Ride sharing innovator Circulation partners with Buoy Health
Ride-ordering exchange company, Circulation Health, presently coordinates medical transportation logistics using Lyft and other transportation partners.
However, it has now announced its new nationwide partnership with Buoy Health, in its bid to support millions of patients online to receive the care they need when they need it the most.
The partnership – which will roll out before the end of 2018 – will introduce Buoy’s patients to an even further streamlined, end-to-end healthcare experience by making it easy for them, post assessment, to book reliable on-demand transportation, powered by Circulation, to recommended care.
“Ultimately, it comes down to providing a better experience to individuals who need timely access to care” explained Robin Heffernan, CEO & Co-Founder of Circulation.
“Since every patient journey starts with a ride, it makes so much sense to give Buoy users easy access to convenient, reliable transportation to their local pharmacies, primary care clinics, or urgent care centers.”
Patients can go online and access Buoy Health’s website, and engage with its AI health assistant, mirroring ordinary conversations with a GP. Patients will then be prompted through a series of questions to enter their symptoms in detail. Through this technology, Buoy will then analyse the consumer’s inputs in real-time and point the customer to a recommended course of treatment.
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To help ensure the patient takes the next step in treatment, Buoy will then enable users to book on-demand rides through Circulation’s ride-ordering platform — either using their own funds or through
insurance if transportation is a covered benefit.
“At Buoy, we are dedicated to helping patients get the care they need, when they need it the most,” commented Andrew Le, CEO and Co-Founder of Buoy Health.
“By integrating Circulation’s transportation exchange into our platform, we will now be able to remove a major barrier to care by giving anyone who visits Buoy access to convenient and reliable transport, breaking down barriers in healthcare.”
The partnership between Circulation and Buoy solves for a major issue in the industry. According to a
national study published by The National Academy of Sciences, each year, 3.6mn Americans miss out on care because they face transportation barriers, which in turn creates untold costs to the US healthcare system.
Circulation’s partnership with Buoy Health is on the cutting edge of a larger shift in
value-based care by seeking to address the social determinants of health that occur outside of a typical care setting — such as access to transportation.
“The intelligence of Buoy’s AI health assistant helps patients identify their symptoms and gives them options for next steps. Circulation helps enable them to truly follow-through on those next steps,” says Heffernan.
“In that way, this partnership is all about providing a better experience for the patient and thereby, improving care.”