MOBILITY IS MEDICINE
The Best Care in the World Cannot Change a Life if the Patient Cannot Reach It.
Every missed ride can lead to a missed appointment. Every missed appointment can delay treatment, interrupt recovery, and worsen health outcomes. Mobility Is Medicine helps healthcare organizations make transportation part of the care journey—not an afterthought.
Catch a Ride combines Transportation Case Management, Mobility Wallets, NEMT coordination, volunteer drivers, public transit, accessible providers, local transportation partners, human support, and health-focused data because a patient’s transportation need is rarely as simple as one scheduled trip.
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“The goal is not simply to schedule a ride. The goal is to make sure the patient reaches the care that keeps them well.”
WHY TRANSPORTATION MATTERS
Transportation Is Not Outside the Care Plan. It Is What Makes the Care Plan Possible.
✔ A prescription doesn't help if the patient can't reach the pharmacy.
✔ A referral doesn't matter if the patient can't reach the specialist.
✔ A treatment plan can't work if the patient can't get there.
For many patients, transportation isn't an inconvenience—it's the difference between receiving care and going without it.
Mobility Is Medicine helps healthcare partners identify where transportation is interrupting care—and build a practical, person-centered pathway around the patient’s real life.
TRANSPORTATION CASE MANAGEMENT
High-Risk Patients Need a Transportation Care Coordinator—Not Another Number to Call.
Every patient needs a different care plan. Transportation should work the same way.
NEMT is an important benefit. Public transit is an important resource. Volunteer drivers can be essential. Rideshare and accessible transportation can fill important gaps.
But none of those options automatically create a care plan around a patient’s actual transportation barriers.
Mobility Is Medicine adds the human care-coordination layer that helps patients understand their options, navigate benefits, plan ahead, adjust when life changes, and stay connected to care.
Understand Their Transportation Options
Review available transportation pathways, including NEMT, paratransit, VA transportation, public transit, volunteer drivers, Mobility Wallets, accessible providers, local transportation programs, and community resources.
Navigate Complex Trip Needs
Coordinate transportation when a patient needs multiple appointments, specialty care outside their home community, accessible service, a caregiver, a car seat, flexible return times, or extra support.
Understand Their Transportation Options
Review available transportation pathways, including NEMT, paratransit, VA transportation, public transit, volunteer drivers, Mobility Wallets, accessible providers, local transportation programs, and community resources.
Stay Connected When Circumstances Change
Help patients and care teams respond when a trip is missed, an appointment changes, a provider is unavailable, a benefit is unclear, or the original transportation plan no longer works.
Transportation
Barrier
Transportation
Case Manager
Personalized
Mobility Plan
Completed
Care
Follow-Up
and Improvement
Catch a Ride’s standardized case-management model includes transportation-barrier assessment, review of social drivers of health, benefit navigation, complex-trip coordination, personalized mobility planning, and follow-up support.
A HEALTH-CENTERED MOBILITY MODEL
One Coordinated Approach to the Transportation Barriers That Affect Care.
Mobility Is Medicine is Catch a Ride’s health-access model for organizations that want transportation support to be more coordinated, flexible, measurable, and responsive to the people they serve.
Transportation Rx
A provider, care manager, social worker, community health worker, discharge planner, or referral partner identifies transportation as part of the patient’s care plan and connects them to approved support.
Mobility Wallets
Approved patients receive flexible transportation support within the guidelines established by the sponsoring organization, health plan, hospital, or
community partner.
One Connected Mobility Network
Catch a Ride brings together available transportation resources—public transit, NEMT, volunteer drivers, accessible providers, taxi services, rideshare, microtransit, local fleets, and specialty transportation—so patients are not left navigating separate systems alone.
Transportation Case Management
Patients with more complex barriers receive additional support to understand options, build a mobility plan, coordinate transportation, and stay connected to care.
One call. One portal. One coordinated support system.
Catch a Ride’s Mobility as a Service model is designed to coordinate transportation across multiple provider types and connect riders to appropriate support based on local availability, program requirements, and individual needs.
COMPLEMENTING NEMT WITH
PATIENT-CENTERED SUPPORT
NEMT Is Essential.
Mobility Is Medicine Helps Patients Navigate What Happens Around It.
NEMT is a vital benefit for many eligible Medicaid members and patients. Mobility Is Medicine is designed to complement—not replace—NEMT or a health plan’s existing transportation benefit.
When NEMT is the appropriate covered transportation pathway, patients should continue to access that benefit through the plan’s approved process.
But transportation barriers do not always fit neatly into one benefit, one phone call, one appointment, or one standard trip type.
Some transportation needs fall outside traditional NEMT benefits. Mobility Is Medicine helps healthcare organizations identify additional transportation options within program guidelines.
Compliance Statement
Mobility Is Medicine programs are designed around each health partner’s clinical, privacy, legal, contracting, payment, benefit, funding, safety, and eligibility requirements.
Catch a Ride does not provide emergency transportation. In an emergency, call 911.
Medicaid describes NEMT as a critical service that supports access to covered care, while NEMT rules and operations vary across states and programs.
When a Patient Is Not Eligible for NEMT
A patient may need transportation for pharmacy access, food, recovery support, counseling, family services, social work appointments, community programs, follow-up needs, or other health-related essentials that do not fit the eligibility rules of a particular transportation benefit.
Within sponsor guidelines and available funding, Mobility Wallets, volunteer drivers, public transit, local providers, and community transportation resources can help fill appropriate gaps.
When a Patient Has Lost Confidence in Transportation
Some patients have experienced late pickups, missed return rides, confusing eligibility processes, inaccessible communication, poor prior experiences, or transportation systems that did not account for their needs.
A Transportation Case Manager gives the patient a real person who can listen, explain options, rebuild trust, and help create a transportation plan that
feels possible.
When a No-Show Is a Signal That the
System Failed
A missed trip is not always a lack of motivation or responsibility. It may reflect memory changes, dementia, medication effects, behavioral-health needs, anxiety about traveling alone, limited phone access, difficulty reading reminders, caregiver stress, changing treatment schedules, limited English proficiency, or a patient who never fully understood how to navigate the transportation process.
When repeated no-shows have resulted in additional plan, broker, or provider review under applicable program rules, Mobility Is Medicine helps the care team look beyond the missed trip and identify what may prevent the next one.
When the Patient Needs More Than a
Medical Trip
Health does not begin and end at the clinic door.
Patients may also need help reaching pharmacies, food programs, behavioral-health services, recovery supports, family resources, caregiver services, benefit offices, community health workers, or other supports that influence whether they can follow through on care.
TRANSPORTATION RX + MOBILITY WALLETS
Give Patients More Choice Without Giving Up Program Accountability.
A Mobility Wallet is a flexible transportation account assigned to an approved patient or participant.
The sponsoring organization sets the guidelines: who qualifies, what transportation options are approved, eligible trip purposes, spending limits, service area, duration, reporting needs, and any co-pay expectations.
The patient receives greater flexibility to use transportation support in a way that fits real life—while the sponsoring organization maintains program visibility, financial guardrails, and outcome tracking.
Patient-Centered by Design
Transportation Rx for the Full Care Journey
A Practical Connector Across Social Drivers of Health
The patient is not forced into one transportation mode for every situation.
Depending on local availability and program rules, a Mobility Wallet can connect a person to public transit, accessible transportation, volunteer drivers, taxis, rideshare, microtransit, and other approved mobility options.
A Transportation Rx gives a care manager, nurse, provider, social worker, discharge planner, community health worker, or referral partner a practical way to identify transportation as part of a patient’s care plan.
The Mobility Wallet can then support approved transportation to healthcare appointments, pharmacy, counseling, recovery services, food access, family supports, WIC, community programs, and other destinations that influence a patient’s ability to follow through on care.
A Mobility Wallet does not replace food, housing, healthcare, behavioral-health, recovery, employment, or family-support programs.
It helps patients reach them.
Transportation is often the connective barrier standing between a patient and the services that support health, stability, recovery, independence, and wellbeing
Recognized for Innovation
Coastal Bend Connect—Transportation Rx was selected as a finalist at the HRSA/HHS Reverse Site Visit Innovation Think Tank and voted Runner-Up by peers.
The recognition reflects Catch a Ride’s approach to connecting transportation, recovery, healthcare access, and community stability through a person-centered mobility model.
FRIENDS, FAMILY & COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER DRIVERS
For Some High-Risk Patients, Trust Is Part of the Transportation Intervention.
In rural communities and transportation-limited areas, the best available ride may not always be a traditional provider.
It may be a daughter driving her father to dialysis. A neighbor helping someone reach physical therapy. A faith-community volunteer supporting a patient recovering from surgery. A trusted friend helping someone get to counseling, treatment, or a follow-up appointment.
Catch a Ride’s Friends, Family & Community Volunteer Driver Program helps health partners build a safer, more accountable way to support those relationships.
Trusted Driver Enrollment
Depending on program design, eligible patients may identify a trusted friend, family member, neighbor, or community volunteer who can participate under the sponsoring organization’s guidelines.
Mileage Reimbursement and Documentation
Catch a Ride can support mileage reimbursement, trip documentation, communication, program guidelines, and reporting so the transportation support patients already rely on becomes more organized and sustainable.
Training, Coordination, and Ongoing Support
Participating drivers can receive orientation, communication support, program-specific guidance, and safeguards designed around the needs of the
Friends, Family & Community Volunteer Drivers can complement NEMT, public transit, accessible providers, and other transportation options—especially when rural distance, limited supply, treatment schedules, patient trust, and caregiver relationships affect the best available pathway.
Volunteer transportation is not appropriate for every patient or every trip. Patients who require specialized vehicles, wheelchair transportation, medical monitoring, higher-level transfer assistance, or other clinical supports should be connected to the appropriate credentialed transportation provider.
Catch a Ride’s Ride My Way Friendly Driver model used trusted friends and family members, technology-enabled coordination, and mileage reimbursement to add flexible transportation capacity alongside traditional healthcare transportation options.
Built for the Organizations Responsible for Helping Patients Reach Care.
Health Systems and Hospitals
Reduce transportation-related barriers that affect outpatient care, specialty referrals, discharge planning, follow-up appointments, community benefit programs, chronic-condition management, and social drivers of health.
Best fit:
Health systems that want transportation integrated into care coordination, patient navigation, social drivers of health, community benefit, and population-health strategy.
Medicare Advantage, ACOs, and Value-Based Care Organizations
Help older adults and people managing chronic conditions reach preventive care, specialty appointments, rehabilitation, pharmacy, food, and community supports connected to health and independence.
Best fit:
Organizations focused on care continuity, chronic-disease management, avoidable utilization, member engagement, aging in place, and patient experience.
Managed Care Organizations and Medicaid Plans
Support members who face barriers getting to covered care, follow-up services, pharmacies, behavioral-health appointments, community resources, recovery supports, and approved health-related services.
Best fit:
Plans seeking to strengthen member experience, care management, transportation coordination, benefit navigation, high-risk member support, and health-access outcomes.
Rural Hospitals, FQHCs, CAHs, and Community Health Partnerships
Build transportation pathways that fit rural distance, limited transportation supply, fragmented resources, long treatment trips, and the realities of care outside urban centers.
Best fit:
Rural providers seeking stronger access-to-care infrastructure, Transportation Case Management, volunteer-driver support, flexible mobility capacity, and coordinated community partnerships.
Tell Us What Health Access Challenge You Are Trying to Solve
RURAL HEALTH TRANSFORMATION ALIGNMENT
Rural Health Transformation Needs More Than More Care Sites. It Needs a Way to Reach Them.
Rural communities often have extraordinary healthcare teams, committed local leaders, strong relationships, and essential health services.
But patients may still face long distances, limited transportation supply, limited service hours, disconnected systems, recurring specialty-care trips, workforce shortages, and few safe options when a ride falls through.
Mobility Is Medicine gives rural health partners a practical implementation model for turning access-to-care goals into real transportation pathways.
Here's How Mobility Is Medicine Supports Rural Health Transformation
Rural Transportation Case Management
Provide a human navigator who can help patients understand available benefits, coordinate complex trips, assess transportation barriers, connect people to local resources, and build realistic mobility plans around rural distance and limited service availability.
NEMT Coordination and Gap Identification
Help rural providers and care teams understand when NEMT is available, when patients need additional navigation support, and where communities need other transportation pathways.
Flexible, Multi-Provider
Mobility
Combine public transit, volunteer drivers, mileage reimbursement, accessible transportation, microtransit, taxis, rideshare, local fleets, and other approved options into one coordinated approach.
Rural Data, Partnership, and Sustainability Planning
Track transportation demand, service gaps, geographic barriers, patient experience, trip purpose, provider capacity, and care-access outcomes that can inform rural health strategy, funding, workforce planning, and long-term sustainability.
Transportation Rx and
Mobility Wallets
Give care teams a practical way to identify transportation as part of the care plan and provide flexible support for approved needs across the patient’s healthcare and health-related social needs journey.
CMS describes the Rural Health Transformation Program as a five-year, state-led initiative with $50 billion allocated to approved states from fiscal year 2026 through fiscal year 2030. Its strategic goals include improving access, chronic-disease management, behavioral and maternal health, care coordination, workforce development, innovative care models, and technology-enabled care.
CCAM-TAC’s Rural Health Transformation guidance specifically frames transportation, community partnerships, flexible care models, data, microtransit, care coordination, and fund braiding as relevant implementation considerations for rural health transformation efforts.
AWARD-WINNING MOBILITY TECHNOLOGY
+ HUMAN SUPPORT
Technology Should Make Care Easier to Reach—Not Harder to Navigate.
Catch a Ride combines award-winning Mobility as a Service technology with Transportation Case Management, local provider coordination, and human support.
The technology helps healthcare partners coordinate transportation without requiring patients, care teams, or community organizations to manage disconnected providers, separate invoices, spreadsheets, phone numbers, and booking systems.
Depending on the partnership, transportation can be arranged through a secure portal, staff dashboard, patient-facing Mobility Wallet, referral workflow, app, or the Mobility Support Center.
Multi-Provider Coordination
Bring approved transportation options into one connected program environment.
Flexible Program Rules
Apply organization-defined eligibility criteria, geography, funding limits, trip purposes, transportation modes, patient-support requirements, and reporting expectations.
Human Support When It Matters
Patients and partners can receive help from real people when transportation changes, appointments run late, plans need to be adjusted, or a patient needs more support.
Meaningful Reporting and Visibility
Track transportation activity, trip purpose, provider use, patient needs, service gaps, program funding, and outcomes selected for the partnership.
Catch a Ride is powered by SkedGo’s Mobility as a Service technology, which integrates transportation options such as volunteer drivers, public transit, local transportation providers, and rideshare into one user-centered environment.
PERSON-CENTERED MOBILITY
The Best Ride Is Not Always the Same Ride.
A patient’s transportation needs can change from one appointment to the next.
The right pathway may depend on distance, mobility needs, appointment timing, caregiver needs, weather, a child car seat, medication effects, rural location, a treatment schedule, benefit eligibility, and the patient’s comfort
with technology.
Mobility Is Medicine helps match the transportation pathway to the patient—not force the patient into a one-size-fits-all transportation system.
A Dialysis Patient
May need a reliable return ride after treatment runs longer than expected.
An Older Adult
May need accessible, door-to-door support for oncology, cardiology, pulmonary care, rehabilitation, groceries, or social connection.
A Patient Managing Behavioral Health or Chronic Illness
May need trusted communication, flexible options, Transportation Case Management, and support that works alongside a broader care plan.
A Pregnant or Postpartum Parent
May need transportation that accommodates a child, a car seat, recurring appointments, pharmacy needs, food access, and family-support services.
A Rural Patient
May need help navigating a long-distance specialty-care trip when public transportation is limited or unavailable.
Build a Program Around the Patients You Are Trying to Reach.
Maternal, Postpartum, and
Infant Health
Help patients reach prenatal care, postpartum follow-up, pediatric appointments, lactation support, counseling, pharmacy, WIC, food, and family-serving resources.
Oncology and Specialty Care
Support recurring appointments, long-distance travel, treatment follow-up, pharmacy access, and transportation coordination for people managing cancer and other complex conditions.
Dialysis, Cardiology, Pulmonary, and Rehabilitation
Help patients reach recurring treatment, rehabilitation, monitoring appointments, specialty care, and necessary services that support chronic-disease management.
Behavioral Health and Substance-Use Recovery
Help people reach counseling, peer support, medication management, recovery services, community programs, and ongoing treatment.
Older Adult Health and Aging
in Place
Support access to healthcare, pharmacy, rehabilitation, groceries, caregiver support, social connection, and services that help people remain independent.
Veterans and Complex Care Needs
Help veterans reach VA-connected services, specialty care, behavioral-health care, rehabilitation, pharmacy, benefits appointments, and local resources.
DATA THAT CONNECTS MOBILITY TO CARE
Do Not Measure Only Rides. Measure What Rides Make Possible.
Mobility Is Medicine can be structured around the outcomes that matter to the patient population, care model, health plan, funding source, and community.
The available measures depend on program design, privacy requirements, data-sharing agreements, patient consent, and the systems available to the partnership.
84%
Avoided Missed or Rescheduled Care
In the Michigan Clean Cities Mobility Wallet pilot, surveyed participants reported avoiding missed or rescheduled critical appointments.
56%
Reported Avoiding an Emergency-Room Visit
More than half of surveyed participants said the Mobility Wallet helped them reach clinics or primary care instead of relying on the emergency room.
72%
Used Transportation Support for Prescriptions and Health Management
Participants reported using transportation support to reach pharmacies and manage chronic conditions, mental-health needs, or pregnancy-related care.
72%
Reported Better Health
Nearly three-quarters of surveyed participants rated their health as somewhat better or much better, while 47% reported a major drop in transportation-related stress.
Health Partners Can Measure
Access to Care
Completed healthcare trips, appointment types, transportation fulfillment, rural travel distance, specialty-care access, and patient reach.
Care Continuity
Appointment attendance, follow-up completion, prenatal and postpartum continuity, dialysis attendance, rehabilitation participation, medication access, and recurring-treatment support where partner data is available.
Transportation Benefit Navigation
May need trusted communication, flexible options, Transportation Case Management, and support that works alongside a broader care plan.
Equity and Service Gaps
Geographic access, transportation mode, language needs, mobility-device needs, caregiver support, rural distance, and populations experiencing repeated barriers.
Financial and System Learning
Transportation costs, funding utilization, provider patterns, missed-trip causes, avoidable duplication, no-show trends, and opportunities for better resource allocation.
The purpose of the data is not to count rides. It is to show where transportation is breaking care continuity—and what changes when patients have a pathway they can actually use.
The Michigan Clean Cities Mobility Wallet pilot reported the healthcare-access outcomes used above among surveyed participants.
WHY TRANSPORTATION MATTERS
A Reliable Return Ride Can Be Part of the Treatment Plan.
Three mornings a week, before most of Columbia was awake, Mary began dialysis treatment that would leave her exhausted hours later.
Her husband could often get her to the clinic early in the morning. But after treatment ran long, getting home became uncertain. The possibility of being stranded after a physically demanding appointment created anxiety on top of an already difficult health routine.
Through Catch a Ride’s Access to Care program, Mary had dependable transportation home after treatment. Her driver could accommodate the realities of an appointment that did not always end on schedule, helping Mary focus less on transportation logistics and more on her health.
“The drivers are so kind, and I’ve never had a problem. I actually enjoy it. When I was riding with the Medicare service, I never knew if I was going to make it home.”
— Mary Shaw, Columbia, South Carolina
For Mary, transportation was not an extra service. It was part of what made ongoing treatment possible.
Mary’s story documents how coordinated return-trip support helped reduce the uncertainty of recurring dialysis transportation after prior coverage changed.
IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
Start With the Care Barrier. Build the Right Mobility Pathway.
Identify the Patient Population and Care Goal.
Define who is struggling to reach care and what the program needs to improve: specialty-care access, post-discharge follow-up, prenatal care, chronic-disease management, behavioral-health engagement, rural access, or another priority.
Flexible, Multi-Provider
Mobility
Combine public transit, volunteer drivers, mileage reimbursement, accessible transportation, microtransit, taxis, rideshare, local fleets, and other approved options into one coordinated approach.
Transportation Rx and
Mobility Wallets
Give care teams a practical way to identify transportation as part of the care plan and provide flexible support for approved needs across the patient’s healthcare and health-related social needs journey.
NEMT Coordination and Gap Identification
Help rural providers and care teams understand when NEMT is available, when patients need additional navigation support, and where communities need other transportation pathways.
A Strong Transportation Program Should Fit the Care Model—Not Require the Care Model to Adapt Around Transportation.
Every Mobility Is Medicine partnership is designed collaboratively with the health system, health plan, legal team, privacy team, clinical leaders, care-management staff, community partners, and transportation providers involved.
Catch a Ride works with partners to define appropriate referral workflows, patient communications, consent processes, data-sharing expectations, reporting requirements, funding rules, escalation pathways, and responsibilities for each participant in the care-access model.
The exact structure depends on the patient population, program goals, local transportation network, applicable laws, benefit requirements, funding restrictions, and level of coordination the health partner wants Catch a Ride to provide.
Care coordination, patient privacy, and transportation access should work together—not operate as disconnected systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Build the Care Pathway Between a Patient’s Front Door and the Care They Need.
Your organization may already have excellent clinicians, strong care-management teams, valuable benefits, and trusted community partners.
Mobility Is Medicine helps connect those strengths to the patient’s real life—so transportation does not become the reason care fails to reach the person it was designed to help.
Looking for transportation support for your organization? Explore Transportation Support Accounts →