As it nears its 10-year anniversary, SafeRide Health is no longer a startup. Today we provide non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) for many Medicare Advantage and Medicaid health plans, as well as care providers, in all 50 states. In 2021, we facilitated 1 million rides total; in 2026, we will oversee more than 12 million rides. We’ve also significantly improved our operating results and achieved profitability over the past two years.

How has SafeRide scaled our business while managing to maintain high-quality member experience, control costs, and maximize profits? We don’t want to give away all our secrets, but when it comes down to the essentials, it’s about best-in-class people and training coupled with a unified technology infrastructure that allows us to scale and continually improve. Behind every on-time pickup is a rule we’ve learned and a process we have improved.

Smart Technology that Supports Human Performance

At SafeRide, we know there are tasks that are performed best with cutting-edge technology: Our routing algorithms, for example, allow us to dispatch the most appropriate vehicle for every health plan member, based on their individual needs. Our compliance engine ensures that our transportation providers are up to date with all required credentials—and it flags anyone who isn’t, so they are prevented from providing rides on behalf of our health plan partners.

Members or caregivers can schedule their own rides via the MySafeRide app or care provider portal, which send ride details directly to our platform. Those details—and any associated performance metrics—are accessible not only to SafeRide representatives for monitoring but also to the health plan.

There are also SafeRide tasks that depend on our talented team members: We have customer service representatives who help patients schedule their rides, so they can get the care they need, whether that’s a life-sustaining dialysis appointment or regular check-up with their primary care physician. And we have routers who can step in to assist if any rides look like they’re headed off course.

Even in those cases, technology is there to help. We use an AI tool that transcribes every word that’s spoken on calls and then compares it to our standard operating procedures and best practices. Did we validate that the member is who they say they are in a legally compliant way? Did we greet the member and end the call so they felt supported and understood? Today we’re using AI to listen to 100 percent of our calls, ensuring quality control and, when needed, to drive improvement.

Scalable in Any Market

When we are preparing to implement a new contract, our first step is to evaluate our current presence in that state or region and determine whether we are already well-positioned to absorb the increased ride demand. For example, recent implementations in Texas have been seamless since SafeRide is already working with a dozen different Medicaid or Medicare Advantage health plans that cover more than 3.2 million residents in the state. Today we facilitate nearly 200,000 rides a month in Texas.

SafeRide has talented network vendor managers in many states who are experts at partnering with transportation providers and ensuring those relationships are mutually beneficial. They work with transportation providers to source a network of vehicles and drivers that can cover up to 150% of projected transportation demand in each state, in case there is an unexpected surge in rides booked.

If SafeRide does need to augment our network in any state, we reach out to existing transportation providers, review performance expectations with them, and ensure they are well-positioned to provide rides on behalf of SafeRide and our clients. In addition, we reward the highest-performing transportation providers with our Tier 1 status, giving them a free driver app and ride assignment preferences so they can count on a higher volume of rides in exchange for preferred rates.  

We also partner with rideshare companies Uber and Lyft, enabling members to take advantage of the flexibility that rideshare provides, whenever it is appropriate.

Beyond our transportation network, our account management and member services teams have become experts at translating new benefit- and plan-specific details into standard operating procedures (SOPs), so we are fully prepared to meet contractual benchmarks when each new transportation program goes live. We have taken what is hard to do once and made it easy to repeat using a set of proven implementation playbooks.

Managing Cost While Maximizing Member Experience

How have we managed to keep our costs low while meeting or exceeding all the demands of new and existing contracts? Technology obviously plays a big role, as mentioned, when paired with human empathy and intelligence. For many health plans, we are now using AI to handle simple calls, saving more complicated calls for our member service representatives. Calls that incorporate enhanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR) are almost always faster and just as successful as calls that don’t use the technology. However, we have also equipped our customer service representatives with rigorous SOPs and ongoing training, so their calls are efficient and effective, driving cost savings and improving each member’s experience.

SafeRide has delegated some of our call volume to both onshore and offshore outsourcing partners—when authorized by the health plan. Those contract associates receive training and oversight that is just as rigorous as what our FTEs receive, with the added benefit of increased flexibility to handle spikes or dips in call volume.

Additionally, we are working to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse within our transportation programs. When there are cases of fraud, in which members or transportation providers are trying to game the system, we have created processes to flag bad actors and prevent fraud from happening in the future. In cases of waste, however, members are not intentionally acting irresponsibly but simply need better coaching and communication to ensure they understand their transportation benefit, what it covers, and how it works. SafeRide is committed to helping health plans educate their members about their NEMT benefit. This helps control costs for SafeRide and the health plan, and it makes ride bookings more dependable for transportation providers by reducing cancellations.

When taken together, SafeRide’s secret sauce may not be so “secret.”  Rather, it is a recipe for responsible growth that incorporates scalable infrastructure and consistent innovation to make our processes, technology, and people better every day. At SafeRide, we know that the difference between a missed appointment and a kept one is not a driver; it’s a system of feedback loops and continuous improvement, driven by a culture of operational excellence.

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