Q&A: Case managers assisting patients with transportation
Q. How can case managers assist patients with transportation needs?
A. The case manager must ensure patients have the ability to travel to the site of the healthcare provider. Many of the healthcare insurers covering the dual-eligible populations (Medicare and Medicaid) include transportation as a benefit of membership in the healthcare plan. However, in some cases, the contracted transportation provider was not reliable, timely, or safe. This is an example of a benefit gone wrong. Patients who are promised this access and follow the instructions to use a particular vendor become discouraged and disillusioned if the transportation vendor is not reliable. The case manager as the patient advocate will need to work with the health plan and the vendor to ensure patients are able to find a safer alternative benefit.
Many patients are quite comfortable with public transportation. Patients have acquired this skill and may prefer to access providers with the public transportation system with which they are familiar. The case manager assistant can research transportation options for individual patients or for large groups within the population health model.
Some large healthcare systems may purchase or contract with the medical transportation company they use for medical transportation to also provide access to provider appointments.
For more information, see Case Management Guide to Population Health: Management Across the Continuum of Care.
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