No-Show Patients Are A Huge Problem In Health Care. Uber Sees Itself As The Solution.
Uber has announced it's launching a new branch called Uber Health, which will ferry patients to nonemergency medical appointments. It will be set up so that the medical provider would be billed for the service and not the patient.
The Associated Press:
Uber Starts Offering Rides To The Doctor
Uber is driving deeper into health care by offering to take patients in every U.S. market where it operates to their next medical appointment. The ride-hailing service said Thursday its Uber Health business will handle rides set up by doctor's offices or other health care providers and then bill that business, not the patient, for the service. The company said rides can be set up within a few hours or days in advance. Patients won't need access to a smartphone to use the service. (Murphy, 3/1)
The Washington Post:
Uber And Lyft Think They Can Solve One Of Medicine’s Biggest Problems
No-show patients are a real problem in medicine, but it's far from clear whether ride-sharing services scheduled by providers are the solution. A study of nearly 800 Medicaid patients in West Philadelphia found that offering to schedule free Lyft rides to and from primary care appointments didn't decrease the number of missed appointments compared to a group of people not offered the service. That work, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine last month, calls into question whether simply expanding the availability of ride-sharing services would help solve the problem. (Johnson, 3/1)
