Advocate: A New Government Services Tech Startup Poised To Revolutionize Disability Benefits Applications Process
Key Highlights :
Advocate, a new government services tech startup, has announced $4 million in seed funding as it plans to combine cutting-edge algorithms and expert institutional knowledge to revolutionize how individuals claim social security benefits. The company’s mission is to reduce the delays and complexities involved in navigating America’s burdensome Social Security Disability Insurance system.
The problem Advocate is attempting to solve is that of a wholly broken disability benefits system, as detailed earlier this month in an eye-opening Washington Post piece. Confusing rules, inconsistent judicial rulings, and a low-tech approach to information gathering are ruining the lives of claimants who find themselves no longer able to work. Some spend years navigating the cumbersome appeals process, while others give up due to being left destitute, and still others pass away before a final decision is made.
To address this issue, Advocate is building a technology platform that aims to shorten and streamline the process of applying for long-term disability benefits. The platform will provide claimants with a clear view of the strength of their application and chances of success. This is achieved through a sophisticated mixture of AI and human expertise.
The company’s seed investors include New York-based Lerer Hippeau and Khosla Ventures. Advocate CEO Emilie Poteat, an accredited disability benefits advocate herself, has also drafted expert advisors onto the corporate team in the shape of former Commissioner of Social Security, Jo Anne Barnhart, and the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, David Shulkin.
At the front end, users of Advocate will encounter an elegant and accessible platform that assists them in optimizing their claim by connecting to, prioritizing, and synthesizing electronic health records as well as providing a means of filing the paperwork itself. The aim is to remove much of the guesswork and trial and error that dogs the current system by encouraging users to submit the strongest claim backed by the most appropriate personal data at the outset.
The company’s proprietary algorithms will profile and analyze the specific criteria and data points related to historic successful claims and then automating the infusion of this valuable knowledge into the initial stages of every new application. It is not so much an attempt at gaming the system but rather, providing all claimants with a degree of transparency regarding the likelihood of their claim being successful now and in the future.
Though algorithmic processes will be a key component in delivering these outcomes, Poteat is keen to emphasize that the company will still make use of expert human agents to assist users in filling out forms. “I can assure you we are not just leaving this down to some hallucinating algorithm running all by itself,” Poteat explains. “We have decades of combined expertise and a commissioner of social security on our team. We are taking the logic of very experienced advocates who have worked in this area for many years and helping the users to benefit from that stored institutional knowledge.”
For the here and now, Advocate’s prime focus is on building the user-facing platform to prove its real-world efficacy to stakeholders. Yet the mission doesn’t end there and stage two will hopefully involve more proactive partnerships with government agencies to reduce administrative burdens further still and provide swift resolutions at those moments in life when they are most urgently needed.
Advocate is poised to revolutionize the disability benefits applications process, providing a much-needed lifeline to those in need of financial protection. With its combination of cutting-edge algorithms and expert human advisors, Advocate is set to make a real difference to the lives of disabled Americans.
