THE CHALLENGE
Over the last decade, the number of medical financial aid programs has grown exponentially. There are now billions of dollars available across thousands U.S.programs to patients who need support through copay assistance, life-saving drugs, social support and more.Unfortunately, most patients don’t have the time or knowledge of the medical system to advocate for themselves and take advantage of these opportunities.To ensure no stone is left unturned in helping patients avoid extra financial stress, King’s Daughters HealthSystem (KDHS) sought to empower its patient advocacy teams with a solution that could automate patient matching and streamline enrollment.
THE SOLUTION: ATLAS HEALTH
When Delana Warnock, Practice Manager at KDHS Oncology Center ofExcellence, heard about Atlas, she was already aware of philanthropic funding, but she didn’t know about the sheer volume of programs available and the complexities of each. When she saw Atlas for the first time, Warnock said she “immediately understood how it simplified and automated a complicated workflow and could easily double the number of patients receiving aid” at a time when they should be focused on getting healthy. It took only three months for Atlas to fully integrate existing KDHS processes and gain full acceptance from the team. According to Warnock,“the ramp-up time was impressive, and there wasn’t much of a fallout from what could have been a tumultuous switch.”
THE RESULTS
In the first 90 days, Atlas helped KDHS increase the support patients receive from philanthropic aid programs by 241%. Now KDHS is on track to support its patients with more than $3 million annually in philanthropic aid. Warnock said it was “amazing to make a big transition and see results so quickly with a tool that facilitates such a difficult workflow in a simple, easy-to-use way.”
The Atlas philanthropic database covers all patient assistance, copay and diagnosis-based assistance foundation programs specific to oncology patients and providers. It also includes programs that applyto pulmonology, pharmacy and more. Because of the versatility of the program database, workflow automation and reporting, Atlas is now being implemented into the pulmonology department to support additional philanthropic aid enrollment across the health system.
The Atlas program match functionality saves navigators time when they often only have a short period to find assistance for a patient. The system automatically matches patients with programs they may qualify for based on their diagnosis, prescribed medications, insurance coverage, financial situation and various other factors. Knowing these matches ahead of time allows navigators like Shannon to complete applications quickly instead of wasting time searching for potential assistance matches.
Once a navigator starts working an application, everything needed to assist patients is in one location.Available patient information automatically populates in the application, giving navigators a jump start on the process. Application status, claims and medications are tracked from start to finish so they can always tell a patient exactly what is going on. “When a patient calls, I’m able to make them feel like they’re my only patient and top priority,” says Shannon.
