incredible partner as we’ve worked to leverage their platform to deliver innovative services that improve the health and satisfaction of our members while reducing healthcare costs,” said Dr. Trent Haywood, president, BCBS Institute. “We’re eager to expand our already successful partnership with Lyft from our commercial plans to some of our BCBS MA plans this summer – providing even more members with improved access to services that will help improve their health and quality of life.”
Upgraded Lyft Concierge
To support this growth, Lyft has also upgraded the Lyft Concierge and the Concierge API to address the needs of both healthcare facilities and patients. Concierge now works seamlessly on tablets, desktops, and mobile phones, serving the needs of everyone from the nurse in a hospital emergency room to the dispatch agent in a nationwide call center. The upgraded Concierge now includes:
– new Alerts and Active tabs, helping managers follow rides as they progress and take action quickly to help patients get to where they need to go
– upfront pricing comparisons to this update, so ride managers can compare and secure the cost of different ride types — such as standard, luxury, or extra seat options — in one view.
– Concierge detects that a phone number is a landline, it automatically calls the passenger to provide ride details, to make sure she reaches her destination.
– dedicated healthcare support team takes patient privacy seriously
“We’re constantly working to elevate the Lyft Concierge experience to meet the needs of our healthcare partners and their patients. To this end, we’ve rebuilt the product from the ground up to provide a simpler ride management experience, landline options, and more accessibility across all devices.” – Megan Callahan, Vice President of Healthcare at Lyft
