Case Study
7%
500+
Backlogged Referrals Brought Forward
Executive Summary
Upperline Health, one of the nation’s largest specialty physician practices dedicated to value-based care, partnered with Valerie Health to automate its referral management process.
By centralizing referral intake and leveraging intelligent automation to validate and route referrals into its athena EHR, Upperline saved its team nearly 700 hours per month of manual work while converting 7% more patients. Upperline piloted the partnership in Florida, and the ROI fueled nationwide expansion.
About Upperline Health
Founded in 2017 with the ambitious goal of changing specialty care, Upperline Health delivers a more efficient path for patients to receive consistent and effective treatment for chronic illnesses. Upperline operates across 25 states with 175+ employed providers & 1,500+ affiliate providers. What sets Upperline apart is its innovative care model that seamlessly blends value-based principles with fee-for-service foundations, ensuring patients receive personalized, outcomes-focused treatment without compromising accessibility.
Their approach goes beyond treating conditions. Upperline is revolutionizing the way value-based care is delivered—breaking down silos between specialists, primary care providers, payors, and patients to ensure a holistic, coordinated approach to health that's redefining specialty care across the United States.
“Before Valerie, we didn’t have a great way to track or measure our referrals. Each clinic was doing it a little bit differently. Valerie gave us a consistent, scalable process — we have full visibility of our referrals and don’t need to spend time constantly training new team members on the workflow. It just works."
Jessica Wilson
Regional VP
The Challenge
Referrals Were Falling Through the Cracks
Lack of visibility and standardization. A high volume of referrals over disparate sources and clinics made it difficult to locate and process them in a timely manner.
Administrative burden on clinical staff. Care coordinators spent 10-20 minutes per referral on manual data entry. This contributed to staff burnout and high turnover.
Growth constraints. Missed referrals represented significant lost opportunity to build strong referral partnerships in the communities that Upperline serves.
The Solution
Centralizing and Automating Referral Intake
Accuracy. All referrals are captured automatically, requiring zero manual work from the administrative team and resulting in higher accuracy.
athena integration. Valerie created a central intake across all clinics that integrates seamlessly with athena and extracts referral data for advanced analytics.
Rapid rollout. After showing strong results in pilot locations, Valerie enabled a rapid rollout across the country, adding one new practice per week.
The Results
The Florida pilot delivered clear results within the first few months.
Referrals Processed (inbox zero)
Median Referral Time to Entry
Backlogged Referral Brought Forward
Improvement in Conversion
"As we scale to support our aggressive growth trajectory, Valerie gives us the operational foundation we need. This isn't just about labor savings; it's about capturing every referral opportunity, improving our conversion rates, and giving our teams the data visibility to drive better decisions."
Matt McLaughlin
SVP of Market Operations
Conclusion
By centralizing and automating referral intake, Upperline not only captured more patients but also enabled its clinical teams to focus on what matters most: delivering excellent patient care. Upperline is now scaling Valerie Health across all clinic locations nationwide.