Lyft Releases Data Showing its Non-Emergency Medical Transport Services Help Medicaid Beneficiaries

ANCOR has been advocating on non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) issues for more than two years as part of its coalition work. This is an important issue given a current standoff between Congress and the Trump administration. The administration appears to be proceeding with rulemaking to make NEMT an optional Medicaid service (it is currently mandatory), while Congress passed legislation in December 2019 to halt the rulemaking pending more studies on its effect. ANCOR is sharing the Healthcare Dive article below to inform our members on the broader groups engaging with NEMT.

As summarized at the beginning of the article:

• “Rideshare giant Lyft released data it says shows its non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) program improves health access for Medicaid beneficiaries by shifting the reliance on emergency services to upstream preventive primary care.
• In one example, year-long use of Lyft led to a 40% decrease in emergency room utilization and a 12% drop in ambulance use for 11,400 Medicaid members of AmeriHealth Caritas in Washington, D.C., based on claims.
• Uber and Lyft in recent years have touted their NEMT plans to potential health system and payer clients, while traditional transportation brokers argue the consumer-focused behemoths aren’t able to meet the niche needs of many U.S. patients.”

A deeper analysis is available in the full article linked above.