Midlands and Lancashire Community Support Unit (MLCSU) and Staffordshire County Council - Case Study

Ultimately using paper-based processes for invoicing any type of care can be complex and time consuming, this is even more apparent with invoicing joint-care funded packages.

Sometimes it would take both MLCSU and Staffordshire County Council over 6 months to reconcile any disputes in an invoice.  These disputes would leave the whole payment being withheld until there was an agreement on the full payment list.

By the end of the 2019/2020 financial year the average time for an invoice to be agreed and paid would be 376.6 days and because of this they equated a £9.2 million debt that needed to paid.

This process was resource intensive and took up a lot of their staff time to investigate disputes, resolve them, and then update the invoices. They needed to move to electronic methods of invoicing to make the process quicker, more accurate, and more manageable.

Why did they choose Access Adam Care Commissioning?

MLCSU had been using our Access Adam Commissioning and Case Management solutions since 2017. Through using our solutions we helped save MLCSU’s ICBs money, improve the quality of their processes, and saved time spent on administrative tasks by 20% on average. This meant ICBs resources, time, and money could be diverted away from administrative tasks into value-adding areas that were needed the most.

They decided to choose us as their invoicing platform because both hoped they would see similar levels of improvement in efficiency and saving staff time.

The solution

It was decided that both MLCSU and Staffordshire County Council would form a partnership to create a solution that would benefit the both of them. To allow this planning process to be successful, it was determined that there would be weekly meetings with our Access Adam team, MLCSU and Staffordshire Council project stakeholders to track the project’s milestones and discuss any risks.

Through this process it was decided that payment receipts would automatically be generated on a monthly basis and then both parties would reconcile the receipts. It was agreed that MLCSU would manage the reimbursement of local authorities for payments, and Staffordshire Council would have a provider (read-only) view of their joint-funded packages of care.

Checks would be put in place to ensure these invoices were as accurate as possible. During this time both payments and receipts would be sealed so no further adjustments could be made. Once the checks were completed the payment receipt would then be set to be invoiced. These invoices will then get paid to us at Access Adam by ICBs and then paid to Staffordshire Council through our system.

Their new invoicing solution meant if there were any disputes MLCSU could raise a change of order and the system would automatically reconcile the difference by generating adjustment receipts for them. Councils were also able to see where changes had been made so they could see precisely how much each service was being charged.

Both MLCSU and Staffordshire County Council experienced a variety of benefits following the development and launch of this invoicing process. Their weekly meetings and collaborative planning meant that the solution went live on time and their first payment was made in correspondence to their timeline. This meant we could keep track of how the solution was improving their invoicing processes without any delays.

Karen Webb, Joint Funding Lead, Staffordshire County Council states that:

Cashflow has been significantly improved. Originally it could take up to 6 months to reconcile and agree any disputes before any payments were made to Staffordshire Council. We now get paid monthly and any disputes do not stop payments from being processed.

Sustainable, effective budget, and cost management

From using our invoicing solution the functionality available for both Staffordshire County Council and MLCSU has improved. Invoice files generated by the system can now be reviewed before they are finalised to prevent any delays due to potential disputes.

If any disputes do occur they are now removed from the file and are investigated separately to ensure invoices get paid in 30 days in line with their new deadlines.

Their improvements in terms of cashflow and time taken to resolve the level of queries and reconciliations has been significant. Using our solution has meant they can rapidly consolidate and process both invoices and their reconciliations without any major delays or withholding whole payments to meet their new monthly deadline.

In just one financial year both Staffordshire Council and MLCSU went from owing £9.2 million in debt at the end of the 2019/2020 financial year to nothing by the end of 2020/2021. This new solution has enabled them to manage their invoices more efficiently and keep up to date with their payments consistently to prevent any new debts occurring.

With all their payments being processed by sproc.et they no longer have to go back and forth on spreadsheets to reconcile any data needed. Over the past 6 months 1904 receipts on average have been created and around 1169 are agreed and processed for payments straight away while the rest are reviewed by both the local authority and ICB and paid once additional analysis is completed to save time dealing with disputes.

Zoe New, the IPA Finance Manager for Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, explains one of the main benefits of our commissioning software is that:

The financial processes at year-end were far better as the level of accruals was massively less than previous years due to the improved cashflow in year, also giving a better audit trail.

Improved transparency and visibility of packages of care for ICBs and Local Authorities

Another key benefit both Staffordshire Council and MLCSU have experienced since using our solution is improved transparency and visibility of packages of care. Previously, Staffordshire Council only had a provider view of their joint funded packages of care. Now all parties can see a full audit trail and can identify any changes and the expenses of them.

By digitising their paper-based processes all their information is centralised onto one secure online storage platform meaning that there are no risks of records being lost or damaged.

This improved transparency has meant a better delivery of reporting and analytics of their joint-care funded packages to help identify where they can improve to increase their outcomes further.

Zoe New, the IPA Finance Manager for Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit, explains:

The system enables both parties to view the same information and patients. This means that we are working with the same data which allows us to focus on specific queries and not constantly trying to reconcile the entire Joint Funded cohort, as was previously the case.

The future

From the benefits that both MLCSU and Staffordshire County Council have experienced since they started working us at Access Adam Care Commissioning, it is clear that their services have gone from strength to strength. Now all parties have full visibility of their invoicing processes to ensure payments are accurate, on time, and consistent, with minimal disputes.

At Access Adam Care Commissioning we help to streamline your invoicing and payment processes to apply best practice at each part of the payment process. Discover more about how we can help you save time, deliver more accurate payments to providers, and make adjustments to invoices in a controlled and auditable way without any delays.

Contact us today to see first-hand how linking placements, the delivery of care, and invoices via a single tool creates a more efficient payment process for joint-care funded packages.