Taking Initiative

After discovering a gap in the transit market, TripSpark created a thriving new division of its existing business. Now its leaders are looking towards the next stage of growth, with the support of its parent company

Any business owner can relate to the need to keep a watchful eye on evolving market conditions. The growth story of Momentm Technologies (formerly known as TripSpark Medical) offers a shining example of how market observation has guided its roadmap to current and future growth.

In 2018, community transportation software provider TripSpark noticed a growing segment of the market that served distinct needs from their typical transit customer. This part of the market helps healthcare patients who need help getting to medical appointments, but are not yet in a medical emergency requiring an ambulance. Seeing potential there, TripSpark began to more closely observe the unique needs of their customers who needed non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT), following a best practice shared by Volaris companies.

The collaboration and sharing of best practices at Volaris and Modaxo are a big benefit. There is a lot of benefit in hearing what other people are doing.

-Steve Dewis, General Manager, Momentm Technologies (formerly known as TripSpark Medical)

Access to medical transportation can mean the difference between life and death for patients in need. Typical users of NEMT are low-income—either below the poverty line, or just above it. Seniors or people with disabilities are common patients, along with anyone else who is unable to travel to medical appointments on their own, whether for financial or health reasons.

“In the U.S., where most of our customers are, some people legitimately can’t get to their appointments and can experience negative health outcomes or even die as a result,” explains Steve Dewis, the General Manager of Momentm Technologies (formerly known as TripSpark Medical).

Momentm Technologies (formerly known as TripSpark Medical) has seen a quick path to growth after focusing on its subsegment of the market, says General Manager Steve Dewis.

Understanding A Distinct Market

After studying the NEMT segment of the market, the TripSpark team began to realize the extent to which the market was underserved, and how different its needs are. While most of TripSpark’s clients in the transit market are government-funded, with expectations of longer lead times and longer timeframes for project deployments, the NEMT market consists of mainly clients from privately-owned businesses who expected very quick turnaround times and fast deployments. 

“They tend to want deployments in six weeks, rather than six months,” says Dewis about customers in the NEMT market.

TripSpark decided to split off part of its business to focus on the medical segment, which has now grown into a separate division known as TripSpark Medical (which was rebranded as Momentm Technologies as of April 2023). The split allowed the team to dedicate staff and resources specifically to the distinct needs of this market.

Once we realized we had this subsegment that wasn’t getting proper attention, there was a huge opportunity to focus solely on this part of the market which is radically different from the transit market, and see if we could grow it by giving it attention. And it has turned out very well.

-Steve Dewis, General Manager, Momentm Technologies (formerly known as TripSpark Medical)

“It’s been a fast growth path for the business,” says Dewis.

“When we created our own division, we wanted to build a culture where we challenge the status quo and do things differently, which is what the market wanted,” he continues. “We wanted a high-trust, high-performance, collaborative environment, with very transparent management.”

How Momentm Technologies Serves the Market

To capture Momentm's purpose in one sentence: the company writes software that allows people to get to their medical appointments. But the value of its product to customers is more fully appreciated after understanding its complex operating environment.

As mentioned, most of Momentm’s business is in the U.S., where Medicaid funds medical transportation. The situation in each state varies, but generally, a state either employs a large business called a managed care organization, or a large broker. These organizations are experts in health delivery but are not experts in transportation, so they buy Momentm’s software to help operate their medical transportation.

Without transportation, everything in the healthcare delivery system starts to fall apart.

-Steve Dewis, General Manager, Momentm Technologies (formerly known as TripSpark Medical)

The software solves a series of operational issues for healthcare organizations, one of which is how to make efficient use of its fleet of vehicles. 

“Our clients want to know how to make the best use of the vehicles they have, and make as many trips as possible,” says Dewis. “And we have an algorithm that helps them do that.”

The software also reminds patients when their trip is coming up and allows tech-savvy patients to efficiently book their trips on a web portal, rather than waiting on busy phone lines. 

Finally, once a healthcare organization has completed trips for patients, it needs to take care of billing by sending patient information to the state for payment. “It can get really complicated, with many files sent between the broker and the state to figure all of that out,” says Dewis. Momentm’s software helps automate the process through which the organization can verify whether a patient is eligible under Medicaid for payment of the trip.

Billing solutions offered by the software are especially crucial to the livelihood of managed care organizations and brokers, who need to remain profitable, explains Dewis: “If they give the ride to a patient that’s not eligible, or give a patient a ride to a location that they weren’t supposed to go, they have to eat that cost. And if they don’t submit the right information to the state, they can be denied payment. Errors like that can add up pretty quickly, and that’s where we come in and help fill that gap for them.”

Pursuing a New Initiative for Growth

Momentm has already significantly increased revenue since deciding to focus on its distinct customer segment. The business unit’s success has also been reflected in its employee count, which has doubled to meet the growing needs of the market. 

Now, the business is seeking growth through an initiative that is being supported by Volaris Group’s People Transportation portfolio, Modaxo. The Momentm team discovered that large managed care organizations and brokers require more complex functionality and enhanced billing and operational processes that are not being met by the current market offerings. The initiative gives Dewis and his team additional funding to invest in a new product to address this gap and enhance the existing product significantly. Momentm and Modaxo are taking a long-term view as they build legitimacy for the new product.

Further Investment in Growth

With the backing of Volaris and Modaxo, Dewis and his team are using their intimate knowledge of their market to keep up with changing trends. Notably, healthcare delivery models are changing at the state level so that managed care organizations are shouldering even more financial risk, which underlines the need for software to take care of sophisticated details for clients. 

The pandemic, while creating harsh conditions for medical transportation providers, also brought new ideas into medical transportation. Momentm updated its software to allow for medicine and food delivery operations, which saw increased demand.

Momentm has also hired IT expertise that can specifically deal with the increasingly complex security and compliance needs of the medical market.

Culture and people management have been most important for our business. I've put a focus on people as my number one consideration.

-Steve Dewis, General Manager, Momentm Technologies (formerly known as TripSpark Medical)

Dewis is confident he can continue to steer the company toward growth, with the ongoing, long-term support of parent companies Volaris and Modaxo.

“Everyone at the company is focused and moving in the same direction, with no distractions,” he says assuredly.
 

Read more:

• Business splits at Volaris: Thinking Bigger by Adopting a Small Team Approach
• Volaris Group’s People Transportation vertical: Modaxo
• Momentm: Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) Software