How Tricia Robinson Recovered $142,000 in Lost Care Agency Revenue—And How You Can Too
Tricia Robinson was drowning.
Not financially drowning. Her agency was profitable. But she was personally drowning—working 70+ hour weeks, missing family dinners, answering emails at midnight, stressed about compliance, watching her best staff quit.
Her agency had $2.8 million in revenue. On paper, it looked successful. But $2.8 million in revenue and 60% of it going to administrative overhead means only $1.12 million left to cover staff, facilities, and profit.
Then she discovered something: Hidden in her administrative chaos was $142,000 of recoverable revenue that was getting lost to fragmentation.
This is her story. And it could be your story too.
The Starting Point: Where Tricia’s Agency Was Before
Tricia didn’t think she had a problem. Not a big one, anyway.
Sure, her agency had the typical chaos:
- Seven different software systems, none of which talked to each other
- A compliance coordinator spending 40 hours per week chasing paperwork
- A billing coordinator frustrated with constant claim denials and delays
- Caregiver turnover at 48% (she was constantly hiring)
- Scheduling conflicts that caused last-minute scrambles 3-4 times per week
- Cash flow that was unpredictable (some months great, some months tight)
But these seemed like “normal” problems for a 100-person agency. Everyone she knew dealt with the same issues.
What she didn’t realize: These “normal” problems were costing her $142,000 annually.
The Hidden $142,000: Where the Lost Revenue Was Hiding
Tricia’s first insight came when she calculated her total administrative burden.
She had:
- 3 FTE administrative staff
- 7 software subscriptions
- Constant billing delays and denials
- High caregiver turnover
When she ran the numbers:
Administrative Labor: $180,000/year
- Director of Operations: $65,000
- Compliance Coordinator: $52,000
- Billing Coordinator: $48,000
- Recruiting: (split among the three)
Software Costs: $28,800/year
- Scheduling: $350/month
- Billing: $600/month
- Compliance: $250/month
- EVV: $200/month
- Documentation: $300/month
- Recruiting: $200/month
- Communication: $100/month
Billing Inefficiency: $58,000/year
- Clean claim rate: 71% (vs. industry best 95%)
- Each denied claim costs $200 in rework
- A/R days: 67 (vs. best: 35)
- 15% of revenue delayed or lost to denials
Caregiver Turnover: $120,000/year
- 90-day turnover rate: 48%
- 100 caregivers × 48% turnover × $2,500 cost per replacement = $120,000
Total annual cost of fragmentation: $386,800
But the question was: How much of this is actually recoverable?
Tricia looked at what would change if the underlying system were unified:
- Administrative labor could drop to 1.5 FTE (from 3 FTE): $90,000 savings
- Software costs could drop to $400/month (from $2,400/month): $24,000 savings
- Billing clean claim rate could improve to 95%: $48,000 savings
- Caregiver 90-day turnover could drop to 20%: $50,000 savings
- Working capital improvement (faster collections): $20,000
Total recoverable value: $232,000
But implementing a unified system would cost: $60,000 in setup, training, and migration.
And it would require 30 days of parallel running (her team managing both systems simultaneously), which would create temporary productivity loss.
Net opportunity: $142,000 in the first year.
The Decision Point: Why Tricia Made the Move to Single Architecture™
Tricia knew about CareBravo. She’d heard about it from a peer in her professional network. But she was skeptical.
A peer named Sarah had implemented CareBravo six months earlier and had told Tricia: “It’s the best business decision I’ve made.”
But Tricia was hesitant. She’d bought software before. She’d been disappointed. She didn’t want to disrupt her agency with another software project.
Then she read about the Parallel Promise™.
The Parallel Promise™ is CareBravo’s commitment: Run both your old system and the new system for 30 days in parallel. If you’re not convinced it’s working after 30 days, you can walk away. Zero penalty.
“That was the turning point for me,” Tricia said. “I wasn’t betting the farm. I was getting 30 days to see if it actually works.”
The 30-Day Parallel Promise™ Period: Building Confidence
Tricia’s team started running both systems on January 1.
Old system on the left. New system on the right.
The first week was chaos. Her team had to do everything twice. Every task was double the work.
But by the second week, something interesting happened: The new system started showing its advantage.
In the old system, when a claim got denied, the team would spend 2-3 hours investigating: Which system has the accurate information? Did the caregiver actually work those hours? Was the documentation complete? Is the care plan aligned?
In the new system, the denial didn’t happen in the first place. Because the visit had already been validated against the care plan, the documentation was complete, and the coding was automatic.
By the third week, her team was seeing the difference clearly:
- Scheduling conflicts dropped from daily to weekly
- Call-offs were being filled in minutes instead of hours
- Claims were being submitted faster and without errors
- Compliance tracking was effortless
- Caregiver time in the new system was 10% less than the old system
By day 30, Tricia’s team wasn’t just convinced. They were believers.
“On day 31,” Tricia said, “my team came to me and said: ‘Please turn off the old system. We don’t want to do this twice anymore.'”
The Specific Changes That Drove Recovery: Staffing, Billing, Compliance
Change 1: Staffing Efficiency
In the old system, recruiting was fragmented:
- Job posting happened in Indeed, LinkedIn, Facebook (manual to three platforms)
- Applications came in via email, LinkedIn DMs, ATS, phone calls
- Screening was manual
- References were manual
- Onboarding was a checklist that didn’t sync with anything
- Time to fill: 38 days
In the new system:
- Job posting went to 50 boards automatically
- Applications were automatically screened (flagging only qualified candidates)
- Screening took 1/10th the time
- References were tracked automatically
- Onboarding checklists ran automatically across all systems
- Time to fill: 14 days
Savings: 24 days faster hiring × 10 annual hires = 240 days of reduced vacancy = $35,000 in extra revenue
Change 2: Billing Transformation
In the old system, the billing coordinator was constantly reconciling between systems.
Week 1 of parallel running:
- Old system denials: 23 out of 87 claims (26% denial rate)
- New system denials: 2 out of 87 claims (2% denial rate)
“I couldn’t believe the difference,” said Tricia’s billing coordinator. “Same volume. Same payers. Completely different outcome. Why? Because in the old system, I was fighting data mismatches constantly. In the new system, the data is right from the start.”
The difference:
- 71% clean claim rate (old) → 95% clean claim rate (new)
- 67 days in A/R (old) → 32 days in A/R (new)
- 5-7 appeals per claim (old) → <1 appeal per claim (new)
On $2.8 million revenue:
- Improved clean claims: $40,000 annual revenue recovery
- Faster collections: $48,000 working capital improvement
- Reduced appeals: $10,000 in labor savings
Total billing impact: $98,000
Change 3: Compliance Revolution
Tricia’s compliance coordinator had been running at 110% capacity.
In the old system, she was constantly:
- Checking credential files manually
- Chasing caregivers about renewals via email
- Reconciling compliance data with scheduling data
- Answering auditor questions about discrepancies
In the new system, compliance was automatic:
- Credentials were monitored 24/7 (no manual checking)
- Caregivers were auto-alerted 30 days before expiration
- Renewal was tracked automatically
- Scheduling automatically prevented uncredentialed assignments
- Audit trails were perfect (zero discrepancies)
The result: Her compliance coordinator went from 40 hours/week of chaos to 8 hours/week of proactive improvement.
Opportunity cost recovery: $32,000/year (freed up coordinator to do other work)
Plus, zero compliance violations during the next audit (vs. 3-5 typical), which protected her from potential fines.
Month-by-Month Transformation Results
Month 1 (January)
- “Parallel is working. Team is tired but convinced.”
- Metrics showing improvement in new system
- Old system is still running (safety net)
Month 2 (February)
- Switched completely to new system
- Initial adjustment period (team learning)
- First full month of data showing improvements:
- Scheduling conflicts: down 80%
- Billing denials: down 75%
- Compliance issues: down 90%
- Admin time: down 40%
Month 3 (March)
- Full optimization happening
- Team is proficient on new system
- Administrative savings compounding
- Caregiver feedback: “Easier to schedule, easier to track pay, less confusion”
Month 4 (April)
- Revenue impact visible
- Collections improving (faster A/R)
- Retention improving (less admin burden on staff = less turnover)
- Compliance score: 100%
Month 5-6 (May-June)
- Full run rate of improvements
- ROI clearly visible
- Planning for next phase of optimization
The Lessons Tricia Learned Along the Way
Lesson 1: “The problem was bigger than I thought”
“I thought my problem was process efficiency. Turns out, my real problem was architecture. I was trying to optimize a broken system. Once I replaced the system, everything got better at once.”
Lesson 2: “Fear is the only real barrier”
“The Parallel Promise™ was key. I wasn’t taking a leap of faith. I was just looking at data for 30 days. Once I saw the data, the decision was obvious.”
Lesson 3: “The payback happens faster than you think”
“I was expecting 18-month payback. It took 4 months. By month 6, we were completely in the black on the investment. By month 12, we’d saved enough to hire another administrative person (if we needed to, which we didn’t).”
Lesson 4: “This isn’t just a software change. It’s a cultural change.”
“My team’s stress level dropped immediately. When you’re not fighting systems all day, you can actually care. Turnover dropped. Morale improved. Clients noticed the difference.”
Your Path Forward: Starting Your Own Recovery
Tricia’s $142,000 recovery wasn’t unique. It was predictable.
If you have:
- $2-5M in revenue
- 50+ caregivers
- Multiple software systems
- High administrative burden
- Caregiver turnover >40%
- Billing challenges (denials, delays)
You have a similar recovery opportunity.
The path forward:
- Calculate your own “hidden $142,000” (administrative burden + billing inefficiency + turnover costs)
- Run the Parallel Promise™ (30 days, see the difference with your real data)
- Make the decision (not a bet, a data-driven choice)
- Implement the transformation
- Recover your revenue
Tricia went from drowning to thriving in 90 days.
You can too.
