Introducing Benefit Kitchen
On Benefit Kitchen’s website, there’s a fact in the middle of the home page that stands out: “Each year 103 million Americans leave $80 billion in benefits unclaimed. We help inform consumers so they receive the benefits they’ve earned.” In short, that is the problem that Benefit Kitchen is trying to solve. Their stated goal is to Put more money into consumers’ pocket to increase their purchasing power. To do that, they have created a suite of B2B services that can quickly predict people’s eligibility for benefits, and how much they will receive. Benefit Kitchen has algorithms that determine whether someone is eligible for food, health, utilities, or tax credit benefits.
My initial exposure to Benefit Kitchen came when Dan Beeby, their Chief Technical Officer (CTO), attended Spring Street’s social determinants of health (SDOH) Palooza in November 2018. Our Paloozas are a collection of executives and decision makers from across the healthcare industry - and beyond - who enjoy reviewing data, thinking critically, and imagining what is possible. Dan presents as an introvert who is willing to travel, network, and schmooze to help his company and their mission. He looks like the type of person who could teach computer science at a university and/or play lead guitar in a rock band. After the Palooza, I ended up giving Dan a lift to where he was staying. It was dark and raining and he rode his bike to our event. Dan’s knowledge and ability to speak to the technology that helps his clients is intense. He would never say it, but it sounds like he can build whatever solution your organization needs. In brief, Benefit Kitchen offers sophisticated smartphone technology and data-driven strategies with a focus on user centered design. All of this provides new opportunities for the organizations that are working every day to serve America’s most vulnerable citizens – those that need to access government benefits.
Facts and Figures
Benefit Kitchen is based out of Brooklyn, NY, Hosted at BlueRidge Labs (a Robin Hood Foundation incubator)
They are operational in all 50 states via API, and in New York, Texas, California, Arizona, Louisiana, New Jersey, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Virginia
The company offers a total of 8 services: healthcare screener, EITC, food benefits, WIC, TANF, Childcare, utility assistance (including high-speed internet in some states), and all tax credits
Benefit Kitchen also builds the Basic Income Needs Generator (aka BING) for United Ways of California’s (UWCA’s) Real Cost Measure initiative. It’s an API and data engine that provides real-cost household budget data for 1200+ family types in every county in California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Iowa
Benefit Kitchen is also helping UWCA build their Kinship Navigator program (called KinshipCareCA). It’s a 211 Coordinated Entry phone line to a statewide set of resources and live-help features that helps connect families with the information and services they need.
“Of the 150 screenings collected to date, 68% of patients were eligible for three or more benefits and over half a million dollars' worth of benefits were identified, not including insurance subsidies. Patient satisfaction with the screening process is high, and clinical staff have benefited from the reduced time spent discussing social issues with patients.”
- Patricia Richards, Director, CMS Innovations & Value-Based Programs, Saint Peter's Healthcare System
Healthcare Impact
As evidenced by the work that Benefit Kitchen did with St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Jersey, their healthcare screening tool, Censerio, helped the hospital to engage with payers on coding incentives, funding, and patient access to services that would address such social needs as transportation, housing, and food programs. Benefit Kitchen’s technology also allowed St. Peter’s to generate Z-code reports based on the screenings that were provided. These reports were provided to payers and helped facilitate conversation about jointly addressing patient social needs.
It’s impossible to say what the overall impact of making sure patients get the benefits they are eligible for has on the healthcare industry. However, the impact could be profound. At a Spring Street Webinar on forming unconventional partnerships, Kim Prendergast from Feeding America provided research that estimated that food insecure people cost the healthcare industry $77.5 billion annually1. Helping patients access these benefits is one of the most logical things a healthcare organization can do.
Q & A – A Visit with Dan Beeby
Q: What gets you out of bed in the morning? What are you excited about? A: Literally?... my seven- and eleven-year-old kids. They’re the light of my life and they are CHIP recipients. Our work focuses on families and children: keeping them fed and healthy. Maybe money can’t buy love, but it can buy health -- and until our society realizes that, we’re trying to empower families to find the resources they need to get by.
Q: What do you see as the biggest opportunity for Benefit Kitchen? A: Though 70% of health outcomes are entirely unrelated to healthcare, we still believe that providers and payors are where our opportunities lie. Benefit Kitchen “hydrates” healthcare data to give it meaning. It’s not enough to know “this family earns 120% of the federal poverty level.” We provide actionable data to healthcare organizations to help their patients find a pathway out of poverty.
Q: What are you most proud of? A: I’m most proud of our work with Saint Peter’s University Hospital. It is a true partnership: we’ve developed tools to help improve their clinic workflows and they’ve committed to (and actually done the work) of screening patients in their family clinic--where it can have the most impact. 
Q: If you could make one change to the US healthcare system, what would it be? A: I’m not running for president, so I assume we’re talking about using magic… I’d get rid of copays, deductibles. I’m a sample of one, but I’ve put off treatments and trips to the doctor because my insurance won’t pay for it (I haven’t reached the deductible) or the copay for a specialist is too high. I’d also ban surprise billing. These features of our current healthcare system lead to deferred care and bankruptcies.
Q: If your company had a huge influx of cash from an angel investor, what would you do with it? A: Hire people. We’re very small, which means that everyone has to be a generalist -- and everyone we do have is terrible at sales and marketing. (We’ve been rightly accused of being “all go and no show”.) So my short answer is: coders who can help us improve the product and salespeople who can help us sell it.