Oral

A critical component to maintaining the health and well being of older adults in the community is their ability to access health care. Lack of access to nonemergency medical transportation is a critical barrier to the management of chronic illness and disabilities. Approximately 3.6 million American adults living in the community fail to obtain health care due to a lack of transportation and these individuals are more likely to be older adults who find it difficult to perform activities involved in transporting themselves to medical appointments. Transportation is critical for access to health care. This symposium examines the role of non-emergency medical transportation access on health and health care use of community residing older adults. The introduction will include a brief presentation on non-emergency medical transportation NEMT services followed by five presentations. 1. Age patterns in need versus use of NEMT services (Prohaska, Hughes, Eisenstein, Leary) 2. Critical issues in use of NEMT by older adults in rural settings (Smith, Prohaska, Ragland, Satariano) 3. Missed or delayed medical care appointments by older users of NEMT services (MacLeod, Ragland, Prohaska, Irmiter, Satariano) 4. Cost and cost effectiveness of brokered transportation for non-emergency medical care transportation (Ragland, MacLeod, Prohaska, Leary) 5. Educating physicians and health care professionals on older driver retirement (Irmiter, Eisenstein, Prohaska)

Session Objectives: 1. Identify age differences in demand for non-emergency medical transportation services. 2. Describe rate of program attrition by age groups in use of transportation brokered services for medical appointments. 3. Compare differences between states in growth of transportation services for medical services

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)