7 Ways NEMT Software Can Give You 20/20 Insight Into 2020

A new year is fast approaching and as individuals, it’s a time of reflection, planning for growth, and change.

A new year for your business should be no different, but if you’re still using disparate systems to run your non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) or paratransit service, you’re not getting a clear picture of the past and that means you can’t look into 2020 with 20/20 vision.

NEMT software can put things into focus and give you 20/20 for the new year.

While mobile terminals and mobile devices like tablets and smartphones are becoming common across the industry, what’s happening in your office for day-to-day management may still be a hodgepodge of manual processes, paper documents, spreadsheets and manual imports.

You may have figured out how to make that work (although it’s time-consuming, tedious, often frustrating, and leaves room for potential human error), but its inefficiencies may be blinding you from clear vision into everything that’s happening within your operations daily and year-to-year.

Here are 7 ways NEMT software can give you 20/20 vision for 2020:

1. See Where Your Fleet Is

One of the biggest challenges for NEMT operations is knowing where your vehicles are at any given time, where they’re going, if they’re on time, and where they’re headed next.

If you’re managing your fleet without NEMT software, this means your team is likely spending a lot of time on the phone or sending text messages trying to track everyone down. Your dispatcher is playing a game of shuffleboard with your vehicles and drivers, and if your drivers have to stop to respond or take their eyes off the road to get updates, then they’re further slowing your routes, pushing you further behind schedule and frustrating your entire team.

Say goodbye to paper routing and calls for updates. Automated Vehicle Location (AVL), built into your NEMT scheduling software, will give you near real-time insight into where all your vehicles are at any time. Not only can you see where all your vehicles are on a standalone map display, but you can also focus in to check their speed and see where they have been throughout the day. This means if you have to make adjustments, you’re doing so with up-to-the-minute information and you don’t have to worry your drivers with calls to relay their location back to your dispatch centers.

2. See Where Your Fleet Is Going

Before smartphones were glued to our hands, do you remember what it was like to drive to a new place? You either had to unfold a trusty map and drag your finger across it to find the best route or you’d log onto a computer, study the screen, print out paper directions, and head out to your vehicle to hit the road. While a bit distracting, that might work … unless there was a traffic accident, delay, or rerouting that you didn’t know about. Then you’d have to drive around aimlessly to find a new route or pull over, pull out the map, and try again.

With a smartphone or tablet, NEMT software takes you out of the guessing game and removes paper maps and printouts from your drivers’ laps. NEMT software with mapping services can give your drivers quick insight into where they’re going and how to get there, including visual displays of their route, with turn-by-turn directions.

There are also mileage calculations and drive-time estimates. TripMaster updates its mapping software each quarter to ensure your drivers are getting the most accurate information about their locations, complete with satellite views. Because the software tracks routes, mileage, and time, all of your core data is easily accessible for reports and billing, and since your drivers don’t have to worry about paperwork, they can focus on the road and routes ahead.

3. See How Happy Your Customers Are

Difficulty scheduling rides, delays waiting for pickups, and problems with making payments can frustrate your customers and make them unhappy with your service. NEMT software can remove these frustrations and you’ll quickly see just how happy your customers are.

While your customers will always have the opportunity to call you directly to schedule a ride, they won’t have to get frustrated by busy signals or being put on hold if they choose instead to log into your Online Rider Portal, from any computer or smartphone, any time, day or night, to schedule their next trip.

The Online Rider Portal means your customers have scheduling flexibility without being held up in a queue in your phone system. It also means since people won’t be on hold on the phone, you can see how many rides are scheduled, where they’re going, and when in real time.

4. Clear Insight Into Billing

Payments and billing are one of the more complicated, time-consuming, and frustrating parts of operating an NEMT service.

Before software automation, there was an exchange of payments between the rider and driver, paper manifests with signatures, and trip-logging in the vehicle, all of which got handed back to your office staff for input into your systems, often multiple duplicate entries, to process billing so your company could get paid for services.

NEMT software can automate your billing processes by pulling data that’s already recorded through TripMaster and create quick, accurate bills that eliminate the potential for human errors and billing mistakes.

5. See the Data Medicare Wants With Instant Reporting

NEMT software can automate your reporting processes and eliminate your need to do complicated manual queries. TripMaster makes statewide Medicaid billing a breeze. Need customized reports for state and federal reporting? Forget staring at spreadsheets and printing out stacks and stacks of paper to find what you’re looking for. With NEMT software, you can get customized reports, specific to your reporting needs, so you can quickly and instantly access the data you need.

The team at CTS Software, creators of TripMaster, have been working with the Medicaid system for more than three decades. While they bring a wealth of knowledge to the table, they also have great existing relationships and work directly with Medicaid providers and other funding sources to ensure your company will meet all of your Medicaid reporting requirements. The software’s custom reporting will help you stay in compliance. Best yet, CTS support staff are always available to help build new reports as states require them—and it’s a service that’s included in your contract free of charge.

6. Visibility Into How Well You’re Maintaining Your Fleet

Managing and maintaining your vehicle fleet may be one of the largest operating expenses within your organization. If not done routinely with continuous insight, it can cost you even more. Worst yet, if your fleet isn’t properly maintained and one or more goes out of service, it can cause you delays and headaches and decrease your overall operational efficiencies.

Stop doing manual odometer checks, and let NEMT software help. With TripMaster’s Vehicle Maintenance Module (VMM), you can keep your riders safe by ensuring they’re getting into safely maintained vehicles, set mileage parameters for all of your vehicles, create vehicle service requests, and even approve vendors for service.

VMM will also help you decrease fleet emissions, which will help you meet requirements and improve local air quality. You can also see improvements in gas mileage, meaning lower fuel expenses, and VMM can help you decrease or eliminate preventable maintenance-related incidents.

7. Keep the Competition In Sight

If you’re an NEMT operator in a town or city of any significant size, you likely see nationwide rideshare providers out and about in your community. As you’re aware, these large companies, which specialize in transportation, are edging their way into the NEMT and paratransit market. Many of them carry brand recognition into the arena, putting you automatically behind as you’re trying to keep and grow market share.

Several of these national companies were created with a heavy technology focus, meaning they have a lot of automation at their service, right out of the gate. If you’re not using NEMT software to automate much of your business, you’re already lagging behind, even if you were out of the gate years before they started their engines.

But just because competitors have new bells and whistles at hand, doesn’t mean they are the right solution at the right time for NEMT needs. Stick with a company that’s offered NEMT services and specialized in the NEMT industry for more than 30 years. TripMaster’s NEMT software can help you edge out the competition, improve operational efficiencies, cut costs, improve fleet performance, and keep your customers happy.

Don’t go into 2020 blinded by the old way of doing things. Call or contact TripMaster today for a demo and see just how clear your 2020 will be.