Circulation, a provider of non-emergency medical transport, has been chosen by Uber Technologies Inc. as its Preferred Healthcare Platform Partner. The digital transportation platform, which Circulation is launching today, integrates with healthcare systems and Uber’s API to provide non-emergency medical transportation.

The integration of Circulation’s digital transportation platform with existing healthcare information systems allows hospital transportation coordinators to schedule rides in advance based on the patient’s individual needs. To ensure the best vehicle is sent for the ride, the platform will ask whether the patient requires wheelchair access, is visually impaired, is traveling with a caregiver, etc. Vehicles include UberX and UberXL, and in some cities UberACCESS.

Patients and caregivers can receive ride reminders and real-time notifications via phone, text or email. While all billing and payment reconciliation with Uber and healthcare organizations is handled in the backend of the Circulation platform. Any patient information stored on the Circulation platform is secure and is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

“Through Circulation, hospitals now have a viable option for modernizing their non-emergency medical transportation and can easily request an Uber when they need one,” said Meghan Joyce, East Coast regional general manager at Uber, via a press release sent to SiliconANGLE.

Back in 2005, it was estimated by the Journal of the American Medical Association that 3.6 million Americans, which includes almost a million children, miss medical appointments annually due to a lack of transport. Companies like Uber and Lyft Inc. continue to change the transport industry and are also focusing on providing transport for non-emergency medical appointments. At the start of this year, Lyft partnered with National MedTrans Network Inc. to provide rides to non-emergency medical appointments for people with no smartphone, particularly senior citizens.

The Circulation pilot will initially take place at Boston Children’s Hospital, Mercy Health System’s three acute-care hospitals and all-inclusive care program for the elderly in Pennsylvania, and Nemours Children’s Health System in Wilmington, Delaware. The service will roll out across six additional states later this year.

“Unlike other new offerings that are stand-alone systems to dispatch on-demand vehicles, Circulation’s platform integrates with our internal systems, as well as with ride providers like Uber. It’s much more efficient for our transportation coordinators and allows us to seamlessly orchestrate the ride into the overall patient experience,” said Gary Zimmer, senior vice president and chief executive officer of Clinically Integrated Network at Mercy Health System.

Images via Circulation