How a Fast-Growing Healthcare Network Scaled Provider Payments 4x Without Adding Headcount

Overview

This healthcare services network has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in its industry for multiple years running. Its provider workforce splits roughly 50/50 between two clinical roles that each perform different services, both paid on a 1099 basis, per unit of service, at rates that vary by the type of work performed.

As the business grew, so did the number of providers it needed to pay accurately and on time, all while keeping the same small finance team running payments twice a month, once for the bulk of provider pay, once for mileage reimbursements. Every cycle moves through more than one hand before it's paid: someone uploads the file, someone signs off on it, and the SVP of Finance processes the payment himself.

Challenge

Before Wingspan, the network ran provider payments through Bill.com. Every cycle, someone had to manually type in each provider’s service type, quantity, rate, and extended payment. At 20 providers, that was tedious. At the size the network was growing into, it wasn't going to work at all.

“We knew we were going to increase in provider numbers, and we knew it wasn't sustainable to keep manually entering their data every month,” the SVP of Finance says. “It just wasn't a good plan to scale.”

The manual process carried real risk beyond the time it took, since the odds of a data entry error compounded with every provider added. Providers felt the effects of the old system too. Bill.com showed them a payment total with no breakdown of what it covered, no service detail, no line-item description, just a number landing in their account.

Solution

When the network went looking for a replacement, two requirements mattered most: the ability to upload payments in bulk from a spreadsheet, and the ability to customize how each line item was described. Another platform the team checked couldn't support the bulk upload workflow either, which narrowed the field quickly.

Implementation started small on purpose. The network piloted the platform with five diagnostic technicians and five physicians, so if anything went sideways, it would only affect a handful of people. One technical detail required a workaround: physicians and technicians have different approvers, and the network didn't want either group to see the other's payment data. Wingspan's implementation team set up a split structure, two separate accounts, so each approver group only sees its own providers. After running payments through the pilot group for about two months, the team asked for feedback from its providers. It came back positive, and the team rolled out to the full provider base, onboarding each new provider about twice as fast as under the old process.

Today, provider payment data starts in Excel, where the team’s own calculations produce an output tab formatted to match Wingspan's upload file. From there, uploading a full payment cycle is, in the SVP of Finance’s words, "pretty painless." Excel stays in the mix not because of any gap in Wingspan, but because the underlying service data the team uses to calculate pay comes from several different sources that still need to be pulled together by hand.

Impact

A Faster Month-End Close

Payroll used to be one more thing standing between the SVP of Finance and closing the books each month. Not anymore. "We're able to close the books quicker because of that," he says.

A Provider Base That Scaled Without Scaling Headcount

The network's provider roster has grown roughly 4x since moving to Wingspan, from about 20 to more than 80, without adding anyone to manage the payment process. That growth alone saves the finance team an estimated 10 to 15 hours a month that used to go toward manually managing 1099 providers. The SVP of Finance estimates manual entry at that volume, roughly five minutes per provider, would eat up a full day or more of nothing but data entry every cycle. That's not realistic to sustain, and it isn't safe either. Payment errors are down 80% as a result. “The chances of there being one digit off is high,” he says. “Wingspan just eliminates all of that for us.”

Full Visibility Into Every Payment

Providers can now see exactly what they were paid for, down to the service and quantity, something Bill.com never showed them. Overall provider questions haven't dropped, they've shifted. What has changed is how fast his team can run those questions down, since they can see the same payment detail the provider is asking about.

No More Chasing Down Missing 1099s

Every year, without fail, a handful of providers miss the email containing their 1099 and assume it was never sent. Under the old process, tracking that down meant digging through Bill.com exports and a separate filing tool. Now the SVP of Finance's team can look a provider up directly in Wingspan, see the exact date and email address the form went out to, and resend the PDF in minutes. That alone saves an estimated 10 hours during tax filing season, time that used to go toward chasing down bounced emails and resending forms by hand. “That audit trail has been super helpful,” he says.

Looking Forward

The network is in the process of migrating its accounting system from QuickBooks to NetSuite. One thing on the roadmap: syncing provider payments to the specific accounting period they belong to, so a payment made in August for July's work posts against July automatically. Wingspan's team has customers running on NetSuite integrations already and is planning to build this custom sync once the migration is complete.

The SVP of Finance sums up the partnership simply. "We've never felt like we haven't been supported," he says. "Anytime we've reached out with questions, you guys have been super responsive and attentive."

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