– Blue Shield of California and Lyft launches a pilot program to provide convenient rides to its eligible members in the Sacramento area at no additional cost.
– To participate in the program, eligible Blue Shield members need an SMS capable mobile phone. Once they call to self-enroll online and agree to the program’s terms and conditions, they can receive rideQSM rides to and from pre-approved healthcare appointments as patients of Associated Family Physicians, Inc.
Blue Shield of California, in collaboration with the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Institute and Lyft, is launching an innovative pilot program for its eligible members in the Sacramento area to provide convenient rides – at no additional cost to members – to their doctors’ offices and healthcare locations. The name of the program is rideQSM, and this is the first time that this medical transportation program has been available in Sacramento.
rideQSM Pilot Program Overview
More than 1,000 Blue Shield members with health maintenance organization (HMO) or preferred provider organization (PPO) health plans through their Sacramento-area employers are eligible for rideQSM at no additional cost. The pilot program provides non-emergency transportation services for eligible patients at Associated Family Physicians, Inc. of Hill Physicians who use their Elk Grove and Galt offices. Eligible destinations include primary care appointments, lab and radiology visits; pharmacy prescription rides will soon be added. The rideQSM program allows members to arrange their own Lyft rides to and from their medical appointments.
Blue Shield’s Sacramento rideQSM pilot program is scheduled to run for 12 months. Future expansion plans for this service in California will be made after the results of the program are analyzed.
“Convenient, efficient transportation to and from medical appointments and lab tests is a big factor in contributing to a person’s overall health and well-being,” said Peter Long, senior vice president of Healthcare and Community Health Transformation, Blue Shield of California. “With the rideQSM pilot program, we can better address an issue that typically has been outside the standard resources of a health plan.”
How It Works
To participate in the program, eligible Blue Shield members need an SMS capable mobile phone. Once they call to self-enroll online and agree to the program’s terms and conditions, they can receive rideQSM rides to and from pre-approved healthcare appointments as patients of Associated Family Physicians, Inc.
Lyft’s National Collaboration with BCBS Institute
In 2018, the BCBS Institute launched rideQSM – a rideshare program helping eligible members without access to reliable transportation get to and from their medical appointments and the pharmacy at no additional cost to them. The Lyft ride service is part of a nationwide collaboration the company has with the BCBS Institute to provide non-emergency medical transportation for eligible health-plan members around the country to doctors’ appointments, lab-test offices, radiology facilities and other approved healthcare appointments as necessary.
“We are proud to work together with Blue Shield of California and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Institute to reduce transportation access barriers for members in the Sacramento area through our pilot program,” said Ameena Gill, Lyft regional director of Operations, Northern California. “This new collaboration will provide eligible members with convenient and reliable rides to fill an existing gap in getting to and from medical appointments.”
