non-emergency medical transportation vehicle
Your non-emergency medical transportation insurance requirements include auto insurance, general liability, business personal property, workers compensation and other unique insurance coverage to make sure your business operates without fear of an event placing your livelihood, as well as your employees in jeopardy.
Even if your non-emergency insurance has been canceled or not renewed, we have solutions and strategies to keep your wheels turning.
What makes this type of coverage different than other types of commercial auto insurance is the interaction with the clients being transported. While other types of related coverage including livery, taxi, social sharing transportation (think Lyft and Uber), and bus service includes the transportation of people, non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) services requires drivers to have training in helping clients in and out of the vehicle (at least in relative terms).
It’s also this same level of client support that makes this type of insurance coverage less desirable for many carriers, especially for brand new operators. That said, it appears Lyft and Uber and encroaching into non-emergency medical transportation, and it’s hard to imagine these alternatives not influencing the market, causing a compression in revenue for traditional non-emergency transportation providers. This in itself makes it imperative for operators to consider and evaluate their competitive advantage while communicating the same to clients and potential clients.
Otherwise, operators may find they’re at a competitive disadvantage due to the high fixed-cost of commercial auto and general liability insurance. In fact, the cost component of insurance premiums makes the insurance factor one of the primary factors if transportation providers should consider expanding either in the size of the fleet, and/or the physical footprint geographic area(s) of operation.
This means, if transportation providers don’t highlight their coverage to their clients, as well as their service and expertise, potential clients may not understand calling Lyft or Uber could result in gaps in coverage if the client gets hurt entering and/or exiting the vehicle. While a Lyft or Uber driver may have general liability insurance, more likely they don’t, which may result in the client twisting in the wind if they’re hurt while transitioning.
Even if a Lyft or Uber driver has general liability, your NEMT service has, or should have, more experience and training working with your transportation clients. This is the primary reason why NEMT insurance coverage is often expensive and difficult to obtain when starting out.
This fact, as stated previously, albeit can’t be over-emphasized, means if you fail to let clients and other medical providers know why your service is superior in care and insurance coverage, it’s your own fault if the local clinic calls a standard taxi, Uber, or another “standard” transportation provider. If they don’t know, they may be able to call anyone without great fear of liability, albeit once you inform them of the differences, if the client calls Uber, and their patient gets hurt, the clinic may have exposure. Once they understand they may have liability, it’s unlikely they’ll want to call a transportation service that isn’t focused on a non-emergency medical transportation service provider.
From that standpoint, your business insurance can become a clear competitive asset and moat keeping low-cost (and low business insurance) alternatives from taking business away from you, albeit if, and only if you’re doing the work required to make sure clinics and other health care providers know why they want to call you.