The role of non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) in healthcare delivery goes far beyond logistics—it directly influences both patient outcomes and system-wide costs. As highlighted by Healthcare IT Today, millions of medical appointments are missed annually due to transportation barriers, contributing to avoidable complications, delayed diagnoses, and higher downstream expenses. For patients managing chronic conditions, missed visits often result in emergency interventions or hospitalizations that could have been prevented with consistent care access.
Sufian Chowdhury, CEO of Kinetik, emphasizes the need to make transportation an integrated part of healthcare infrastructure. By embedding real-time NEMT services into care delivery systems, healthcare providers can proactively eliminate transportation as a barrier to care. Kinetik’s technology-driven approach focuses on aligning trip scheduling, eligibility verification, and billing into a unified system. This level of coordination not only ensures patients get to their appointments on time—it also gives payers and providers transparent data to manage utilization and outcomes more effectively.
Sufian advocates for healthcare leaders to think of NEMT as an extension of the clinical experience, not an afterthought. When reliable transport becomes part of the standard care workflow, it creates a ripple effect: improving patient satisfaction, reducing missed appointments, and ultimately driving down unnecessary healthcare costs.
Find the full article in Healthcare IT Today here.