Securing Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) contracts is crucial for success in the NEMT industry. Building long-term partnerships with hospitals, clinics, and insurance providers like Medicare and Medicaid helps ensure you a steady income and allows you to earn a reputation for excellence.
6 Ideas to Get More NEMT Contracts
The NEMT field is competitive. Businesses that thrive in it do so by securing contracts that bring steady work. This requires a multifaceted approach based on building a strong foundation with facilities and patients.
The following six strategies will describe how to get NEMT contracts. Utilizing them will help you build a firm foundation of long-term connections, establish yourself as a reliable, preferred NEMT professional, and continue to grow your business.
1. Focus on Niche Services
You might think carving out a niche for your NEMT services means potentially fewer jobs, but that isn’t the case. Specialization involves focusing. Get to know specific communities with unique circumstances, whether that means dialysis, elderly care, chronic illness, or similar care needs.
Aligning your NEMT business with a niche isn’t about turning clients away. It’s about standing out as the best when helping those who need specific care. How you approach this may be unique to your local market. Are you in a highly populated city or working where people are spread out and have fewer healthcare options?
Take a close look at the needs of your community and define yourself as their best option for solving their transportation problems. As you get to know your clients and their medical and mobility challenges, showing sympathy, providing comfort, and always being prompt will be meaningful to them. Your thoughtfulness will not go unnoticed by patients who are struggling.
2. Build Partnerships with Medical Institutions
Healthcare providers rely on NEMTs that are reliable, credentialed, and on time.
Building relationships with hospitals and clinics is essential to your strategy. You don’t just want more contracts. You are looking for long-term relationships for consistent business.
Medical institutions outsource their transportation needs to focus on their complex operations. They expect NEMTs to place all their focus on providing the best possible transportation experience for patients. Paying attention to the unique needs of different facilities and proving you’re the best solution can lead to long-term contracts. Talk to the decision-makers at hospitals and managed care organizations (MCOs).
In addition to hospitals and clinics, be sure you take the necessary steps to partner with Medicare and Medicaid since, ultimately, they will be the ones reimbursing you. Medicaid covers your services for patients with no other means of transport to medical appointments like doctor’s appointments, hospital visits, dialysis, and therapy. Medicare, on the other hand, requires healthcare providers to submit documentation that non-emergency transportation is medically necessary.
Consider joining organizations like the National Association for Healthcare Transportation Management (NAHTM) for networking and resources. Attend industry events, health fairs, and community meetings that connect you to the groups and individuals you’ll be serving in your community.
3. Invest in Marketing and Online Presence
Don’t underestimate the power of a strong online presence. Having a website provides you with a landing place to showcase what makes your NEMT service unique. However, your online presence shouldn’t stop there.
Use your website as an opportunity to grab traffic from potential client searches in Google and other search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is about identifying terms people search for when they need transportation. Optimizing your website content to align with potential clients’ needs can help bring the right traffic to your site.
You also need to market your services. Two options are placing ads on Google and remaining active on your social media accounts. Your Google ads should target people in your area based on demographic information that aligns with your services.
In addition to advertising on your social media platforms, it’s important to consistently post content. You can share testimonials, healthcare-related information, photos, and anything that may capture your target audience’s attention.
Your social media presence is about interacting directly with an online community. Just as you might go to a conference for networking opportunities, your social media accounts let you connect digitally to the most relevant audience. This can enable you to form connections with other healthcare professionals and the patients you assist.
4. Use NEMT Software to Streamline Operations
Choosing the most beneficial software platforms for your business is almost as important as choosing the right vehicles. Contracted partners will appreciate that you keep a close eye on operational efficiency. The right combination of applications can help you tighten your operations, improve communications, and save time and money in the following ways:
- Providing dispatch and route optimization support so you don’t get stuck in traffic and cause a client to miss an important appointment
- Organizing operations around a calendar of scheduled shifts and appointments
- Managing drivers and other staff
- Helping you maintain professional communication with clients through customer relationship management software
- Streamlining bookkeeping, invoicing, and payroll
- Managing contracts and compliance
- Using automation to improve operational efficiency
- Saving on fuel
- Reducing wait times
5. Follow Up and Build Client Relationships
Being reliable and consistent extends to ongoing communication, so staying in touch with your clients is essential. Customer retention is the name of the game. Your quality of service will help you maintain good standing with facilities and clients, but nurturing every relationship is important. Happy clients will recommend you to others, which can contribute to repeat business, referrals, and positive online reviews.
After every trip, be sure to send follow-up emails thanking clients by name and asking for their feedback. The only way to improve your performance quality is to gain valuable feedback and work hard to improve any area where service was lacking.
It’s important that you are always receptive to client input. Never react defensively or try to explain yourself if given constructive criticism.
Be grateful and humble, and strive for perfection.
6. Provide Elevated Comfort with the Traversa Transport Wheelchair
Building your NEMT operation around the Traversa Transport Wheelchair helps with all six of the above strategies. This industry-first wheelchair is specifically designed for transporting multiple patients throughout the day, replacing stretchers with a more comfortable and cost-effective option. Due to its comfort, your clients are more likely to become return customers.
The Traversa can be a great selling tool to help you win more contracts. When you meet with a potential NEMT contract client, bring the Traversa with you to demonstrate the comfortable experience first-hand! Don’t just take our word for it. Hear from Kristin Ramoz, COO of Paramount Medical Transportation. Kristin doubled her NEMT revenue by earning more contracts with the Traversa.
Perhaps you focus on a niche for elders, or those living with a chronic illness, or people who need to sit or lie in a specific position. Or maybe you rely on the flexibility to serve anyone requiring any position, including lying flat as on a stretcher. Regardless, the Traversa Transport Wheelchair enables you to cater to each individual’s personalized needs.
The Traversa Transport Wheelchair offers severala unique selling points that hospitals, facilities, and MCOs will appreciate.Your ability to accommodate most stretcher functions just as easily as wheelchair functions will make you a reliable option for a wide range of patients. The Traversa provides the following unique features:
- Handles up to 90% of NEMT stretcher trips
- Provides better comfort than stretchers
- Requires only one driver to push
- Moves laterally and with a 360° swivel with the Pivot Assist System™
- Allows for passengers weighing up to 450 lbs
- Adjusts height to that of a bed, exam table, or MRI machine
- Requires no manual lifting
Ready to elevate your NEMT business? Contact the Broda team at 844-552-7632, or email info@brodaseating.com.
