– Curb and Ride Health partner to coordinate smarter transportation for every patient need, to power non-emergency medical transportation via licensed taxis.
– Uber and Lyft provide healthcare organizations with patient transportation services, but hospitals and health plans will soon be able to tap licensed taxis across the country to transport patients to and from medical appointments.
Curb, a New-York City-based leading mobility platform for licensed taxi and for-hire rides in North America, today announced a partnership with Ride Health, coordinating smarter transportation for every patient need, to power non-emergency medical transportation via licensed taxis. Through the new integration, hospitals and health plans using the Ride Health platform will soon be able to tap into Curb’s nationwide network of taxis and for-hire vehicles to transport patients to and from medical appointments.
Impact of Missed Medical Appointments
An estimated 3.6 million Americans miss or delay medical care each year because they lack transportation, costing healthcare organizations and publicly-funded programs more than $150 billion a year. Missed medical appointments are associated with disruptions of care, poor provider-patient relationships, reduced use of primary care services, increased emergency department visits, and higher overall costs.
Curb’s Taxi Network Integration with Ride Health’s Real-Time Transportation Coordination Platform
By integrating Curb’s comprehensive mobility platform and taxi network with Ride Health’s real-time transportation coordination platform, the partnership enables healthcare organizations to tap into a city’s existing taxi infrastructure to provide a reliable form of transportation for patients who might not otherwise have the means to attend their medical appointments.
Through Ride Health’s cloud-based platform, healthcare organizations will be able to e-hail taxis on behalf of patients, monitor rides in real-time to prevent disruptions such as missed connections, and automatically process trip payments. Other benefits of the platform include integration with electronic health record (EHR) workflow and mobile phone connections with patients to ensure a frictionless experience for both healthcare organizations and patients.
“Lack of transportation is a top barrier to better health for millions of Americans,” said Imran Cronk, CEO and founder of Ride Health. “Thanks to this innovative partnership with Curb, we are significantly expanding the transportation choices for patients and making it easier for healthcare professionals to ensure their patients get the care they need, when they need it.”
Integration Benefits for Patients
Healthcare professionals often complain that coordinating taxi rides for patients in the traditional manner over the phone can lead to long delays in getting patients home from the hospital or office visits. Delays in discharging hospitalized patients, which can stretch for several hours, are especially problematic because they prevent beds from being filled by new patients and lead to excess costs.
Ride Health helps to minimize these problems by enabling care managers in hospitals and health plans to request and monitor rides from a broad network of high-performing transportation providers across all ride types and service levels, from public transit and ride-hailing to wheelchair-accessible vehicles, ambulances, and now, taxis. Curb’s expansive network of licensed taxi operators will play an important role in ensuring patients can safely travel to and from their medical appointments in a timely and efficient manner.
“Taxis are the lifeblood of the transportation system in New York City and many other urban areas across our country. Every day, thousands of New Yorkers already rely on licensed taxis to get to their medical appointments,” said Amos Tamam, CEO of Curb Mobility. “We are excited to combine our mobility platform with Ride Health’s platform so healthcare organizations can easily connect their patients with a safe, dependable form of transportation at scale.”
Availability
Available today for Curb-connected yellow and green taxis in New York City, the capability will soon expand nationwide to Ride Health’s customers in 30 states and Curb’s network of more than 100,000 taxis, for-hire vehicles (FHV), and wheelchair-accessible vehicles (WAV).
