THE CHALLENGE
A region of a large national health system with 20 hospitals across 3 states, recognized a gap in its ability to connect patients with available financial assistance programs. Despite serving diverse communities with varying levels of need, the system’s financial assistance efforts were fragmented and largely manual, resulting in only a fraction of eligible patients receiving the support they needed.
With a mission rooted in compassionate care and a deep commitment to serving vulnerable populations, leadership knew they were leaving assistance dollars on the table. Patient volume was growing, uncompensated care costs were rising, and financial counselors lacked the tools and bandwidth to systematically identify and enroll patients in the thousands of available programs. The organization needed a scalable, technology-driven solution that could unify their approach to financial assistance across their vast network of facilities.
THE SOLUTION
They partnered with Atlas Health to deploy a comprehensive solution that combined AI-powered technology with dedicated expert advocates. Atlas’s platform was integrated into the organization’s existing revenue cycle workflows, enabling proactive identification of patients eligible for financial assistance programs across the system’s extensive network.
Atlas’s proprietary technology systematically evaluated each patient against thousands of available funding sources, including manufacturer copay programs, foundation grants, government programs, and charity care options. Dedicated Atlas advocates managed the end-to-end enrollment process, from initial screening through application submission and follow-up, removing the administrative burden from the health system’s staff.
The partnership was designed to scale alongside the organization’s needs, with the ability to ramp up capacity as patient volume grew without requiring additional internal resources or capital investment.
THE RESULTS
Since launching the partnership in 2021, the health system has experienced transformational growth in its financial assistance program. Patient volume served through the program grew an extraordinary 10x, from approximately 60 patients per year to nearly 600 patients annually, representing a greater than 900% increase in reach.
In total, the partnership has secured nearly $14M in cumulative reimbursement and enrolled more than 1,000 patients, demonstrating both the scalability and sustained value of the Atlas platform. The program has matured into a core component of the organization’s financial clearance strategy, reducing uncompensated care and improving the patient financial experience across the system.
The results showcase what is possible when a large, mission-driven organization commits to a technology-enabled approach to financial assistance, proving that even the most complex health systems can achieve dramatic improvements in patient access and revenue recovery.
