ThriveLink

Our Organization

ThriveLink

What is the name of your solution?

ThriveLink

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

ThriveLink builds telephonic AI enrollment agents who empower families to verbally enroll into social programs with no internet or reading required.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

What type of organization is your solution team?

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

Families across the globe continue to struggle unnecessarily because they are not able to overcome administrative hurdles to social resources like food, housing, healthcare, and citizenship. Said another way, poor people can't access resources because they can't complete the paperwork.

This problem impacts 130 million US adults (54%), disproportionately impacting low-income families, African American, and Latino families, people with disabilities, and people over 70. This problem either currently does or will impact 2.7 billion people globally. 

In the US alone, more than $90 billion in resources for low-income families go unaccessed every year because families are not able to complete the paperwork or online applications. For example, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2023, 69% of all people who lost Medicaid coverage last year did so because of "paperwork." The California Health Care Foundation reported that this number is 90% in California.

Additionally, on average, social workers in the UK, where many of the programs are universal, spend more than 14 hours per week attempting to enroll families into these programs.

There are numerous reasons this happens including:

Internet access - Only 66% of the world's population have access to the internet. This is interestingly nearly identical to the percentage of people who have access across the poorest states in America, including Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alaska. Globally, the list of countries is too numerous to list, but it includes nearly the entire African continent, most of South America, and a large portion of Asia. Note this data only represents access, and much smaller number of people use the internet.

Reading and Comprehension - In the US, 130 million people struggle to read effectively enough to independently navigate the program administrative hurdles. This ranges from 32 million people who have extremely limited literacy abilities to 100 million who have some literacy but struggle to navigate complex phrases like "gross income."

Stigma - When families are not able to access the programs independently, asking for help is even more difficult.

Awareness - Although "1 in 5 older adults skipped or delayed medications last year because of cost," it's rare that we meet a person who is aware of the Medicare Extra/Low Income Subsidy Help program, which is available to every low-income person in the US over 65 and offers benefits that average $5,30

What is your solution?

ThriveLink builds telephonic AI enrollment agents that empower families to verbally enroll in social programs with no internet or reading required. Our vision is to replace apps and websites, making it easy for families to simply verbalize their answers to application questions over the phone. Nurses across the globe struggle with this problem, and ThriveLink won the American Nurses Association 2024 Innovation Award.

This nurse-led innovation was built to mirror the experience that nurses have in emergency departments and community clinics. Every day, we support families who need to sign up for social programs like Medicaid and utility assistance, and the only way we can help them is by rephrasing the application questions, listening to patients' answers, and then writing them on the application. As such, our artificial intelligence not only mirrors that experience but also offers more programs than any singular person could ever know.

ThriveLink was developed based on feedback from Medicaid beneficiaries throughout California and community health doctors in rural parts of Missouri and North Carolina. In our first clinical pilot at one of the largest health systems in America, the first 28 patients received more than $20,000 in resources! None of the clinics that we partner with had any support staff, and this would not have happened without ThriveLink.

- 28 patients utilized (67% utilization) - $20,859 - Resources received - $745 Average Resources per patient - 50% SNAP/WIC, 25% Medicaid/SSI, 25% Rent and Utility

Here is a link to our "How It Works" video.

Here is a list of programs that our customers commonly utilize, and the time their staff saves.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Our solution, ThriveLink, is dedicated to serving individuals facing reading barriers, a population often overlooked in accessing essential programs. These individuals, like Sarah, often struggle to navigate complex paperwork and applications necessary for accessing crucial services such as health insurance, food stamps, and utility assistance. ThriveLink aims to address this challenge by providing a user-friendly platform where individuals can verbally express their responses to AI enrollment agents, who then transcribe the information accurately into relevant application forms. By simplifying the enrollment process, ThriveLink ensures that individuals like Sarah can access the support they need without the added stress of navigating bureaucratic hurdles.

Sarah's story:

Most doctors' offices don’t have social workers or support staff who can help patients enroll in social programs. However, all doctors' offices are required to assess whether patients need help enrolling in these programs, and when they do, they are required to assist them. In our pilot, a mom in North Carolina met with her doctor and had very serious clinical needs, but she was not able to attend her specialist visits because she was working overtime to pay her utility bill. She had a young son, and her lights were going to be turned off because she was late on the bill. The doctor did not have any resources to help her, but he had ThriveLink and gave her the phone number. In a short phone call, she answered a few questions and then enrolled in the local utility assistance program, all without the need for internet access or reading. She received a text two weeks later that paid her $519 utility bill.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

Our founder is a healthcare lawyer and an experienced emergency department nurse who has led in hospitals and health insurance plans. However, he grew up in a low-income community near Chicago, raised by his mom and grandparents while his dad was incarcerated. These firsthand personal and professional experiences guided him to build a team that possesses both the passion and the lived experiences needed to design and deliver this solution in a way that will transform the lives of the communities we serve. We are not just advocates but also relatable partners for our target population.

- Proximity to Target Demographic: Every member of our team comes from a background rooted in the same challenges and circumstances faced by the communities we serve. We have firsthand experiences growing up in low-income households and communities. Our team members have also personally navigated issues such as drug addiction within our immediate families, incarceration, experience in the foster system, and have lived as first-generation immigrants. Furthermore, many of us come from households with undocumented family members. We are a diverse team that encompasses racial and ethnic minorities, making us intimately familiar with the unique struggles faced by these communities.

- Community Needs: We actively engage with and support families in need across the country through free pilot programs. The valuable feedback and insights we receive from these community interactions are the driving force behind our innovation. Our journey began with a singular focus on guiding families to food resources. However, our ongoing engagement with communities revealed a broader need for social support beyond just food. In response to community feedback, we expanded our platform to include utilities and housing support.

- Commitment to Accessibility: Recognizing the need to ensure our platform remains accessible to the patients we serve, we incorporated quality measures and wellness visits into our offering. This strategic decision allows us to offer billable services and partner with health plans and employers at scale, ensuring that our platform remains free to the community. Our commitment to providing accessible support for social, economic, and healthcare needs is at the forefront of our mission.

- Collective Expertise: Our team brings a wealth of experience to the table, with a combined total of 10 years in sales, 15 years in social service expertise, and 10 years in technical development. This diverse skill set enables us to effectively tackle complex challenges and continue to develop our revolutionary platform.

Our team's collective experiences and unwavering commitment to understanding and addressing the unique needs of the communities we serve guide the meaningful design and implementation of our solution. We are not just observers; we are active participants who share the experiences and backgrounds of the communities we serve. Our ongoing engagement with and feedback from these communities ensure that our platform remains responsive to their needs, input, ideas, and agendas. This approach ensures that our solution is not only designed by us but is also co-created with the communities we aim to empower.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?

• 1. No Poverty
• 2. Zero Hunger
• 3. Good Health and Well-Being
• 10. Reduced Inequalities

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Please share details about why you selected the stage above.

We have served more than 2,000 patients in controlled environments. In our first paid pilot at one of the largest health systems in the US, the first 28 patients received $20,000 in resources. We are now installing AI Enrollment Agents into 30 more locations and integrating into 2 of the most prominent electronic medical record and social service systems in the US.

We started with healthcare in the US because Social Drivers of Health screenings, called the Social Determinants of Health screenings, are conducted on every single patient in hospitals and clinics across America. This accounts for about 1 billion screenings per year. When nurses complete these screenings, they are required to respond to patients' social determinative health needs. Nurses do not have the capacity to sign people up for these programs, so our AI enrollment agents have the potential to support all 1 billion patients without any additional work for clinical staff.

Why are you applying to Solve?

Social drivers of health screenings are done on every single patient in hospitals and clinics across America. This accounts for about 1 billion screenings per year. When nurses complete these screenings, they are required to respond to patients' social determinative health needs. Nurses do not have the capacity to sign people up for these programs, so our AI enrollment agents have the potential to support all 1 billion patients without any additional work for clinical staff.

The social drivers of health screening only became a requirement for healthcare in January of 2023. The current widely adopted process is what healthcare describes as navigation, which means clinical staff simply tell a patient where to go to get additional support. According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "Navigation alone did not increase beneficiaries’ connection to community services or health-related social need resolution." 100% of patients receive support, and in 80% of those cases, patients are enrolled in programs. Our first study showed that 28 patients received more than $20,000 in resources with little to no work for clinical staff.

We need research partners, preferably Medicaid plans or health systems, to whom we can offer our artificially intelligent enrollment agents. We can track not only the resources those patients receive but also quantitative data, including hospital readmissions, medication adherence, patient experience, and length of stay. We would also like to study qualitative data like stress, upward mobility, feelings of safety and security, and other data points that are not as measurable, to learn how this unprecedented access to resources impacts the lives of the families we serve.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

• Monitoring & Evaluation (e.g. collecting/using data, measuring impact)
• Public Relations (e.g. branding/marketing strategy, social and global media)

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Kwamane Liddell, JD, MHA, BSN - CEO