Veyo was recently featured in Phoenix’s inBusiness Magazine in their “Phoenix: Leading the Way” cover story. They sat down with our EVP of Business Development, Stan Sipes to discover what Veyo has been up to in Phoenix. The original article can be found here and is reprinted below.

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“Veyo is the first and only true technology focused transportation company in the Non-Emergency Medical Transportation broker industry, according to Stan Sipes, executive vice president of business development. A subsidiary of Total Transit, Inc., Veyo was formed by merging Total Transit’s NEMT division with 2PointB, a technology company, to create a technology-driven transportation company with a mission to change the status quo of NEMT.

“While the formation of Veyo as a new entity occurred in 2015, we inherited Total Transit’s 20-year history and experience operating as both an NEMT broker and provider,” says Sipes. “Total Transit’s history in the transportation industry stretches back even further, having been founded in Arizona in 1984. Total Transit grew to operate the largest taxi company in the southwestern U.S. in addition to managing public transit and Dial-a-Ride services.”

The new model for Medicaid transportation Veyo launched in 2015 adapted the innovations found in transportation network companies (TNCs) for the complex needs of the healthcare industry and, most critically, NEMT beneficiaries. Central to Veyo’s strategy was creating its own vertically integrated ridesharing network — purpose built for the healthcare industry and the unique needs of the Medicaid population. While NEMT has been in existence for more than 50 years, there had been few innovations in the space. Veyo was the first to introduce advanced technology, an innovative rideshare fleet and a flexible supply model — all aimed at improving the transportation experience for Medicaid and Medicare members.

Recognizing the potential to bring these new innovations from the consumer rideshare industry into the healthcare transportation industry, specifically NEMT, Veyo began building a custom technology solution that would revolutionize the operational aspects of the NEMT business. That new technology solution was paired with a healthcare-specific rideshare fleet to create the first rideshare model built specifically for NEMT. But, says Sipes, “One of the biggest challenges to growing our business was the fact that we were known only to the few customers in the southwest who were absorbed into the Veyo organization from Total Transit.

“In order to expose the Veyo solution to the Medicaid industry, we invested in a multi-faceted, industry-wide communication blitz that encompassed leveraging existing relationships to set up face-to-face meetings with decision makers and leaders in the Medicaid industry; participation in healthcare conferences across the country; development and implementation of messaging through digital media, website, articles, and targeted campaigns; and partnerships with key local consultants and lobbyists in target states.

“We have brought this model to three of our largest customers across the country and continue to launch our new model as we work with new customers.”

Sipes points out that, because Veyo’s model offers detailed tracking along every step of the NEMT process, payers have transparency into every step of the process. And he notes that Veyo has seen results that were previously unheard of in the NEMT industry, citing the following figures: Since the model was introduced just over three years ago, Veyo IDPs have conducted more than 6.5 million trips in the Arizona market and brought a more reliable, faster, higher quality and lower-cost service to Arizona’s Medicaid members. Veyo’s rideshare fleet has increased the Arizona NEMT capacity by more than 3,000 vehicles, while the capacity of traditional NEMT fleets has continued to decline; completed more than 6.5 million trips in the Arizona market, with nearly 3,000 Veyo IDPs completing between 7,000 and 8,000 trips each day; achieved an on-time rate of 95 percent and a grievance rate of just 0.02 percent — 10 times lower than the average grievance rate from a traditional provider fleet; and achieved an average time from trip dispatch to member pickup of just 14 minutes.

“We are now the third-largest NEMT broker in the country, and, over the last four years, we have watched our competitors in the industry implement major changes in their investments in technology and operational efficiencies in response to our growth, which motivates us to continue to lead the industry’s movement into the future,” Sipes says.

“Total Transit, Inc. was based in Phoenix, so Arizona was a natural fit for our first market because we had a strong customer base here in the state. In addition,” Sipes continues, “we have always had, and continue to enjoy, a great relationship with AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid agency. We communicated with them as we journeyed through the process of vision, design, development and implementation of our Veyo Model for NEMT. Their support and willingness to speak positively about Veyo has been a key to our ability to establish relationships across the country. Another important factor was that AHCCCS has proven to be one of the most advanced state CMS agencies in the country regarding innovation, which has proved to be the ideal environment in which to launch and prove the Veyo Model.”