Health IT, Startups

Lyft adds to its medical transportation portfolio of partnerships with Acuity Link deal

The deal was the latest in what has been a hive of activity in the medical transportation realm in the past couple of years.

Just a few weeks after teaming up with Allscripts to integrate arranging rides for patients into patients’electronic medical records, Lyft has signed a deal with medical transportation logistics management business Acuity Link.

Based in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, Acuity Link was initially founded by emergency medical service and healthcare professionals as an ambulance company in 2013 and evolved into a logistics business with an emphasis on improving communication between medical transport companies and healthcare facilities.

As part of the deal Acuity Link will integrate Lyft into its logistics software dashboard. The move will give healthcare institutions already using Acuity Link the option of ordering Lyft for patients instead of relying on a taxi voucher system, according to Alex Theoharidis, Acuity Link CEO.

The service is expected to be particularly helpful for skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes that need to coordinate alternative transportation for patients and currently rely on wheelchair van services.

Lyft Business Vice President Gyre Renwick is convinced that the company can cut in half the 3.65 million Americans missing medical appointments due to transportation issues.

The deal with Allscripts is designed to make booking the car service a seamless part of making healthcare appointments. It also extends the company’s service to 45,000 physician practices, 180,000 physicians and 2,500 hospitals that use Allscripts EHR, according to Lyft.

Since Lyft Business rolled out its Lyft Concierge API last year, Lyft has developed partnerships with CirculationRoundTripLogistiCare,  National MedTrans, the NEMT provider for CareMore, and American Medical ResponseHitch Health also integrates with Lyft as well as with EHR vendors such as Epic Systems and athenahealth.

Separately, RoundTrip today announced it raised $1.9 million seed round financing as it expands its own NEMT service to 15 states.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania took part in the seed round. The company’s participation in Johns Hopkins accelerator M-1 Ventures helped it gain the backing of as three supporters of the connected health and fitness startup accelerator — Abell Foundation, Brown Advisory and the Johns Hopkins University.

To support its expansion plans, the company formed a partnership last year with GRTC Transit System, the public transportation network in the metro area of Richmond, Virginia.

Although RoundTrip has focused on New England and Mid-Atlantic states, it’s also expanding to the Midwest, Southeast, Texas, and California.

 

 

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