By Michael Scaturro, KFF Health News (TNS)
When Lyft driver Tramaine Carr transports seniors and sick patients to Atlanta hospitals, she looks like each a friend and a social employee.
“If the drive is an hour or an hour and a half and it's mostly on the highway, people tend to tell you what they're going through,” she said.
Drivers like Carr have develop into a crucial a part of the medical transportation system in and around Georgia Washington, D.C, Mississippi, Arizonaand elsewhere. While some patients use transportation corporations that specialize exclusively in medical or non-emergency ambulance rides to get to their appointments, San Francisco-based ride-hailing corporations Uber and Lyft also transport people to emergency rooms, kidney dialysis, cancer treatment, physical therapy, and others Doctor visits.
But Georgia ride-hailing drivers don't just serve patients who live in Atlanta or the sprawling suburbs. When rural Georgia residents are too sick to drive, Uber or Lyft are sometimes certainly one of the one ways to achieve medical care within the state capital.
Closure of rural hospitals in Georgia have resulted in people battling cancer and other serious illnesses now having to commute two or more hours to treatment facilities in Atlanta, said Bryan Miller, director of mental health support services at Atlanta Cancer Care Foundationan offshoot of a medical practice geared toward reducing the financial burden on cancer patients and their families.
From April 2022 to April 2024, Lyft drivers accomplished hundreds of trips longer than 50 miles each way that began or ended at Atlanta-area medical treatment centers, including Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute and Emory University Hospital Midtown Lyft .
While 75% of those trips were lower than 100 miles, the corporate said 21% were between 100 and 200 miles and 4% were greater than 200 miles, showing that even Georgians who live just a couple of hours from metro Atlanta , depend on the ride-hail platform to access medical care.
Uber Health global head Zachary Clark declined to supply comparable ridership data. Uber Health is a division of Uber that arranges medical transportation for some Medicaid and Medicare recipients, medical personnel, prescription drug delivery, and others who seek reimbursement for medical-related Uber rides. in accordance with Uber's website.
Lyft also has a healthcare division that provides programs akin to Lyft Assisted and Lyft Concierge to coordinate rides for patients.
Nationwide, some insurance firms and cancer treatment centers, in addition to Medicare Advantage and state Medicaid plans, pay for such ride-sharing services, often with the goal of reducing missed appointments, they are saying Krisda Chaiyachatiadjunct assistant professor on the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
In 2024, 36% of individual Medicare Advantage plans and 88% of special needs plans offered transportation services, it said Jeannie Fuglesten Biniekdeputy director for Medicare policy at KFF, the health policy research, survey and news organization that features KFF Health News. A special needs plan provides additional advantages to Medicare recipients who’ve serious and chronic illnesses, certain other health needs, or who even have Medicaid.
And Medicaid — the state government's safety net insurance plan for individuals with low incomes or disabilities — paid as much as 4 million beneficiaries Non-emergency medical transportation services are expected for use annually from 2018 to 2021, in accordance with a Department of Health and Human Services report. Patients living in rural areas were the most probably to make use of ride-hailing and other non-emergency transportation providers, in accordance with the report.
The estimated total federal and state investment in non-emergency medical transportation was roughly $5 billion in 2019. in accordance with a study from the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute.
Even when some insurance firms cover rides or charities offer ride credits, social staff say many sick patients are still left with no ride. In 2022, 21% of adults nationwide without access to a vehicle or public transportation went without needed medical care. in accordance with a study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. People who didn’t have access to a vehicle but had access to public transportation were less prone to miss needed care.
The data evaluation company Geotab classified Atlanta as a draw When it involves public transport accessibility, it’s the second worst country within the country.
“The ability to get to a doctor's appointment can be a barrier to care,” said Rochelle Schube, leader of a cancer support group in Atlanta. “If I give a patient $250 in Uber cards and they live far away, the money is spent quickly.”
The indisputable fact that Uber and Lyft are harder to get in rural America compounds the dearth of medical access in these areas. “When you move to rural areas – which you could argue have a higher need – you see fewer services,” Chaiyachati said.
Finding drivers capable and willing to supply medical transport might be difficult. The Atlanta-based start-up MedTrans Go connects patients and healthcare providers with verified drivers, lots of whom provide wheelchair or stretcher rides in Georgia and 16 other states. Many of its drivers have medical training, accompany patients to and from medical facilities or their homes and may handle complex situations for at-risk patients, said Dana Weeks, the corporate's co-founder and CEO.
The company's app also can route patients who don't need specialized assistance on to Uber or Lyft, she said.
Uber and Lyft rides can save patients and insurers money and value a fraction of the standard fee for an ambulance ride, he said David Sluskyan economics professor on the University of Kansas who has studied the impact of transportation services on medicine.
But as a substitute there was an argument Timothy Crimminsa Georgia State University history professor emeritus and former director of the college's Neighborhood Research Center, could be the perfect fit Georgia is expanding Medicaidin order that more rural hospitals could remain open and Georgians could receive health care closer to home.
Georgia lawmakers' decision not to simply accept a state-funded expansion of Medicaid has left greater than 1.4 million Georgians without medical insurance. in accordance with KFF – and that hurts rural hospitals when these patients use the medical facilities and may't pay their bills. In Georgia, 10 rural hospitals have either closed or ceased inpatient care operations since 2010, in accordance with a Report 2024 by health advisor Chartis, and 18 others are vulnerable to closure.
Until more patients are insured, Crimmins said, the state should subsidize Uber and Lyft rides for less affluent Georgians who need assistance attending to medical care in Atlanta. “Maybe we’re talking about $100 to $150 round trip,” he said. “You can subsidize that.”
However, transporting patients will not be for everybody. Damian Durand said his Chevrolet Equinox SUV is large enough to accommodate a medical passenger who needs a wheelchair, but he doesn't get charged extra to move individuals with medical needs. He said a few of his recent passengers in Atlanta were Medicaid recipients with mental illnesses or disabilities.
“It can be stressful,” he said. “I feel like Uber and Lyft are trying to surprise me. If I see the trip is going to the hospital, I try to avoid or cancel the trip.”
While Durand's experiences with medical transport have been mostly negative, Carr loves the work and appreciates with the ability to help older Georgians, who she said often give good suggestions. For them, ridesharing stays a superb option, even when it involves doctor visits.
“It’s not stressful for me,” she said. “I worked in customer service for a good 20 years. For me, human connection is important. I tried working from home but I really didn't like it. I prefer this because I can connect with people.”
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