As with some of Lyft's other team-ups, patients don't need a smartphone or even a credit card. In Hitch's case, riders get a text message offering a pickup.

The deal helps bolster Lyft's role in medical transportation. It also repeats a familiar competitive strategy for Lyft: matching Uber on key fronts as quickly as possible, and looking for opportunities to one-up its rival in the same space. It's not necessarily original, but it's hard to complain when it leads to improved health care for those who need it most.