Leveraging Roundtrip, the single touchpoint for medical transportation, to eliminate transportation as a barrier to care for specialized patient populations such as those with opioid use disorder.

ABSTRACT Roundtrip’s transportation software platform is a turnkey solution that addresses transportation as a social determinant of health by offering a single touchpoint for any healthcare organization to coordinate all levels of non-emergency transportation (rideshare, medical sedan, wheelchair van, non-emergency ambulance) for specialized patient populations. Given the increasingly strong correlation between transportation, lack of healthcare access, and patient no-shows to medical care, this project aims to study the effect of providing subsidized rides for patients afflicted by opioid use disorder (OUD) or drug use that screen positive for a transportation need. Roundtrip is focused on removing transportation as a barrier to access care, especially as it pertains to substance and drug use. Roundtrip is currently partnered with some of the most reputed national healthcare brands in the US across 20 states, including Geisinger, Johns Hopkins, the NIH, and large behavioral health systems like Aurora Behavioral, moving patients daily that need various forms of medical care including drug addiction and associated behavioral health issues related to opioid use. This project seeks to measure the impact of access to timely transportation on overall clinical outcomes for the aforementioned group of pre-identified patients, allowing partnered healthcare providers to effectively administer medical care and prescribe medication-assisted treatment to those in need. We will determine if the Roundtrip platform is an appropriate, scalable mechanism to promote an increased adoption of drug treatment programs that have had well-documented success in reducing overall drug use by alleviating the burden of transportation and the associated logistical challenges of such programs. Thus, we look to create a scalable and data-driven mechanism that expands access to medical care for those affected by OUD and/or drug use, with the goal of demonstrating a viable and replicable model that can be applied in communities across the country.PROJECT NARRATIVE 3.6 million medical appointments every year are missed or delayed primarily due to a transportation barrier – contributing to a staggering $150 billion-dollar burden on the U.S. healthcare system – and missed appointments not only put patients at risk for Emergency Department (ED) visits and worsened health outcomes, but also have cascading downstream effects on caregivers, providers, insurers, and taxpayers that bear the operational and financial burden. Health care systems, in particular, lose large portions of overall revenue from missed appointments due to the lack of reimbursement opportunities and misalignment of operational resources. With lack of access to transportation being a significant reason for missed appointments and inconsistent adherence to medical treatment, this project seeks to the showcase the positive impact that a digital transportation coordination platform, such as Roundtrip, can have in effectively connecting OUD and drug use patients with timely medical care.