A streamlined organization is an efficient one, and automating processes is a key way to save care staff time and ensure that leadership receives key business insights. LeadingAge member FellowshipLIFE, which operates five life plan communities throughout New Jersey, discovered this when it partnered with LeadingAge Bronze Partner with CAST Focus NuAIg to reduce a surfeit of processes requiring manual paperwork.

NuAIG, which employs data and artificial intelligence to transform aging services, created a Center of Excellence (CoE) for FellowshipLIFE. Together, the organizations introduced automation and surfaced key data that gave visibility into operational performance and revenue trends to enhance decision-making, increase speed and accuracy of organization functions, improve compliance, and give staff more time to spend with residents.

A new LeadingAge CAST case study, Three Years, Countless Efficiencies: How FellowshipLIFE Modernized Care with AI, shares details on this highly effective initiative, plus learnings gained along the way.

Automations That Transformed FellowshipLIFE

The project focused efforts on compliance, intake, property management, financial reporting, payroll, and clinical documentation, including the following solutions.

• Property Management Solution: Power Apps forms and Power Automate workflows created a comprehensive automation and data visualization solution that eliminated paper-based workflows, provided centralized visibility across all properties, and enabled proactive management of property-related projects and timelines.
• Resident Intake Process Automation: NuAIg built a unified intake workflow and interface that connects every step from information entry to agreement completion—flowing client information automatically into MatrixCare and NetHealth, along with streamlining insurance verification and agreement processing.
• Office of Inspector General (OIG) Search Compliance Automation: To end manual OIG searches and speed compliance verification, Power Automate retrieves employee data from ADP payroll solutions and cross-references against the OIG exclusion website. The system then performs compliance checks and generates automated reports.
• Medicare Part B Metrics Automation: This automated solution retrieves “Medicare Part B” UB-04 reports from NetHealth, applies predefined discount structures, calculates net revenue for each client across therapy categories, and compiles reports to yield accurate financials and understanding of revenue performance.
• Automating the Balance Transfer of “Paid Time Off” (PTO): An automated solution that interfaces with ADP payroll solutions identifies employees with accrued PTO balances, calculates the amount owed, transfers it to the correct bank accounts, and creates reports to ensure accurate and timely PTO transfers.
• Payroll Status Change Automation: A comprehensive automated workflow using PowerApps Forms includes tracking capabilities, automated notifications, and audit trails for all changes to save processing time, improve accuracy, and ensure visibility into payroll.
• Resident Tracking Logs Automation: This solution extracts resident details from NetHealth, retrieves evaluation and re-certification documents, validates physician information, stores standardized document packages, and updates a centralized database—saving time, improving accuracy, and improving Medicare compliance.
• Purchase Order Automation: A unified Power Apps workspace with structured approval flows, automatic PDF archiving in SharePoint, and a form that posts invoices into MatrixCare yields a faster, fully traceable, and more-automated purchase order process to strengthen financial controls and reduce effort across teams.

Outcomes

Automated compliance monitoring enables providers to better maintain regulatory standards and to devote more time to caring for residents. Residents benefit from faster intake and claims processing, plus better service delivery and care coordination.

Learnings

FellowshipLIFE and NuAIg shared the following lessons learned for providers interested in replicating their success.

• Iterate on an ongoing basis to improve systems as healthcare requirements and user needs change.
• Prioritize data security to protect health information and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Plan from the beginning to integrate healthcare’s multiple systems.
• Prioritize training staff in new processes.

To further explore this successful implementation, read the full case study.