Hitch Health and Lyft Pilot Progam, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2018

Hitch Health is a healthcare technology company that piloted a partnership with Lyft and Hennepin Healthcare’s internal medicine clinic to provide non-emergency medical transportation to appointments. The pilot was prompted by the issue of missed appointments.  For the pilot, the clinic provides a phone number for patients in need of transportation who have previously missed appointments, and Hitch sends a text message (patients can opt for a phone call) offering the service, subsidized by the provider. Hitch handles the booking with Lyft, and patients text or call when they are ready for pick-up for the return trip.

The pilot project study found:

• A 27 percent reduction of the clinic no-show rate – from 31 percent to 22.5 percent
• Estimated increase in medicine clinic revenue: $270,000
• Estimated return on investment (ROI): 297 percent

As noted by the linked Healthcare Finance News article, these results dispute the JAMA Internal Medicine trial that is linked herewith, as well.

Updated July 2018