Uber has announced a new service, Uber Health, to allow healthcare providers to assign rides for their patients. In the announcement, Uber said 3.6 million Americans miss doctor appointments due to lack of reliable transport and no-show rates could be as high as 30%.
Uber Health is a way for the company to partner with healthcare organizations to provide reliable, comfortable transportation for patients. They said the dashboard allows healthcare professionals to order rides for patients going to and from the care they need. They are also launching an Uber Health API to enable easy integrations into existing healthcare products.
In the announcement the new features of the platform included:
- Flexible ride scheduling for patients, caregivers and staff
- Access for patients without a smartphone
- Simple billing, reporting, and management
- HIPAA Compliance
Already there are over 100 healthcare organizations in the U.S, including hospitals, clinics, rehab centers, senior care facilities, home care centers, and physical therapy centers using Uber Health as a part of the beta program, including Adams Clinical, Blood Centers of the Pacific, Georgetown Home Care, LifeBridge Health, MedStar Health, Manhattan Women’s Health, NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center, Pro Staff Physical Therapy, ProActive Work Health Services, Project Open Hand, Renown Health, Thundermist Health Center and Yale New Haven Health. Healthcare technology companies like Bracket Global andCollective Health are also exploring ways that Uber Health can work with their offerings.
Pete Celano, Director of Consumer Health Initiatives, MedStar Health “Uber has helped us drastically reduce appointment cancellations. It’s great to be able to quickly request a ride with so that in-need patients can make an appointment they’d otherwise miss.”
Uber said the dashboard and API are available publicly starting today everywhere in the U.S.
