Laradon Hall, one of Colorado’s largest facilities serving children and adults with special needs since 1948, faced a daunting task in 2009: how to manage over 2,000 clients with special needs in an economy fraught with cuts in state and federal funding.
The Challenge : Sustain the organization by graduating from inadequate spreadsheet-based billing and client management to a custom-fit database application
Laradon Hall previously flourished by providing services to children and adults with special needs with the simple use of spreadsheets and emails. By 2009, however, the number of clients had grown too large for this basic type of system.
According to Laradon cofounder Joseph Calabrese, “Without a centralized database, our staff could no longer effectively manage our clients, billing or cash flow. With over 2,000 clients and growing, the lack of a centralized database was impacting our ability to serve our clients and threatened our survival as an organization.”
Like other special needs facilities in Colorado, Joseph and cofounder Elizabeth Calabrese considered using the Colorado Center Boards (CCB) to help manage client services billing to the state. The drawback of this option, according to Elizabeth, was that “the CCB charge a 3% gross services fee, and with our annual billings in excess of $5 million it would cost us roughly $150,000 a year in service fees.”
The Solution : a customized client management and billing system driven by Microsoft Access
During their research for alternative solutions, the Calabreses discovered ClientCare360, a client management and billing system designed by Help4Access specifically for disabilities service providers. Help4Access’ ClientCare360 system gave Laradon the ability to create a complete 360-degree view of each client relationship, while providing an integrated and comprehensive set of client management services.
At the heart of ClientCare360 is the Microsoft Access database, the leading choice for small- to medium-size business database solutions. Built around the cost-effective Access database, Help4Access was able to deliver a comprehensive client management and billing system in a centralized, secure and easy-to-use customized application.
Benefits: Customized database application increases productivity and cash flow
Service agencies without a centralized database to gather, store and process client billing information often bill only monthly, missing out on cash flow opportunities as a result. ClientCare360’s centralized Microsoft Access database not only saves money by eliminating service fees, but also increases cash flow by enabling the care provider to bill as frequently as they like, resulting in much faster payments.
In addition to eliminating fees and improving cash flow, Help4Access’s ClientCare360 product provides substantial cost savings by automating numerous manual back-office functions needed to manage clients and prepare the State billing. Program managers and administrators also save significant research time since client data is consolidated and centralized in the Microsoft Access client database.
Unlike competitors charging as much as $130 per active client for online client billing services, the cost-effective custom-fit ClientCare360 application runs on Laradon’s existing system at one-third the price of online alternatives. Sasha Froyland, CEO of Help4Access, says: “With ClientCare360 we have developed a cost-effective solution built around Microsoft Access allowing service providers to afford a centralized client management and billing system which saves them time and money, increases cash flow and allows them to provide better care to their clients. We are proud to be able to offer this comprehensive product at such a competitive price point.”
Help4Access provides highly affordable, data-driven business applications and services. Over the past 15 years the company has successfully built and delivered more than 800 custom applications for a wide variety of businesses, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations.
