Convergence Care is a revolutionary startup focused on transforming the worker's comp industry. By leveraging her 17+ years of experience in the insurance arena, founder Meghan Walker's vision is to be an advocate for injured workers. By coordinating products and services for the injured worker based on diagnosis or doctor recommendation, Convergence Care seeks to lift some of the burden from the injured worker. They've got an injury to deal with — they don't need more paperwork and headaches on top of that.
Convergence Care, a startup based out of Tucson, AZ, is on a mission.
In a "traditional" setup, when a worker is injured on the job, the injury is reported to the employer's insurance company, and the worker then has to deal directly with the insurance company in order to receive what they need to recover from their injury.
When Convergence Care is in the picture, though, they take on the task of coordinating all the products and services for the injured worker based on what the doctor recommends, the diagnosis, or what is common for that injured worker to receive. They act as advocates for the injured workers, and take on the challenges of navigating the sometimes confusing world of worker's compensation.
"We try to provide the whole product suite, for our injured workers, from start to finish," said founder Meghan Walker. "Whether that’s a short-term claim because you broke your ankle, or a catastrophic injury and now your life has changed completely.
At Convergence Care, we’re not afraid to question status quo. Just because it was done 'a certain way' for the last 30 years doesn’t mean that this is the right way, or that’s the way it should be done. We’re not afraid to look into things, think about our customers' pain points, and dig deep to figure out the best solution."
In her previous insurance industry job, Meghan had been part of a very large, three-year Salesforce overhaul. She became very familiar with Salesforce, and knew that it was the platform Convergence Care needed.
"I knew that I was going to need a middleman — a consultant who could take my vision and create it. I needed someone who knew Salesforce well enough to do that for me."
Meghan reached out to several consultancies, and asked her friends in the worker's comp industry for recommendations. Kicksaw's name came up as a likely match.
"The reason I decided to work with Kicksaw is because they were very open to the fact that this was so brand new. A lot of companies that I interviewed saw I was doing with Convergence Care and what I had done previously with worker's comp, and they were like, 'Yeah, absolutely, we can shove this Convergence Care into this insurance box.' In a lot of ways, that may have worked, as Convergence Care is about 80% insurance, but that 20% is impactful. In a lot of businesses, it wouldn’t be.
"I just felt more comfortable with Kicksaw because even though didn’t understand my business per se, they were very open to learning my business. That, combined with their agile approach ... I felt like they understood my vision."
When it came down to the nuts and bolts of Salesforce setup for Convergence Care, they needed more than what came "in the box."
"Convergence Care is a little different. For example, we might have one line item that would say 'Home Health,' but then the bill would come and would have several line items on it," Meghan explained. "So, we had to then create a button that would have a duplicate effect while deducting from the 'placeholder,' which is the original item, and it would add these additional ones. That was a huge pain point, as it could require a lot of data entry, and potentially cause errors if somebody didn’t select the right thing, or didn't deduct from the right column. It was really important that we got it right."
Convergence Care exports into a separate system for billing. The team from Kicksaw worked closely with them to understand exactly what was needed.
"Kicksaw has been really great about working with us and saying, 'Okay, what fields do we have in Salesforce as of right now, what don’t we have, and where does it make the most sense to put these needed fields?' I really like that. The team actually consults with us — they don’t go, 'Well, we’re just gonna put it over here,' when that seems to make sense to them, but not us. We were able to have these really open conversations and say, 'This is what I’m solving for. Where do you think this fits best in the workflow from a processing standpoint, but also from a reporting standpoint?' "
Kicksaw's fractional operations model was a big selling point for Meghan and her team.
"I love that, with Kicksaw, it wasn't, 'We are just going to wait on you to tell us exactly how to do this.' Instead, it was, 'This is how we understand what you’re looking for. There are multiple ways we can solve for this; I’m going to show you these approaches and let's talk through the pros and cons.' And once we chose an approach, if Kicksaw had questions they would actively reach out. So the project was able to evolve in real time.
"Anybody can sell you a dream. But after I sign on the dotted line, are you going to deliver on what you said? I feel very fortunate to have been able to take this journey with Kicksaw, because your team does deliver. I'm excited to continue working with them."
Anybody can sell you a dream. But after I sign on the dotted line, are you going to deliver on what you said? I feel very fortunate to have been able to take this journey with Kicksaw, because your team does deliver. I'm excited to continue working with them.
Meghan Walker, Founder of Convergence Care