Free Uber rides helped patients keep their prenatal appointments. Now the company wants insurers to pay for it
Uber says patients who participated in a pilot were slightly more likely to get prenatal care, and now it’s trying to enlist insurers to pay for the service.
For patients of the Community of Hope and Mary’s Center clinics in Washington, D.C., getting to their medical appointments can be a challenge — many live far from public transit or lack cars. If they’re pregnant, the fallout can be especially harmful if they miss prenatal doctor visits, risking the baby’s and mother’s health.
That’s why ride-sharing company Uber, which has for years been searching for a viable way into the $4 trillion health care market, swooped in to offer hundreds of pregnant patients in D.C. free rides to appointments in 2021 and 2022. Uber says patients who participated in the pilot were slightly more likely to get prenatal care, and it’s shopping the data around to insurers in a bid to get them to pay for the service.
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