Customer Success Story
Organization:
Goodall-Witcher Healthcare in Bosque County, approximately 35 miles from Waco, Texas, includes a 25-bed critical access hospital, two rural health clinics, home health, an extended care home, and a fitness center. Under the leadership of Adam Willmann, CEO and President, and his administrative and provider teams, Goodall-Witcher operates as a Level IV trauma facility and is the premier healthcare provider for residents of Bosque and surrounding counties.
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Objective:
Ensure that Goodall-Witcher managed care contracts are being paid as contracted. Quantify where underpayments and/or denials are contributing to revenue leakage. Hold insurers accountable for contractual agreements without incurring additional staffing or extensive implementation costs. Work with a company that understands rural and community hospitals' unique challenges and needs.
Situation:
Adam Willmann suspected that Goodall-Witcher was being underpaid by some of their larger payers. An ongoing challenge for rural and community hospitals is how to fight denials when there are limited resources and limited data analysis tools. Goodall-Witcher needed a robust yet cost effective solution.
Solution:
Goodall-Witcher had looked at other Contract Management and Business Intelligence solutions, some with anticipation to be implemented within their EMR. Many solutions proved unaffordable; sometimes, larger companies were not interested in working with a smaller hospital. SlicedHealth offered an affordable solution to upload all payer contracts and to analyze data from managed care contracts to ensure correct payment. SlicedHealth was put to test in a pre-purchase review where the flexibility of the product and service model ‘checked all the boxes.'
Outcomes:
In one month, SlicedHealth Contract Management found Goodall-Witcher was underpaid $280,000, and that was from just a handful of accounts. One notable underpayment was a Medicare Advantage plan that paid $50,000 below contract. Goodall-Witcher has collected $55,000 of those underpayments with further adjudication and scrubbing forthcoming.
Narrative:
Goodall-Witcher Healthcare, a 25-bed critical access facility located northwest of Waco, Texas, faced challenges typical of community and rural healthcare providers: insurance denials and underpayments with limited resources of staff and budget to identify gaps and the data analytics to quantify specific circumstances.
In choosing SlicedHealth Contract Management and Business Intelligence, Goodall-Witcher performed due diligence to ensure they received both the product and service levels that fit their organization's business and budget needs. Adam Willmann, CEO, states, “SlicedHealth checked all the boxes. They understood our needs, the price point was affordable, which reduced risk; there was no need for interfaces, so it wasn’t capital intensive, and most importantly, the SlicedHealth team instilled a sense of trust that they had our best interests in mind. The product paid for itself in one month of identifying and recouping underpayments.”
The SlicedHealth solutions are the trifecta regarding product quality, cost of ownership, and available service options. All contracts are modeled, there was no need for additional interfaces (thus reducing both cost and time to implementation), and automation reduced the manual workload, allowing the staff to complete their work without additional hiring.
Staffing and hiring is a significant challenge throughout the healthcare ecosystem, with rural and community hospitals facing the additional challenge of a limited number of people available and limited budgets for initial and ongoing training. The SlicedHealth solutions allow Goodall-Witcher to rely on technology to comb through thousands of account postings—from small lab charges to chronic care management. As example, SlicedHealth Contract Management found where a payer was paying just half of contracted chronic care – they were approving in the range of 60% but denying 40% without reason. SlicedHealth found this discrepancy and, most importantly, provided objective data that could be trusted.
Long and involved technology implementation is a common barrier and valid reason many hospitals are reluctant to bring in new technology, even if that change could result in long term benefits. Adam Willmann has noted that for Goodall-Witcher, that other than providing SlicedHealth with initial data, there was not additional work and there was not a burden on his team members. Adam shared that ‘SlicedHealth was able to be up and going and implemented with very limited resources from the hospital perspective – and that’s a huge positive. It didn’t impact workflow and neither employees or doctors had to change their way of working. We could do more with less stress and greater results.”
Since implementing the SlicedHealth solutions, there has been a positive shift for Goodall-Witcher. Now, instead of sifting through endless accounts to identify discrepancies, they receive a concise list pinpointing highlighted issues that require immediate attention. This streamlined approach allows them to address underpayments or denials specified in their contracts promptly. Goodall-Witcher is equipped with a comprehensive list, enabling their team to initiate the appeals process promptly, regardless of the size. This efficiency ensures no revenue slips
through the cracks, and enhances the revenue recovery process.
$280,000 found to be underpaid in just one month
100% product cost ROI in only one month
$38,000 underpayment collected from one account
Adam Willmann
President & CEO
With SlicedHealth, we can do more without hiring additional staff. We have been able to streamline processes and can keep up with the workload. Instead of manually touching everything, we're automating to find underpayments we might not have previously looked for. SlicedHealth has given us another tool in our toolbox to ensure we’re paid fairly.
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They understood our needs, the price point was affordable, which reduced risk; there was no need for interfaces, so it wasn’t capital intensive, and most importantly, the SlicedHealth team instilled a sense of trust that they had our best interests in mind. In one month of identifying and recouping underpayments, the product paid for itself. SlicedHealth checked all the boxes.
Summary:
In the success story of Goodall-Witcher, the central theme is trust. Trust has been a cornerstone, from their reliance on the quality of products to their confidence in the expertise of the SlicedHealth team. This trust extends to the process, with a firm belief in SlicedHealth's understanding of rural and community hospital needs. Most notably, Goodall-Witcher's trust lies in the character, integrity, and knowledge of the SlicedHealth team.
Goodall-Witcher’s mission is to provide the residents in and beyond the community with quality healthcare from trained professionals. Defending and protecting revenue is a core business responsibility in parallel with this mission. Lowering operational losses is critical, particularly in a rural or community environment. Collecting monies contractually owed is a giant step forward and demonstrates Goodall-Witcher’s strong commitment to their community's physical and fiscal health.
Adam Willmann is a native of Clifton and the third generation born in Goodall-Witcher Hospital. Adam joined Goodall-Witcher Healthcare as CEO in 2012. In 2021, the Texas Hospital Association awarded its Pioneer Award to Adam. The Texas Hospital Association’s Pioneer Award is given to a CEO/administrator of a rural hospital or healthcare system who demonstrates creative and innovative management achievements and leadership within the organization and the community.
