Shortened sharing time, continued growth and preparing for the future

Internal actions to improve ministry systems, communication and coordination continue to shorten sharing time. Some of these approaches can be seen while others are unseen. But all can be felt by CHM members: In just three months, CHM staff shaved in most cases more than 30 days off medical bill sharing time—and sharing time continues to decrease.

Among the most significant change is that previously, the same bills were reviewed by two departments at different stages of the sharing process; however, an analysis showed some of this to be unnecessary duplication that added to sharing time. The result is that 37 percent of medical bills are no longer doubly-reviewed, saving time for all other bills to be processed. Other sharing time-shortening steps:

When bill sharing is delayed by missing forms or other information, CHM now sends requests for those missing items much sooner in the sharing process than was done in the past.
Education of the bill sharing process has helped cut down on items being sent to CHM that aren’t needed for medical bill sharing. The less time CHM staff members spend dealing with unnecessary items, the faster medical bills can be shared.
The addition of dozens of new employees means more bills are shared daily.
Another goal underway is to send emails (whenever possible) in place of letters to save time and postage costs.

These recent efforts have strengthened the ministry’s ability to reach significant milestones throughout the process:

Sharing time has shortened by more than 30 days. This number reflects the oldest medical bills within CHM’s database (Please note: Sharing requests for which CHM staff members are awaiting additional forms, provider confirmation about discounts, or itemized bills are not included within this analysis).
CHM members saw record-breaking months in late 2019 as members shared all-time highs of more than $47 and $52 million in Sept. and Oct., respectively. CHM members saw yet another record-breaking month in January 2020 when members shared over $64,721,896.
Praise to the Lord for the faithfulness of His people who shared more than $500 million (after discounts) in 2019. This means that over 50,000 families received financial help for over 365,000 medical bills received by CHM.