Is it possible for senior citizens on stretchers or wheelchairs to attend the meeting and social events?. Yes. Possible.  Non-Emergency Medical transportation Business (NEMT) creates a valuable link among senior citizens. With the advances in medicine and technology, the population of senior citizens is increasing every year. That growth will immediately reflect on the provision of affordable care to them. This makes the entrepreneurs start the NEMT business to provide the needed healthcare services to them. 

In general, elderly people are unable to use the traditional taxi cab services like Uber and Lyft to move from one point to another. They required extra-care and assistance that relied on two ways. One is calling the ambulance and the other one is to use NEMT broker software. The first one requires the huge cost to spend and the second one is affordable. Hence, the ultimate choice of senior citizens is NEMT. 

Many NEMT brokers and the reformed transportation models like Medicaid are there in the market. Though Medicaid offers better services, some of the issues are pointed out in the business reports. Here, SpotnRides replaces the Medicaid with the new features based on the real-time needs and make your NEMT startup as better in the market. 

How SpotnRides Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Software Serve your Business?

How is NEMT defined? How Big is it?

Transportation services provided to the individuals who are in no need of emergency but they required more assistance than the taxi services. With the help of specialized NEMT broker software, booking and scheduling the trips are done followed by the verification of brokerage. Trained NEMT brokers play the admin role and they are responsible for new ride booking, scheduling the trips, selecting the vehicle type based on the patient’s needs. Assuring the validity of the transportation providers through verifying the license, training and other credentials by the NEMT brokers increases the trust level. 

The role of the NEMT brokers is to act as the perfect mediator for transportation companies, beneficiary patients or senior citizens, Medicaid plans. The workflow starts with the patient through the requesting of a new trip to the brokers. Then, the specialized software on the broker side matches the ride requests with the drivers and the available vehicles. After verification of NEMT standards and the payment, the scheduled trip is initiated. The NEMT brokers may be the public agency or the private person. Why is NEMT the big need?. The top three reasons for the big need of NEMT are listed as follows:

• Accessing the routine life and preventive care
• Avoiding the cost of ambulance bills or emergency room visits
• Increasing overall health outcomes for chronic conditions like Diabetes, heart diseases, asthma, etc

Looking Bad in NEMT traditional Model

Nowadays, the large benefits are NEMT business are managed under the brokerage model. The direct contract between the state Medicaid agencies and the NEMT brokers managed the benefits themselves. Besides, NEMT benefits are expanded to diverse transportation modes that include the sedan, wheelchair vans, stretcher cars and repay for mileage. Covering long distances with the least cost and appropriate vehicle mode comes under question.

• Inadequate Technology

Since this business is related to the life-saving process, Quality of Service (QoS) of NEMT is a must. Adopting inadequate technology or platform, outdated business models may lead to degrading QoS. Partnering with the unprofessional transport providers also makes your NEMT startup out of the customer’s visibility.

• Complexity 

Overall complex processing systems without fragmentation may raise the burden on both the customers and transportation partners. The difficulty arises in case of more requests and hence the proper scheduling of trips through the NEMT broker software is the basic need. Also, the lack of proper communication between the broker and the transportation provider may affect the customer.

• Self Report

On-time picks up and drop are the major scenarios for the success of the NEMT. How much on-time percentage of the drivers and the level of customer satisfaction are the important metrics that thrive the business? Hence, the self-report on the above metrics is the major drawback observed in the traditional model.

• Fixed Fleet Model

Entering into this market with the fixed fleet model is difficult to cope with the real-time challenges. If the traditional model is not dynamic, then the model is not capable of handling issues like scheduling, diversion of routes when traffic, etc. and it is completely shut down. 

For these reasons, the traditional NEMT model is unsuitable in the present scenario. Then what is the solution?. Going with the well-defined techie model with the inheritance of real-time features is the only solution. This in turn the rise up of the NEMT broker software. Let’s have a quick look at how NEMT is beneficial to the riders.  

Impact of NEMT brokers on the benefit of Riders

As you come across in the previous sessions, NEMT brokers are responsible for all the activities. They only find what are all the transportation service providers available. Since this is the medicare for senior citizens, the diversity of the vehicles must be observed. Hence, the selection of transport service providers having a wide range of vehicles like standard and specialized according to the needs is the predominant stage. On the basis of the certain rules, brokers are the deciding factor for the scheduling trips and the transportation service cost from the brokerage, and transparency. The impact of NEMT brokers is not only beneficial in the financial aspects, but it also provides the following perks to the riders.

• Trip routes optimization
• Real-time tracking of more trips
• Enabling direct communication between the brokers and the drivers
• Efficiency in management riders’ details. 

Manual operation of the above activities faced drastic challenges and hence there is a specialized working module that is the key solution for efficient service handling. To reform the NEMT business, an app or web-based portal is needed for initiating the new ride requests, monitoring the ride status/driver behavior, scheduling trips and secure payments. Medicaid expansion through digitization models played a rich game in the medical field. But, the arrival of huge transportation partners and the new NEMT players introduces some obstacles. 

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Obstacles of NEMT-Medicaid Expansion

Recently, there must be the evolution of the Medicaid expansion and the value-based alternative payment models are observed. These models created the revenue and incentives for the states and payers in delivering innovative services to the clients. NEMT is considered as the prime target for these two models. Hence, the NEMT brokers were decided to partner up with the app-based transportation service providers to carry the medical appointments. The following factors deteriorate the performance of the NEMT-Medicaid expansion process.

• Lack of rating systems & Surge Pricing

The absence of a rating system and surge pricing, the drivers would not consider the worthwhile to switch on the app and accept the ride requests during the high demand conditions. The extensive background checks compared to the normal citizen drivers as the basic need for the Medicaid expansion program.

• Data Insufficiency

If the single NEMT broker is partnered up with the multiple transportation service provider means, then there is a financial crisis that arises between them. The clear demonstration of the cause and effect between the service rate and the quality thrives from the lack of data. Taxi services available in the market don’t have the information about whether the brokers have gained or lost the money. Hence, the transparency of financial services is questionable. 

• Lack of Real-time Featuring Applications

Leveraging the technological advances into the startup always pay high attention from the client’s side.  Lack in activities such as route development, scheduling, automated ride reminders leads to the out-of model. Besides, if you don’t adopt technology like GPS tracking, then it will raise the problems in monitoring driver’s behavior and the location. 

Reforming the business model on the basis of the real-time needs makes you stand in the long-term in the business. With the recent evolutions and the diverse customer expectations, your startup also required updates. We, SpotnRides inherit this kind of real-time feature and reform the Medicaid expansion in a simplified way. 

What does SpotnRides do? How are you different or better? Is it Reform the NEMT?

SpotnRides is the next-gen tech solution for the Medicaid expansion and it is the complete end-to-end NEMT solution, acts as the best interface between the supply and demand. Unlike the fixed fleet, SpotnRides flexible fleet solution that allows you to scale up and down your startup to meet the demand changes. The role of SpotnRides for your NEMT startup lies in the following way to make you different.

• Ratings System & Surge Price 

Enabling the review and rating system in the SpotnRides helped the client to show their experience with the driver. With this review, the worth of the experienced driver is valuable in the emergency situation. Further, the implementation of surge price within the SpotnRides increases the transparency among the customers. 

• Data Sufficiency

SpotnRides is a good replacement for other taxi services in the Medicaid expansion. The data inheritance of the multi-vehicles, number of trips that driver handled, fare per ride, number of user participation may help the NEMT brokers to know the profitable state. 

• Real-Time Featuring

SpotnRides is the best example for the real-time featuring application. With the inclusion of GPS-map based live tracking enabled the senior citizens to self prepare themselves before riding. Similarly, the real-time track record of the SpotnRides has been beneficial in the driver side to minimize the financial crisis with the brokers. QoS through the SpotnRides increases the on-time percentage of drivers and that will increase the more bookings in NEMT.

Final Thoughts

Finally, you arrived at a destination point. The emergence of the Affordable Healthcare Act opened up new innovations in the healthcare industry. If you have the idea to enter into this industry, then this is the perfect time to launch. NEMT is the major target for the health plans and the state Medicaid services. This blog summarized the nature of NEMT, the impact of the brokers for the beneficiary of riders, obstacles when expanding and how SpotnRides resolves to make you different in the NEMT business. Launch your own NEMT business now with the guidance of SpotnRides team at [email protected]. 

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