Mark Switaj, CEO of Roundtrip, and Mark Joseph, CEO of Mobitas Advisors, and former CEO of TransDev, sit down to talk shop about transportation, paratransit, and healthcare. This is the first of four installments and focuses specifically on advice that each Mark would give CEOs in their respective industries.
Mark Switaj: Inadequate access to transportation is among the leading reasons why someone chooses to delay their healthcare. If transportation is that important, then how do you build a transportation strategy? Everyone knows it’s a problem, but where do you begin to then say, “we have a strategy?” And I think that’s why our organization is so uniquely positioned because we’re creating the model for access but then we’re also saying by offering the rides, here’s how we’re improving the outcomes. And that, to me, gets me really, really excited. Because at the end of the day, as these organizations are now more at risk, they’re looking at – okay, what are the factors? Transportation is one of the main barriers, how do we address transportation, and we’re that comprehensive solution. That gets me excited.
“What are you seeing in the paratransit space? What would a CEO of a paratransit organization say?”
Mark Joseph: “Transit agencies are sort of up against the pressure of dealing with, what has been this mandate to provide the service that has the cost of providing the paratransit service, which has gone up disproportionately for what is still relatively a small part of the population, and I mentioned earlier about silos, and unfortunately you have transit agencies with their ADA mandate operating the paratransit services while you have healthcare departments and healthcare agencies operating their non-emergency medical transportation. You have non-profit organizations providing their own private insurance companies providing their own and so on. So, the first thing I would say is that the leaders of these transit agencies have the opportunity to bring coalitions and to think about how to best serve these populations and how to collaborate, that’s one opportunity.
“The second is that technology now has enabled all kinds of new opportunities to improve service and to reduce cost, and we what has now been a big push thanks to the TNCs, Uber and Lyft, where there’s lower-cost supply that can be tapped into. And one of the things that you’re doing very effectively is building an ecosystem — a variety of high-quality healthcare suppliers as well as lower-cost healthcare suppliers so you can the right vehicle at the right place at the right time, and I think that’s a real opportunity for these transit agencies and to move quickly. And to start to think about this I would recommend two things: one is that pilots are a good way to start. Some enlightened agencies have already started with pilots I think these pilots are a great way to test and learn, and the second thing is partnerships, and I really think that when you think about these partnerships you can think about partnerships with Roundtrip, you can think about Roundtrip partnering with other providers too, and with bringing the healthcare institutions as well as the transit agencies with a common goal that could improve service and price.”