Lyft Focuses on Growth with New VP of Health Care Hire

Megan Callahan, who has a strong background in health information technology, has been hired by the ride-provider Lyft to boost its mission of helping customers get to their medical appointments. Callahan worked most recently as chief strategy officer for the revenue cycle-management firm Change Healthcare and before that as senior vice president of corporate strategy and business development at McKesson.

What types of changes Callahan will bring to Lyft remain to be seen, but the company and its chief rival Uber have been quickly integrating their services into health care. Lyft says it’s working with thousands of health care organizations and notes that 3.6 million people can’t get the care they need each year because they lack transportation. In March, Lyft began a partnership with Allscripts to provide nonemergency transportation for people who need to get to medical appointments. That same month, Uber launched its Uber Health app, which is a text-based phone service that doesn’t require a smartphone to use.

Elsewhere, a Health Affairs blog notes that CareMore Health, a subsidiary of Anthem Inc., has used Lyft to improve the patient experience and lower costs. In 2017, CareMore provided 28,000 Lyft rides to patients at a cost 39 percent less than non-Lyft rides.