Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / The Future of Non-Emergency Medical Transportation with Alan Murray, CEO of MediDrive

Transcript

The Future of Non-Emergency Medical Transportation with Alan Murray, CEO of MediDrive · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason with
• 0:03
  Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for tuning
• 0:05
  into the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
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  So today we're going to talk about the
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  importance and the value of non emergency medical
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  transportation.
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  And joining me for this conversation is Alan
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  Murray, the president and CEO of MetaDrive.
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  Alan, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so
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  much for joining Becker's today. No. Thank you
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  for having me. It's a real pleasure. I
• 0:25
  appreciate it.
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  We're thrilled to have you, and I'm really
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  excited to talk
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  about this this topic, you know, non emergency
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  medical transportation and what that means from an
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  access standpoint and organizational and business standpoint. But
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  before we get into the meat of the
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  conversation, wanted to give you the opportunity to
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  share a little bit more about yourself and
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  your work in health care. Yeah. Thank you,
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  Erica. Yeah. It's,
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  it's been quite the journey for me personally.
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  I actually came over to The US
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  in 2000 and,
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  '2.
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  So, you know, I've been here a long
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  time, and that entire time, I've been in
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  the health care industry. I actually started at
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  Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield,
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  way back then,
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  and had progressed through a number of other
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  similar count companies, including UnitedHealthcare
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  and actually was part of starting,
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  a brand new health insurance company,
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  with Northwell Health called Care Connect.
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  I then went back to Empire Blue Cross
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  Blue Shield for five years as their president
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  and CEO.
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  And, Erica, as part of that journey,
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  I really started to understand a lot more
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  about how people
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  access health care, in this country, which, by
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  the way, has a phenomenal
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  health care system compared to where I grew
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  up in The UK.
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  But it's not necessarily
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  coordinated. Right? And access can be a problem
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  if you don't have the means.
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  And so one of the things that I
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  became very aware of
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  was this issue of nonemergency medical transportation.
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  And while, Erica,
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  it is out there as, you know,
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  our understood
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  benefit in the Medicaid space and even in
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  the Medicare space.
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  It's pretty underutilized.
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  And even when it is utilized,
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  there's a lot of missed strides. There's a
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  lot of confusion. There's a lot of issues
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  with that benefit.
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  And so
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  as I started to see where opportunities were
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  for improvement,
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  I actually joined
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  with some transportation
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  experts,
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  and we created many drive, which for from
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  my perspective,
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  is the future
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  of non emergency medical transportation.
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  And
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  what I'm really trying to do with Medi
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  Drive is to improve the health and wellness
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  of all Americans
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  by really compassionately
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  transporting them on the road to better health.
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  Alan, so great to learn more about you,
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  your background,
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  and and just more about what, you know,
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  the kind of the basis of Medidrive, what
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  inspired it. And it sounds like we both
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  have some similarities in our our work in
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  health care. I also come from a payer
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  organization
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  in a past role, and,
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  I've seen firsthand some of these coordination barriers
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  that you're talking about when it comes to
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  medical transportation
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  and and also how sometimes there's often a
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  lack of awareness on the member standpoint. So
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  a lot we could probably go into. I
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  won't get up on our conversation,
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  but,
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  yeah, just wanted to acknowledge that I I've
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  certainly seen that firsthand as well.
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  And I wanted to go a little bit
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  deeper
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  in this area.
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  You know, we know that research shows that
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  about one in five US adults actually forego
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  medical care completely because of transportation barriers,
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  which is a really significant
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  number of folks in the country. So from
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  your perspective, you know, what is the role
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  of non emergency medical transportation here, not just
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  for patient access and better outcomes, but also
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  supporting health care organizations goals more broadly?
• 3:56
  Yeah. Erica, it's kinda crazy when you think,
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  about that stat. Right? One in five US
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  adults
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  don't get the Medicaid medical care because of
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  transportation. And I mean, we all know one
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  in five. It's twenty percent
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  of people are foregoing medical care.
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  You know, and if we think about that,
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  that doesn't mean that they don't need medical
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  care. Right? It's not like they they weren't
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  feeling well. They woke up, and they decided
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  not to go. What ends up happening
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  is further down the road, the issues that
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  they're having medically
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  or from a behavioral health perspective can potentially
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  get a lot worse. They can show up
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  in emergency rooms. They can get readmitted and
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  so forth. So
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  nonemergency medical transportation
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  is a real part of the social determinants
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  of health. Right? And it's the ability
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  not only to get people to care,
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  but to ensure that it's on a continuous
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  as part of a continuous course of treatment.
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  Right? Take, for example, chronic kidney disease.
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  Right? If if you have to go to
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  dialysis, if you have to go to your
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  endocrinologist,
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  you're going potentially
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  several times a week.
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  If you don't make it to that dialysis,
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  your health is gonna be materially impacted,
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  and is going to not only
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  impact your your life and and your longevity
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  potentially,
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  but it's actually gonna cost the health care
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  system a lot more. And we already know
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  how expensive
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  The US health care system is compared to
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  other health care systems across the world.
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  And so from my perspective,
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  the role nonemergency
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  medical transportation plays is the ability to be
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  reliable
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  in the space that it that people need
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  in order to continue
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  a course of treatment, a care journey,
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  either to its conclusion
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  or in a continuous manner.
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  So it's really about connecting people to care.
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  And the other thing, Erica, which I think
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  is really important is it's not just
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  the patient. Right? It's not just the patient
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  being picked up and being dropped off.
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  What's also really important
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  is
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  the rest
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  of that cycle and those who are involved.
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  So making sure the health plan is aware
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  that transportation is occurring.
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  Having insight and providing,
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  transparency
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  to the health care provider.
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  Hey. This patient is is gonna have transportation.
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  They've been picked up. They're on their way.
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  They need they need help once they get
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  there. They have a walker or a wheelchair.
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  And even their loved ones or their caregivers
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  or their care managers at a payer, knowing
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  what is going on
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  real time
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  in this part of the care journey. It's
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  absolutely essential,
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  but it hasn't necessarily
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  happened to date in a truly integrated manner.
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  Such great points, Alan.
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  As you were kind of describing this need
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  for,
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  non non emergency medical transportation
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  as part of a continuous course of treatment.
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  It sounds like your approach and MetaDrive's approach
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  is really kind of zooming out and looking
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  at this holistically. Where does transportation
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  fit in at various
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  touch points,
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  between the patient and their health care journey?
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  Yeah. And I imagine, you know, you mentioned
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  that there hasn't been a lot of,
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  real time capabilities in terms of all stakeholders
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  in that continuum knowing when transportation is needed,
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  when it's happening.
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  So can you just share a little bit
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  more about what can be done to close
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  some of those information gaps that systems might
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  be experiencing when it comes to integrating the
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  service,
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  especially to ensure that all stakeholders are able
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  to track what's going on with the patient's
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  journey?
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  Yeah, Erica. It it's really interesting because,
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  you know, as I looked
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  to become part of Medidrive and to really
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  make it all it can be,
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  the very first thing that,
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  I saw was partners that understood
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  transportation.
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  And so I actually partnered with a couple
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  of individuals who run a company called CTG.
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  It stands for corporate transportation group. And they've
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  been in the business for over forty years,
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  doing corporate transportation, you know, black cars, but
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  also paratransit,
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  which is obviously for large municipalities
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  getting people to and from their intended places
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  and if they can't get on a bus
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  or other public transportation.
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  When I when I joined with them, the
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  combination
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  of my health care experience and their transportation
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  experience
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  really allowed us to approach nonemergency
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  medical transportation in a completely different way. Right?
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  So first and foremost,
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  nonemergency
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  medical transportation
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  is about the driver, is about routing, is
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  about dispatching.
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  It's about having all the vehicles ready, making
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  sure those vehicles are compliant, that they're the
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  the drivers
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  have been credentialed, that they know how to
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  if he gets a wheelchair vehicle, they know
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  how to operate wheelchairs.
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  But then the flip side of that on
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  the health care side is fitting that in
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  to the
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  vertical,
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  care systems
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  that health care has.
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  And so that's obviously being able to provide
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  health plans, Medicaid, and Medicare plans where applicable
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  with all the tools that they need
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  so that their care managers, their call centers,
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  their procurement team, their finance team can all
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  monitor what's happening.
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  We also then layered in, as I mentioned
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  before, this
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  provider concept where we also have a tool
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  called the,
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  the medi drive,
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  transportation management system
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  that a provider can load within ten minutes
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  up and running, and they can use that
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  system to manage
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  all their own transportation
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  as well as any transportation
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  that we have, that we are the broker
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  with a health plan.
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  So when you combine all that together, you're
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  really delivering on an incredible care continuum,
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  which can even include integrating with,
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  EMRs,
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  peer eligibility
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  systems.
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  And ultimately, we do all that while communicating
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  across the continuum.
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  Erica, we even communicate in almost any language.
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  And I'll give you I'll give you an
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  example.
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  We have one,
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  provider customer who before
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  we partnered with them, they had a twenty
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  three percent no show rate. So twenty three
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  percent of the time, their patients didn't show
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  up. After we started working with them, within
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  six months, that number dropped to eleven percent.
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  So think about the impact that has on
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  people's health
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  and the impact it has to that particular
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  provider ensuring they're getting those patients in and
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  and are seeing them appropriately.
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  Such a great example. Thank you for sharing,
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  Alan.
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  As you were describing
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  how MetaDrive is leveraging these various layers of
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  expertise,
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  including all of these stakeholders, I'm kind of
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  envisioning this as a a big orchestration
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  of Yeah. Technology and processes in the background
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  to really make this seamless,
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  for the patient and for providers as well,
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  which is very important. Yep.
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  And, of course, payers in addition to that.
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  So this is fantastic. And as you look
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  ahead,
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  you know, I know the technology landscape is
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  changing. Patient needs
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  are changing, and health systems and pairs alike
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  are, of course, prioritizing
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  the social determinants of health and health equity
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  as we as we move forward.
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  So how do you in in this space,
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  how do you see the non emergency medical
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  transportation landscape changing at the same time, especially
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  as we're seeing more folks invest in care
• 11:54
  coordination and value based models?
• 11:57
  Yeah. Erica, it's a great question. And, you
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  know, if you'd asked me eighteen months ago,
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  two years ago about the space, I would
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  have said, I don't think there's a lot
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  of innovation.
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  You know, I think
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  nonemergency
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  medical transportation
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  brokers, vendors
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  are kind of interchangeable. You know, at the
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  end of the day, they provide a call
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  center.
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  They
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  broker rides, you know, sometimes three, four days
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  requirement in advance.
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  We get a lot of complaints about it
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  as a health plan.
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  It's not always reliable. And, you know, in
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  my mind, I thought, well, that's just the
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  industry. It is what it is.
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  But now that I've been in the industry,
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  it's incredibly exciting to see what is happening.
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  You know, if we think about it from
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  a machine learning artificial intelligence basis,
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  we have the ability to monitor all these
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  rides that are going on, you know, literally
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  millions of rides a year in real time.
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  We can show
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  to a care manager
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  exactly where a vehicle is in its journey
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  towards
• 13:00
  the dialysis center.
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  Therefore, allowing that care manager to understand the
• 13:05
  patient is on their way.
• 13:07
  We have the ability, as I said earlier,
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  to communicate in almost any language. Right? So
• 13:13
  that's with the text message, that's with our
• 13:16
  app, or, you know, with the software development
• 13:19
  kit to,
• 13:20
  providers app or to a health plans app.
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  And I think what all this means is
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  we're using
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  this knowledge base of
• 13:29
  health care and the way patients go about
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  their care journey,
• 13:33
  transportation providers and the way that those individuals
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  and those companies need to,
• 13:38
  you know, schedule and get through their day.
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  And we're combining it all with this platform
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  that links
• 13:46
  all of the different incremental pieces,
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  even down to the point where
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  we've actually created a marketplace within our platform
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  that allows us at any point in time
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  to find the most affordable ride
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  and the closest ride. So that's almost like
• 14:05
  an Expedia type thing that happens behind the
• 14:08
  scene.
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  So the
• 14:10
  the future of the NEMT is incredibly
• 14:14
  bright,
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  assuming that
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  we can educate people on
• 14:20
  exactly what that future
• 14:22
  can look like versus the way it is
• 14:25
  today.
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  It's a really exciting outlook, Alan, and I
• 14:29
  appreciate you throughout this conversation highlighting not only
• 14:32
  the importance of transportation when it comes to
• 14:35
  care access, but also opportunities that organizations can
• 14:38
  see from an efficiency standpoint
• 14:41
  and better serving their members and have and
• 14:43
  and ensuring that they're having a better experience
• 14:45
  across that care journey.
• 14:48
  So I feel like we could keep going
• 14:49
  for a long in this conversation, but I
• 14:52
  do wanna respect your time. And and just
• 14:55
  for to close us out here, you know,
• 14:56
  is there anything that you think maybe we
• 14:58
  glossed over too quickly or any final thoughts
• 15:00
  that you wanted to leave our listeners with?
• 15:02
  Only a couple of things, Erica. I think
• 15:05
  you had just actually mentioned it about efficiency.
• 15:07
  One of the great things
• 15:09
  that the approach that many drive has and
• 15:12
  the technology and the platforms that we've created
• 15:15
  is efficiency.
• 15:17
  We are actually performing
• 15:20
  30%
• 15:21
  more efficient than what we believe,
• 15:23
  some of the other competitors are because of
• 15:25
  the way that we've designed,
• 15:27
  and we go about the use of technology,
• 15:31
  and, quite frankly, our transportation
• 15:33
  know how.
• 15:34
  That translates not only into a better product,
• 15:39
  and a more reliable product, but it also
• 15:42
  means if you're a health care payer or
• 15:44
  you're a provider,
• 15:46
  you can actually begin to look at reducing
• 15:48
  costs when it comes to your transportation impact.
• 15:50
  And I think that's really important as we
• 15:52
  look at the cost of health care today
• 15:54
  and the way it's the way that it's
• 15:56
  actually delivered.
• 15:57
  Health care costs are going up all the
• 15:59
  time. Right? We we're at 18 plus percent
• 16:02
  of GDP.
• 16:03
  And ultimately, what I believe technology
• 16:07
  needs to deliver as well as new entrants,
• 16:10
  relatively new entrants into the market,
• 16:12
  is we need to be able to show
• 16:14
  that we can do it obviously better,
• 16:17
  with a far greater reliability
• 16:19
  and a and a better impact to the
• 16:21
  patients and the other constituents.
• 16:23
  But we have to do it at a
• 16:25
  greater efficiency and pass on that financial benefit
• 16:29
  to our customers
• 16:30
  so that we can have an impact on
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  controlling
• 16:34
  not just the cost of non emergency medical
• 16:36
  transportation,
• 16:37
  but I also think by showing that there's
• 16:40
  an improvement in cost to the total cost
• 16:43
  of care that individuals go through. And so
• 16:46
  it's a combination of all of that, Erica,
• 16:49
  that I believe Medi Drive delivers and
• 16:52
  is the future of nonemergency medical transportation.
• 16:55
  And, ultimately,
• 16:57
  thank you so much for taking the time
• 16:58
  and and asking me these awesome questions. It's
• 17:01
  been a real pleasure.
• 17:02
  Oh, Alan, it's been great having you with
• 17:04
  Becker's today and for highlighting
• 17:07
  really important points in nonemergency medical transportation and
• 17:11
  what it means for care delivery. So thank
• 17:13
  you, Alan, again, for making the time and
• 17:15
  sharing your insights today. It's a pleasure. Thank
• 17:17
  you.
• 17:19
  And we'd also like to thank our podcast
• 17:21
  sponsor for today, Meta Drive.
• 17:23
  Listeners, be sure to tune in to more
• 17:25
  podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast
• 17:28
  page at beckershospitalreview.com.