With “thousands” of Medicaid recipients reportedly missing appointments in Florida, the state is mulling using ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft to fill the transportation gap.
About 80% of the Sunshine State’s 4 million Medicaid beneficiaries have non-emergency trips provided as part of their coverage, according to the Tampa Bay Times. But the state has had pervasive problems with these patients being stranded and forced to use other, costlier means of transportation. The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, for instance, spent $1 million last year providing paratransit rides to people who picked the agency over Medicaid-provided trips.
With this in mind, Florida Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) is sponsoring legislation that would allow Uber and Lyft to compete with Medicaid transporters, and receive dollars from the payment program. This also would let providers see where patients are in real time.
“We’ll have more contact and visibility from the doctor’s office,” Brandes told the Tampa Bay Times. “Today, there’s really no ability to track a ride.”
Pinellas County provides a door-to-door van service for those who cannot take a bus because of a disability. Costs of that program have spiked in recent years, with ridership growing 18% since 2016, and expenses up nearly $2 million. These alternative trips to Medicaid-provided rides cost about $26 per ride, with users paying $4.50 and taxpayers picking up the rest. A number of passengers reportedly said they were Medicaid recipients, but were unable to schedule a trip, opting to call the costly service instead.
