In the United States, it is estimated that approximately three in five adults will experience poverty in their lives. Social services, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid programs, provide supportive safety nets for this low-income population. However, in 2023, more than 40% of people who applied for a social service program said they had trouble proving eligibility or getting benefits when they needed them. Chris Grace co-founded CareAdvisors in 2018 to tackle this significant problem.
“Every year, millions of people in the United States face challenges trying to access social services, which play a major role in their ability to receive care and stay healthy. For one of my own family members, this struggle ultimately and unfairly cost their life. But it shouldn’t be that way for anyone. We started CareAdvisors to reduce the burden of engaging social services for patients and their families—and to support those health workers who are trying to help them.” – Chris Grace, CEO of CareAdvisors
Patients rely on hospitals, social workers, health plans and community-based organizations to access needed services. However, these professionals are often managing extremely large caseloads, which can slow their support services. Limited bandwidth also hinders their ability to track or support their patients’ progress on preventive treatment plans, leading to higher medical costs in the future.
CareAdvisors strengthens the capacity of health and social workers by automating major aspects of their work, freeing them to deliver more and better care for their patients. The company offers a proprietary Social Care Automation tool to track patient progress and increase their access to preventative care services while lowering costs for both patients and service providers. Importantly, CareAdvisors connects community-based organizations with healthcare organizations, because there is a close link between patients’ unmet needs in their everyday lives and negative health outcomes. Through its digital platform, the company also serves as a forum for social workers to share information and best practices.
To date, CareAdvisors has helped improve patient retention rates in health plans by 50% and improved case management efficiency by 10 times. It has also helped Medicaid and Medicare programs improve revenue from value-based payments.
Impact Ventures, an impact fund within the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, recently invested in CareAdvisors to expand their support of social workers, medical facilities and community-based organizations to better serve their patients.
“CareAdvisors deeply understands how social factors—such as community, food access, housing security and financial stability—significantly affect somebody’s health. We’re excited to support CareAdvisors’ approach to increasing access to these critical services and improving health for more patients.” – Vince Barragán, Investment Director at Impact Ventures