Transformed Health Transportation for Streamlined Care

Background
Redirect Health is an innovative healthcare organization committed to putting people and their members first by delivering high-quality, simple and truly affordable healthcare to everyone. Redirect Health provides quality care with a groundbreaking health plan that steers away from billing codes, unnecessary copays, and expensive care. Redirect Health also provides comprehensive, integrated healthcare with a patient-centered, technology enabled approach to primary care, pain and injury management, diagnostics, rehabilitation, and more at their Redirect Health Medical Centers (formerly Arrowhead Health Centers).

As an essential part of access to care, transportation can have far-reaching consequences for patient health. Patients without reliable transportation are constantly at risk of missing their appointments, and ultimately, not receiving the care they need. Beyond the immediate impact on patients’ health, missed appointments also have consequences for the healthcare system – according to a 2017 study, missed appointments cost the U.S. healthcare system $150 Billion each year.

With their deep commitment to delivering the best care, Redirect Health has often found themselves personally taking on the task of arranging patient transportation to and from appointments at their health centers.

Stopgap solutions

In the past, Redirect Health had used consumer rideshare services to send their patients to their destinations, ordering rides on a case-by-case basis with no ability to pre-schedule trips. While this method generally worked to get patients to their appointments, patients and staff found it inconvenient, time consuming, and unreliable, especially when it came to discharges.

Patients who needed a ride home from an appointment had to track down the staff member who had ordered their trip to confirm their driver and when they would be coming. This was complicated by the fact that Redirect Health’s patient facilities are spread over several buildings, with administrative offices separated from the patient facilities. Staff members, who were already busy managing care or handling administrative tasks, were forced to juggle ad hoc transportation needs with no ability to schedule trips ahead of time. For patients undergoing scheduled treatments several times a week, the tasks could quickly become overwhelming. And without an ongoing relationship with a transportation provider, Redirect Health could not quickly resolve issues around drivers, service, or costs.

Guy Berry, Chief Operating Officer of Redirect Health, knew they needed a better long-term solution. “We needed more than a medical transportation service,” said Berry. “We needed a partner that understood our patients’ clinical and transportation needs and were prepared to meet them, becoming part of our process to deliver the best care to our patients.

A transformative partnership

To streamline their medical transportation process, Redirect Health partnered with Veyo to take advantage of their innovative Independent Driver-Provider (IDP) fleet and their online trip booking platform, RideView. Veyo IDPs are healthcare-trained and credentialed rideshare drivers who bring the flexibility and convenience of consumer rideshare to healthcare.

Veyo’s IDP fleet has been operating in Arizona for 5 years and has completed over 9 million trips with an industry-leading complaint rate of 2 per every 10,000 trips for their Medicaid customers. Veyo’s technologyfirst and member-focused approach to non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) has brought the convenience of consumer rideshare to millions of Arizona Medicaid members. Veyo’s newest product, RideView, allows healthcare facilities like Redirect Health to book transportation through a simple-to-use web portal that offers all the benefits of a Veyo trip to their patients, including the ability to book on-demand or pre-scheduled trips and view live data on a trip in progress.

Through RideView, scheduling rides became much easier for both Redirect Health staff and patients. Veyo’s desktop platform made it simple for staff to schedule rides on demand or ahead of time, while the mobile alerts allowed patients to conveniently view the details of their scheduled trip in real time, contact their driver, and rate their ride. Veyo’s IDP fleet allowed for quick response times when patients were discharged from their appointments and ready to go home. Ultimately, Redirect Health’s partnership and open communication with Veyo made it easy to resolve issues quickly and ensure trips – and access to care – for their patients. Across over 450 trips with RideView, Redirect Health staff has seen a 50% decrease in booking time and they are now able to book both legs of the trip at once.

For Dr. Janice Johnston, Chief Medical Officer and CoFounder of Redirect Health, the partnership has been a game-changer. “By removing the stress of coordinating transportation, Veyo allows us to focus on doing what we’re passionate about — taking care of our members– instead of being travel experts,” said Johnston. “And for our patients, they are reassured that their transportation needs are being taken care of by Redirect Health. With Veyo, we are able to fully give our patients the care and peace of mind they deserve, both in and out of the clinic.”

“We created Redirect Health to help people access affordable healthcare through simpler means that eliminate unnecessary activity and spending, said Dr. David Berg, President and Co-Founder of Redirect Health. “Veyo has been a great partner in making it easy for our team to ensure that people who require assistance in getting to our healthcare facilities are able to do so seamlessly. We look forward to expanding our partnership and thank the team at Veyo for their support.”