Uber Health Now Delivers Groceries and OTC Medications

As health plans seek ways of improving utilization and experience for members, particularly around supplemental benefits like healthy foods and over-the-counter (OTC) medications, Uber Health is adding delivery of these items to its platform.

“Payers and providers nationwide will soon be able to use the same platform they already use for non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) and prescription delivery to have groceries and OTC items delivered directly to patient homes, facilitated by Uber Eats,” the company announced in a Tuesday (June 13) press release.

Amid the expansion of value-based care in which providers are paid for the outcomes and experiences they bring and not just the treatments, health plans including Medicare are focusing on helping patients access supplemental benefits from gym memberships and other healthy activities to OTC medications and items that enhance health.

With lack of transport one of the barriers to plan members using these benefits, Uber Health is expanding its core business of NEMT and prescription delivery to include delivery of supplemental benefits items.

“Value-based care is the future of healthcare, but it’s complex and labor-intensive to deliver and scale,” said Caitlin Donovan, global head of Uber Health, in the release. “Uber Health addresses this challenge head-on. Our platform streamlines coordination across multiple benefits — non-emergency medical transportation, prescription delivery, and food and over-the-counter medication delivery, empowering payers and providers to support patients beyond the four walls of a medical office.”

Donovan added that “because our platform is built on the largest mobility network in the world, we’re uniquely capable of meeting these needs and unlocking the potential of value-based care at scale.”

Food as Medicine and More

Uber Health was established in 2017 on the fact that, as its website stated, “almost 6 million people in the U.S. miss medical care every year due to transportation issues,” and that one missed appointment often leads to others, negatively impacting member health.

The expansion of the Uber Health platform into grocery and OTC delivery also addresses the “food as medicine” approach to healthy living through better food choices, per the release, particularly for those with diabetes and hypertension for whom certain foods can exacerbate chronic conditions.

“Food as medicine programs are critical for effectively managing preventative and chronic care, and can ultimately reduce acute incidents, minimize costs across the healthcare system and drive better health outcomes,” Uber Health said in the release. “One study on healthy meal delivery found that nationwide implementation could eliminate 1.6 million hospitalizations annually, resulting in a cost-savings of $13.6 billion a year for payers.”

In addition to the transportation and delivery benefits of the new offering, Uber Health said in the release providers would soon “have access to patient benefit data and eligibility files from payers, allowing them to leverage existing benefit structures and confidently deploy services that can be covered by insurance. This is a first-of-its-kind solution, aiming to drastically increase convenience, empower providers to execute on more holistic and effective patient care, and increase member satisfaction and retention.”

Helping patients access and better use supplemental benefits is an increasing focus of the healthcare system and FinTechs operating within it. During a panel discussion for PYMNTS’ Tough Questions series published June 8, Lynx Co-founder and CEO Matt Renfro and Endear Health Co-founder and CEO Chris Boudreaux discussed aspects of this issue, along with relevant findings from the study “The Digital Platform Promise: What Baby Boomers and Seniors Want From Digital Healthcare Platforms,” a PYMNTS and Lynx collaboration.

On the broader issue of connecting members more easily with ways to access and consume supplemental benefits, Boudreaux said: “It’s not just millennials or Gen Z who are ordering on DoorDash or getting something delivered via Prime. It’s people that are aging into Medicare. Consumer expectations have changed. That creates demand for healthcare institutions to meet consumers where they are.”