Lyft Launches Dedicated Healthcare Service

Need to Know

• Patients, health plan members, and Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries in the US can now request a ride to and from their appointment, including COVID-19 vaccinations, via the Lyft app.
• Medical organizations will cover rides on behalf of patients, who will be notified within their Lyft app that the organization has issued a Lyft Pass.
• The tool comes six months after a Lyft partnership with electronic health record company Epic that allows healthcare workers to schedule a ride for a patient directly from the patient’s profile within Epic.

Analysis

Rideshare company Lyft has launched a new tool that allows healthcare professionals to schedule rides for patients directly within the Lyft platform.

The new tool, Lyft Pass for Healthcare, allows eligible patients, health plan members, and Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries in the US to request a ride to and from their appointment or other destination, including COVID-19 vaccination sites, through the Lyft app. The sponsoring healthcare company or organization has access to budgeting and location tools and covers the cost of the ride on behalf of the patient.

How it works is simple: Sponsoring organizations, which can include hospitals, physicians, or other care providers, determine their budget for the Lyft Pass for Healthcare, and approve pickup and drop-off locations, and what times of day the pass can be used. The organization will then share a Lyft Pass via a phone number or direct link with a patient, who can redeem the Lyft Pass within the Lyft app for rides to and from appointments. The issuing organization is able to monitor rides.

“We’re inserting a world-class technology many are already familiar with into patients’ care journey,” Megan Callahan, VP of Lyft Healthcare, said in a statement. “By leveraging our superpower in consumer tech, we’ve automated an important piece of health access that allows patients to be self-sufficient and in control, while allowing our partners to focus on the services they provide, rather than on administrative processes.”

The new Lyft tool comes six months after the rideshare company partnered with electronic health record (EHR) company Epic to provide healthcare professionals the option to schedule rides for patients directly within their medical records profile. Competitor Uber, meanwhile, announced it would be partnering with Walgreens to offer free rides to COVID-19 vaccination sites for individuals living in underserved communities in February of this year.