Lyft Removes Barrier For Riders With Developmental Disabilities

Lyft is taking steps to allow more people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to access rides paid for through Medicaid home and community-based services programs.

The ride-sharing service said it is updating its app to remove a “longstanding barrier” in its Lyft Pass for Public Funding, or LPPF, program, which serves many Medicaid waiver recipients.

Through the program, participating home and community-based services providers can authorize a budget and pay directly for on-demand rides for people with developmental disabilities as part of their menu of Medicaid waiver services.

However, in order to even create a Lyft account, riders have been required to input a personal payment method, such as a credit card, that was pre-authorized each time they requested a ride.

“That requirement blocked a meaningful share of LPPF riders — people whose rides were already paid for — from signing up or requesting rides at all,” said Betty Yen, director of healthcare partnerships at Lyft, who indicated that about 15% to 20% of LPPF participants are unbanked.

Now, that’s changing. Lyft said that it has updated its app to allow people invited through a participating organization to skip the step requesting a payment method when creating a new account. In addition, there is no longer a payment pre-authorization check for rides paid for through LPPF.

“Lyft Pass for Public Funding exists so individuals in Medicaid HCBS programs can seamlessly access Lyft within the framework of Medicaid’s rigorous requirements. But a rider’s own bank account status was getting in the way of a ride their program had already paid for. That’s a barrier we could remove, so we did,” Yen said. “It’s a small technical change with an outsized impact for people who depend on this program for getting to work, navigating their communities independently and daily living.”