Lyft is widening its health stance with grocery rides

This is an excerpt from a story delivered exclusively to Business Insider Intelligence Digital Health Briefing subscribers. To receive the full story plus other insights each morning, click here.Ride-hailing giant Lyft announced it's expanding its program that offers seniors and low-income families discounted rides to grocery stores to help mitigate the effect of poor nutrition on health outcomes.Lyft's going after a widespread problem in the US, as nearly 24 million people in the US live in food deserts — or areas where healthy food options are scarce or nonexistent. Lyft's launching the program in more than a dozen cities in the US and Canada after a successful pilot program in Washington DC. Here's what it means: Lyft's partnership comes at a time when programs that treat social determinants of health are top of mind in the healthcare industry.Insurers have buckled down on efforts addressing food and housing insecurity. UnitedHealthcare, for instance, turned its sights toward the effects of homelessness on overall health and has built over 4,500 homes as of March to help improve health outcomes. In one state, the insurer registered a 50% drop in the total cost of care for members enrolled in a housing program. And Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) launched a healthy food delivery service, foodQ, to help address conditions like diabetes.Providers are shuttling patients to appointments to overcome transportation obstacles.Major US insurers BCBS and Humana tapped Lyft to provide nonemergency medical transport (NEMT) to a subset of members enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. And provider startup Oak Street Health partnered with Lyft to improve access to care for patients. Moving in on NEMT makes sense for providers: Missed medical appointments cost the US $150 billion annually.The bigger picture: Lyft's new program can bolster its healthcare play against competition and help it secure payer partners. The new program helps Lyft extend its edge over rival Uber in healthcare. Uber also has designs for the healthcare sector: It unveiled its health platform Uber Health — which allows hospital admins to schedule NEMT for patients — in March 2018 and hintedat expansion in its IPO filing earlier this month. And while Uber far exceeds Lyft's US market share, Lyft beat Uber to the punch in healthcare. It launched its Concierge service in 2016. And, now, Lyft beat Uber to providing consumers access to food: There was buzz around Uber rolling out a grocery delivery service in October 2018, but it hasn't materialized, per Grocery Dive.And the initiative should help Lyft forge new healthcare partnerships. Lyft is now more valuable to potential insurer partners, which have an incentive to mitigate costs associated with poor nutrition. Over 50% of chronic diseases are related to poor nutrition, and chronic diseases account for 90% of the $3.3 trillion the US spends on healthcare annually

这是专门向Business Insider Intelligence数字健康简报订阅者提供的故事的摘录。要了解每个早晨的全文和其他见解，请点击此处。欢呼海峡巨人Lyft宣布扩大其计划，为老年人和低收入家庭提供折扣车到杂货店，以帮助减轻营养不良对健康结果的影响.Lyft's在美国出现普遍问题之后，美国将近2400万人生活在食物沙漠中 - 或者健康食品选择稀缺或不存在的地区。 Lyft在华盛顿特区成功试点计划后，在美国和加拿大的十几个城市推出了该计划。这就是它的意思：Lyft的合作伙伴关系正值医疗保健行业社会决定因素的计划首要考虑因素。保险公司已经在努力解决食品和住房不安全问题。例如，UnitedHealthcare将目光转向无家可归对整体健康的影响，截至3月份已建成4,500多所房屋，以帮助改善健康状况。在一个州，保险公司注册的住房计划成员的总护理费用下降了50％。 Blue Cross Blue Shield（BCBS）推出了一项健康的食品配送服务foodQ，以帮助解决糖尿病等问题。提供商正在为患者提供服务，以克服交通障碍。美国主要保险公司BCBS和Humana利用Lyft提供非紧急医疗运输服务（NEMT） ）参加Medicare Advantage计划的成员子集。与提供者创业公司Oak Street Health合作，与Lyft合作，改善患者获得护理的机会。进入NEMT对提供者来说是有意义的：错过的医疗预约每年花费1500亿美元。大局：Lyft的新计划可以加强其医疗保健游戏竞争并帮助其确保付款人合作伙伴。这项新计划帮助Lyft在医疗保健领域超越竞争对手优步。优步还有健康设计re sector：它在2018年3月推出了其健康平台优步健康（Uber Health），该平台允许医院管理员为患者安排NEMT，并暗示本月早些时候在IPO申请中进行扩展。虽然优步远远超过了Lyft在美国的市场份额，但Lyft击败了优步在医疗保健方面的优势。它在2016年推出了礼宾服务。而且，现在，Lyft击败优步为消费者提供食物：2018年10月，优步推出了杂货配送服务，但根据Grocery Dive，它没有实现。倡议应该帮助Lyft建立新的医疗合作伙伴关系。 Lyft现在对潜在的保险公司合作伙伴更有价值，这些合作伙伴有动力降低与营养不良相关的成本。超过50％的慢性病与营养不良有关，慢性疾病占美国每年医疗保健支出3.3万亿美元的90％。