Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Uber has announced its plans to introduce a feature for caregivers to the Uber app by the end of summer 2024, making healthcare more accessible. Uber Caregiver allows customers to add caregivers to their accounts, and through the app, caregivers can arrange rides to healthcare appointments and order essential items, such as groceries. Caregivers will receive live updates of the rides and deliveries, providing an effective supplement to caregiving.
Uber Caregiver also allows caregivers to manage and use the customer’s health benefits. Currently, Uber is working with insurance providers, such as Medicare Advantage and Medicaid, to execute this feature. Adding health plans allows caregivers to cover the costs of rides through customer benefits and possibly use their benefits to pay for groceries through Uber Eats. Consolidating benefits for patients makes the difficult task of caregiving considerably more feasible.
The growing senior population is anticipated to have broad implications on the healthcare system, requiring flexible solutions. Uber Caregiver streamlines some common responsibilities caregivers take on and give them increased control over how their loved ones are supported. Uber Caregiver will be available everywhere Uber is, reducing the geographical barriers to health faced by patients in remote locations. Uber Caregiver also makes healthcare more accessible from a cost and efficiency lens. The healthcare industry is anticipating a shortage of workers to care for a growing population as life expectancies rise, and Uber Health and Uber Caregiver provide a faster and more affordable mode of non-emergency service. The implementation of Uber Caregiver signals a new technological age of healthcare where traditional access barriers are mitigated through innovation.
Author: Josephine Hu, 2024 Summer Law Student
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