Uber Health is embedding its platform into Cerner's electronic health record (EHR) system so that providers can easily schedule nonemergency transportation for patients, according to Forbes. Business Insider intelligence
With the integration, a doctor can book a ride for a patient, whose name and address will autopopulate from the EHR straight into a ride request. The Cerner partnership - which will start by offering the Uber Health capability to Cerner's US-based hospital and health system clients - should be mutually beneficial to Uber and its fast-growing health division and to the thousands of providers operating through Cerner.
Here's how Cerner and Uber will benefit from the tie-up:
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Uber is tapping into an impressive network of providers, as Cerner is the US' second-largest EHR vendor. In 2018, Cerner accounted for 27% of the large hospital market and 26% of the acute care hospital space - second only to Epic in both categories, per Healthcare Dive. So, a tie-up with Cerner should open the floodgates for Uber Health to facilitate rides for "tens of thousands" of consumers. For instance, Florida-based health system and Cerner client BayCare foresees that Uber Health will allow it to coordinate 22,000 rides by the end of 2019. This partnership also provides yet another avenue of growth for Uber's booming health arm: It has forged team-ups for a slew of nonemergency medical transport ventures over the last year, all of which contributed to the 400% year-over-year growth it reported in Q2 2019, according to FierceHealthcare.
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Meanwhile, Cerner can up its value to partners by helping hospitals and health systems fend off high costs associated with missed appointments without friction. Around 3.6 million US patients miss medical appointments annually because they don't have access to transportation, and transportation issues cost the US healthcare system $150 billion each year. Provider organizations are likely shouldering their fair share of those costs since no-show patients translate into a missed opportunity to collect copays and claims. Enabling doctors to book Uber rides for their patients without having to leave their EHR system should help provider firms slash no-show rates and fuel steady revenue growth. With value-adds that promise cost-savings and a revenue bump for its hospital clients, Cerner can reduce client attrition: Cerner waved goodbye to 77 clients in 2018 compared with Epic's loss of one client.
Stakeholders across the healthcare landscape are considering how to address social determinants of health (SDOH) - and EHR vendors will become integral players in facilitating the integration of SDOH-focused services into care plans. In 2019, we've seen payers and providers up their activity with SDOH-focused projects aimed at addressing the nonclicical factors driving the majority of health outcomes, like access to transportation.
But while providers are interested in SDOH, physicians are already bogged down by administrative and logistical tasks, so they'll need tools that can seamlessly embed into their preexisting workflows. Further, 33% of healthcare leaders say identifying solutions like software will be a barrier to integrating SDOH into care programs, and 29% see identifying partners as a barrier, according to a 2019 Change Healthcare survey.
So, EHR vendors have an opportunity to bridge the gap between providers' ongoing interest in addressing SDOH and actual implementation by making themselves an easy partner for SDOH-focused services. We'll likely see big-names in the SDOH space, such as Lyft, turning to EHR vendor partnerships to get into more providers' hands.
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