Uber now offers special rides to take care of your health

The ride-hailing company, Uber Technologies, Inc. has decided to look after their customers' health too by launching a platform Uber Health, which will let the healthcare providers to assign rides for their patients.

Partnering officially with healthcare firms, the company announced Uber Health on Thursday that will transport users to and from healthcare facilities. The healthcare providers that assign rides for patients will ensure that they are handled with care and are safely returned home. Also, the new service does not even require smartphones or Uber app, it can also be operated directly through text messages.

Providing reliable and comfortable transportation for patients, there is also an option provided to the patients if they wish to schedule their own ride or have rides scheduled for them by the healthcare providers, with the healthcare facilities paying for the rides. The rides can be scheduled up to 30 days in advance, and also, multiple rides can be scheduled at the same time, from a single dashboard.

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“My health crisis was a lot to manage. Knowing I had reliable and comfortable transportation to and from my oncology appointments was one less burden on a very long list,” said a patient.

Uber announced that they are introducing Uber Health API as well to allow additions into the prevailing healthcare products. In future, Uber also plans to introduce the option of receiving a call with trip details to their phones or landlines.

Uber also collaborated with a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) risk-management company, Clearwater Compliance, to make sure the patient’s medical information is secure. More than 100 healthcare companies in the U.S including hospitals, rehab centers, home care centers, physiotherapy centers, clinics and more have already started using the new platform.

“Uber has helped us drastically reduce appointment cancellations. It’s great to be able to quickly request a ride with so that in-need patients can make an appointment they’d otherwise miss, ” expressed Pete Celano, Director of Consumer Health Initiatives from MedStar Health.