About Asian Americans for Housing
Asian Americans for Housing (AA4H) is a nonprofit collaborative that provides culturally competent, in-language support to unhoused and at-risk Asian Americans in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California. Along with housing support, they offer direct aid to low-income and other marginalized groups who experience gaps in services. This includes providing food, transportation, and clothing support, and helping individuals navigate systems to access appropriate health care.
Their Challenge
Similar to many community-based organizations, AA4H relies on grants and other funding for operations. As a small nonprofit, it was difficult for the executive director to balance on-site work, serving clients, and administrative tasks. They were in a cycle of applying for funding, doing the work supported by the funds, and then trying to complete grant reporting, only to do it all over again. There never seemed to be enough time to write another grant, even though the money was needed.
Grants also have restrictions, and with AA4H’s approach of meeting people where they are, with whatever they need, it was sometimes difficult to secure operating funds or use existing dollars because of restrictions.
The Solution
AA4H implemented Pear Suite’s care navigation platform and uses its national provider identification (NPI) to bill Medi-Cal managed care organizations for health and social services provided to clients. They’re currently using the pro-level subscription.
The solution was implemented within 30 days. Training was completed, and within weeks, AA4H’s successfully adopted the platform, spreading administrative tasks across the team and freeing up the executive director to look for goods (e.g., food) and other opportunities to support their clients.
They also started submitting claims for reimbursement to Kaiser, Molina, and HealthNet within weeks of using the platform. Since members of their team had previous experience with Medi-Cal billing, they’ve been able to manage data effectively to minimize claims rejection rates.
“We’re such a small nonprofit, and I was doing a lot of the on-site work and the admin work. I was on this cycle of getting grants, using them, doing the grant reporting, and then not having time to write another grant. I was just in this admin cycle, and so Pear Suite liberated me from that.” – Susan Park, Asian Americans for Housing
The Results
In the first four months of implementation, AA4H has significantly scaled and grown its program and operating budget, including:
- Averaging $35,000 to $40,000 in submitted claims generated per month, with an average of $20,000 paid each month.
- $87,000 in claims have been paid, with an additional $7,000 approved for payment.
- Consistently managing more than 300 individual clients across 12 client group types.
- Training 15 users in the tool and receiving a positive return on their investment within two months of use. (With subscription fees of $200 per user with 15 seats, this accounts for only ~15% total monthly revenue generated.)
- 99.31% client engagement rate maintained.
- 16,06 goals created and managed and 1,718 activities tracked for more than 300 clients.
As a result of the reduced administrative burden, the executive director was able to be responsive during the Palisades and Eaton fires in California (2024), securing funds and partnerships to take care of those affected by the disaster.
They’re also starting a hot meal program where they’ll be able to provide medically tailored meals to community members they serve. With the additional funds they’ve generated through Medi-Cal reimbursement programs, they bought a refrigerated truck for the program.
