The San Francisco-based ride-sharing company announced the deal with the Chicago-based health system Wednesday.
Lyft announced a partnership with CommonSpirit Health, a Chicago-based health system, and LogistiCare Circulation, a technology manager of non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT), according to a press release Wednesday.
As part of the agreement, CommonSpirit will be able to use LogistiCare to coordinate patient care through on-demand Lyft rides in its California and Arizona markets. CommonSpirit expects to expand services through Lyft and LogistiCare later in the year.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Lyft signed a deal with Sutter Health to "help support patient and staff transportation needs" in northern California.
"With Lyft’s proven technology, broad geographic footprint, and passion to help promote health equity among CommonSpirit’s varied populations, we can achieve our shared goal to address the social determinants of health by removing transportation barriers that affect people’s ability to receive care," Christine Brocato, system vice president for strategic innovation at CommonSpirit, said in a statement.
In addition to transporting patients in a couple of CommonSpirit's markets, the companies have agreed to develop a "Strategic Innovation Taskforce" aimed at testing new approaches to "alleviate challenges that exist for people seeking access to affordable, quality healthcare."
The involvement of ride-sharing companies in healthcare has risen steadily in the past few years, especially as both Uber and Lyft have gone public with specific goals to transport patients.
Last year, Megan Callahan, Lyft's vice president of healthcare, told HealthLeaders that the company is looking to "reimagine the way healthcare organizations get patients everywhere they need to go."
"Rideshare offers a modern approach to [non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT)] and it offers on-demand scheduling, direct routes, greater reliability, and higher customer satisfaction," Callahan said. "Moreover, we do it generally with roughly 30% cost savings to what a typical NEMT solution is. In terms of our goals, it's to continue allowing our partners to excel around those three areas, and I think in terms of a timeline to achieve those goals, we're well on our way to doing that."
Related: Lyft Exec on Mission: 'Get Patients Everywhere They Need to Go'
Earlier this month, Uber formed a partnership with Ride Health, a New York-based NEMT services provider, in 30 states where Ride already operates.
Related: Ride Health Hails Uber Health as a Ride-Sharing Partner in 30 States
In addition to the Ride Health agreement, Uber has established partnerships with BayCare Health System, MedStar Health, the Cleveland Clinic, and Boston Medical Center, as executives recently told HealthLeaders.
Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.
Photo credit: JYVASKYLA, FINLAND - JANUARY 4, 2018: Lyft logo on smartphone screen. Lyft is an American company offering transportation services online. Illustrative editorial. - Image / Editorial credit: Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock.com