The Transportation Problem in PI Medicine
Imagine your client: they have just been in a car accident. Their vehicle may be totaled or in the shop. They are dealing with physical pain, legal paperwork, insurance calls, and possibly job disruption. And now they need to get to chiropractic appointments two to three times per week.
For clients with reliable transportation and nearby clinics, this is manageable. For a significant portion of Houston PI clients, it is an almost insurmountable barrier.
Houston's geography does not help. The metro area covers 671 square miles. Public transit is limited outside the core. Rideshare costs $15–$30 per trip. For a client attending 12 appointments, that is $360–$720 out of pocket, on top of every other cost they are absorbing after an accident.
The result: appointments missed, treatment gaps created, case value reduced.
Uber Health: What It Is and How It Works
Uber Health is a HIPAA-compliant medical transportation service designed specifically for healthcare providers to coordinate patient transportation. It differs from standard Uber in several important ways:
Coordinated dispatch: The clinic or coordinator books the ride, not the patient. The patient receives a text notification with pickup information. No Uber app required.
HIPAA compliance: All patient information is handled under Uber Health's BAA (Business Associate Agreement), meeting healthcare privacy requirements.
No app or smartphone required: Rides can be dispatched to any phone number. The patient receives a text with ride details.
No payment required from the patient: The ride is pre-paid through the healthcare provider account.
In our network, Uber Health transportation is arranged at intake for any client who identifies a transportation barrier. The coordinator books rides for each scheduled appointment. The patient simply receives a text and gets in the car.
The Compliance Impact: 95% vs. 65%
The data is clear. Our network achieves a 95% patient compliance rate — meaning 95% of scheduled appointments are attended or rescheduled within 48 hours. The industry average for chiropractic PI cases is approximately 65%.
That 30-percentage-point difference is not primarily due to better doctors or better clinics. It is due to removing the transportation barrier.
When a patient has reliable, free, coordinated transportation to every appointment, the primary reason to miss disappears. Combined with appointment reminders, proactive follow-up after any missed appointment, and 20 clinic locations that minimize travel time, compliance becomes the default outcome rather than the exception.
Legal and Regulatory Compliance
This is a legitimate concern for attorneys, and the answer is clear: Uber Health transportation for medical patients qualifies under the established anti-kickback safe harbor provisions.
The key factors that place medical transportation within safe harbor protection:
1. Transportation eliminates a genuine access barrier — the purpose is to ensure the patient can receive medically necessary care, not to induce the selection of a particular provider.
2. Availability based on need — transportation is offered to patients based on their need for assistance, not selectively to certain cases or as a financial incentive.
3. No connection to case value or legal fees — the transportation is not calculated based on settlement amounts, attorney fees, or case characteristics.
4. Provided at no cost to the patient — the patient does not pay, and the cost is not later charged back as a lien.
The OIG has issued guidance confirming that transportation assistance programs meeting these criteria fall within safe harbor protection. Our Uber Health program is structured specifically to meet all relevant criteria.
What This Means for Your Cases
For PI attorneys, the practical implications are straightforward:
Stalled cases become recoverable. If a client has missed appointments due to transportation barriers, Uber Health can restart compliance immediately. Contact us with any mid-case transfer and we can have transportation arranged within hours.
Outlying clients become viable. Clients in Baytown, Huffman, League City, or Channelview — areas where transportation challenges are greatest — are fully serviceable through our network with Uber Health support.
Documentation becomes complete. A client who attends every appointment generates a complete treatment record. Complete records support full case value. The math is straightforward.
The Combination Effect
Uber Health is most powerful in combination with our geographic network. 20 clinic locations mean that the maximum drive time for any Houston client is approximately 15 minutes. Uber Health means that 15-minute drive costs the client nothing and requires no logistics coordination on their part.
The combination — minimal distance, zero transportation cost, coordinated pickup — is why our compliance rate is where it is.
If you have clients with transportation challenges or cases at risk due to attendance issues, contact our team. This is a solved problem.
Put This Into Practice
One referral. 60 seconds. See what 95% compliance looks like.
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