Payers Partner with Lyft to Expand Coronavirus Vaccine Access

Updated 4/1/2021: This article has been updated to say that the League has 52 community health centers in Massachusetts. A previous version mistakenly stated that the health centers were located in North Carolina.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (Blue Cross) and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) are improving members’ coronavirus vaccine access by making rides available to coronavirus vaccination sites.

In Massachusetts, Blue Cross donated $1 million to cover thousands of Lyft rides. The payer is coordinating these rides with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (the League). The partners are focusing on low- and middle-income individuals and communities of color.

The League is a nonprofit that represents 52 community health centers in Massachusetts.

“We've built a customized program to help meet the unique needs of community health center patients across the state,” said Andrew Dreyfus, Blue Cross' president and chief executive officer. “In collaboration with Lyft, we're proud to help support critical transportation needs as more people become eligible to receive COVID vaccinations in Massachusetts.”

The program will go into effect before the state enters its final stage of vaccine distribution on April 19, 2021, at which point the coronavirus vaccine will be available to all Massachusettsans.

Some patients may not be able to download the Lyft app or may not be able to connect to their bank account. Thus, eligible residents will be able to contact a Blue Cross call center in order to arrange for a Lyft ride to a vaccination site. The Blue Cross staff at the call center will be able to offer support in various languages to coordinate the ride.

A little less than half of the centers in the state (23 centers) have agreed to offer rideshare vouchers in the form of Lyft Passes that the patient can redeem through the Lyft rider app.

Apart from this Lyft partnership, Blue Cross has donated $2,500 grants to 46 community health centers to bolster their own transportation programs. The grants may go towards funding rides through a health center’s existing platform, hire more shuttle drivers, initiate or expand a program that relies upon volunteers, or other types of programs that facilitate transportation.

The week before the payer made this announcement, Charlie Baker, governor of Massachusetts, tweeted that the state had fully vaccinated more than 1 million people.

Earlier in the pandemic, the payer tackled transportation social determinants in different ways.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts covered residents’ transportation to site that were offering flu vaccinations through a partnership with Bluebikes, a bikeshare entity in the Boston area.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Blue Cross NC has partnered with RIDE UNITED NC to finance Lyft rides to vaccination sites.

RIDER UNITED NCA is a statewide campaign that United Way of the Greater Triangle and Lyft initiated.

“Now more than ever, we need to think differently about the health care needs of our underserved communities,” said Cheryl Parquet, director of community engagement and marketing activation at Blue Cross NC. “And that means meeting them where they are and eliminating barriers to care, like transportation.”

Blue Cross NC, Coastal Credit Union, and Duke Energy donated $400,000 towards RIDE UNITED NC.

The campaign will start officially in mid-April. Similar to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’s approach, the rideshare program will coordinate rides for individuals who have already received a vaccination time slot.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation will also be involved, making sure that transit agencies are aware of RIDE UNITED NC.

The campaign’s goal is to coordinate a total of 100,000 rides both to and from vaccination sites across all of North Carolina’s counties.

As of March 25, 2021, 20.1 percent of the 18 and older population had been fully vaccinated, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services website. Slightly more than one out of every three people in this age range was at least partially vaccinated.

More generally, the state of North Carolina is expanding transportation access by shifting its Medicaid program from a fee-for-service model to Medicaid managed care.

“Medicaid transformation gives more than 1.6 million North Carolinians the ability to choose a health plan, but it’s more than that. It increases resources to address drivers of health, such as food security and transportation, that impact health outcomes,” Fran Gary, senior vice president of government markets at Blue Cross NC, explained when the payer announced its Healthy Blue managed care option.

Like many payers, Blue Cross NC has promised to cover the coronavirus vaccine as a preventive care measure once the public health emergency lifts.