DHD team publishes article on rideshare transportation to health care

Yochai Eisenberg, former DHD faculty member Randall Owen, Caitlin Crabb and Miguel Morales published a paper titled, “Rideshare Transportation to Health Care: Evidence From a Medicaid Implementation” in the American Journal of Managed Care.

Ridesharing is an understudied service delivery method deployed by managed care organizations for nonemergency medical transportation (NEMT) for Medicaid enrollees. Our study found that:
Perceptions of ride quality were not affected by the proportion of ridesharing trips, indicating that ridesharing within NEMT can maintain goals of quality like traditional NEMT.

Having more rideshare trips was associated with greater odds of failed pickups, which affects access to health care for Medicaid enrollees.

Managed care organizations and transportation brokers seeking to use ridesharing should systematically evaluate patient-reported measures of ride quality and access to care to understand the impacts of ridesharing.

One group in particular to consider is individuals with mobility disabilities. In subanalyses, individuals with mobility disabilities with more rideshare trips had significantly lower ratings for some of the quality and access measures than those with no rideshare. This may reflect problems with vehicle accessibility, which have also been cited in lawsuits against rideshare companies in Chicago and parts of California.