HealthWell Foundation
HealthWell Foundation
Germantown MD | IRS ruling year: 2005 | EIN: 20-0413676
Help eligible patients with chronic or life-altering diseases afford their medical treatments.
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Germantown MD | IRS ruling year: 2005 | EIN: 20-0413676
Help eligible patients with chronic or life-altering diseases afford their medical treatments.
Great
This charity's score is 100%, earning it a Four-Star rating. If this organization aligns with your passions and values, you can give with confidence.
This overall score is calculated from multiple beacon scores: 35% Accountability & Finance, 50% Impact & Results, 10% Leadership & Adaptability, 5% Culture & Community. Learn more about our criteria and methodology.
We recognize that not all metrics and beacons equally predict a charity’s success. The percentage each beacon contributes to the organization’s overall rating depends on the number of beacons an organization has earned.
Use the tool below to select different beacons to see how the weighting shifts when only one, two, or three beacons are earned.
Rating histories are available for a growing number of rated organizations. Check back later to see if this organization has a rating history!
The IRS is significantly delayed in processing nonprofits' annual tax filings (Forms 990). As a result, the Accountability & Finance score for HealthWell Foundation is outdated and the overall rating may not be representative of its current operations. Please check with the charity directly for any questions you may have.
HealthWell Foundation has earned a 100% for the Accountability & Finance beacon. See the metrics below for more information.
This beacon provides an assessment of a charity's financial health (financial efficiency, sustainability, and trustworthiness) and its commitment to governance practices and policies.
This Accountability & Finance score represents IRS Form 990 data up until FY 2020, which is the most recent Form 990 currently available to us.
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Charity Navigator looks for at least 3 board members, with more than 50% of those members identified as independent (not salaried).
The presence of an independent governing body is strongly recommended by many industry professionals to allow for full deliberation and diversity of thinking on governance and other organizational matters.
Source: IRS Form 990
An Audit, Review, or Compilation provides important information about financial accountability and accuracy. Organizations are scored based on their Total Revenue Amount:
Total Revenue Amount | Expectation to Receive Credit |
---|---|
$1 million or higher | Expected to complete an audit |
$500,000 - $1 million | Expected to complete an audit, review, or compilation |
Less than $500,000 | No expectation (removed from scoring methodology) |
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a conflict of interest policy on the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy protects the organization and by extension those it serves, when it is considering entering into a transaction that may benefit the private interest of an officer, director and/or key employee of the organization.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks to confirm on the Form 990 that the organization has this process in place as an accountability and transparency measure.
An official record of the events that take place during a board meeting ensures that a contemporaneous document exists for future reference.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a document retention and destruction policy per the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy establishes guidelines for the handling, backing up, archiving and destruction of documents. These guidelines foster good record keeping procedures that promote data integrity.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for the existence of a whistleblower policy per the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency measure.
This policy outlines procedures for handling employee complaints, as well as a confidential way for employees to report financial or other types of mismanagement.
Source: IRS Form 990
Charity Navigator looks for a website on the Form 990 as an accountability and transparency metric.
Nonprofits act in the public trust and reporting publicly on activities is an important component.
Source: IRS Form 990
The Liabilities to Assets Ratio is determined by Total Liabilities divided by Total Assets (most recent 990). This ratio is an indicator of an organization’s solvency and/or long-term sustainability.
Liabilities to Assets Ratio | Amount of Credit Received |
---|---|
Less than 50% | Full Credit |
50% - 59.9% | Partial Credit |
60% or more | No Credit |
Source: IRS Form 990
The Program Expense Ratio is determined by Program Expenses divided by Total Expense (average of most recent three 990s). This measure reflects the percent of its total expenses a charity spends on the programs and services it exists to deliver.
Program Expense Percentage | Amount of Credit Received |
---|---|
70% or higher | Full Credit |
60% - 69.9% | Partial Credit |
50% - 59.9% | Zero Points for Program Expense Score |
Below 50% | Zero Points for Both Program Expense AND Liabilities to Assets Scores |
Source: IRS Form 990
This chart displays the trend of revenue and expenses over the past several years for this organization, as reported on their IRS Form 990.
No Data Available
Key Persons data is currently unavailable for this organization. This data is only available if this charity has at least one year of electronically-filed Form 990 data filed within the last six years.
Below are some key data points from the Exempt Organization IRS Business Master File (BMF) for this organization. Learn more about the BMF on the IRS website
Activities:
Activity data not reported from the IRS
Foundation Status:
Organization which receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or the general public 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) (BMF foundation code: 15)
Affiliation:
Independent - the organization is an independent organization or an independent auxiliary (i.e., not affiliated with a National, Regional, or Geographic grouping of organizations). (BMF affiliation code: 3)
The Form 990 is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. Click here to search for this organization's Forms 990 on the IRS website (if any are available). Simply enter the organization's name (HealthWell Foundation) or EIN (200413676) in the 'Search Term' field.
This organization was impacted by COVID-19 in a way that effected their financial health in 2020. This normally would have reduced their star rating. Due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, we give charities such as this one the opportunity to share the story of COVID's impact on them, and doing this pauses our revision of their rating. Charities may submit their own pandemic responses through their nonprofit portal.
HealthWell Foundation reported being impacted by COVID-19 in the following ways:
Staffing
How COVID-19 impacted the organization's operations financially:
Individual donations increased as we launched COVID relief funds to help individuals.
How COVID-19 impacted the organization's delivery of programs:
No impact on the services we provided, all staff were able to switch to remote working without difficulties.
How this organization adapted to changing conditions caused by COVID-19:
We launched self-funded funds to help individuals impacted by COVID-19.
Innovations the organization intends to continue permanently after the pandemic:
Ability to work remotely.
HealthWell Foundation has earned a 100% for the Impact & Results beacon. See the metrics below for more information.
This beacon estimates the actual impact a charity has on the lives of those it serves, and determines whether it is making good use of donor resources to achieve that impact.
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Program
Financial Assistance for Medical Conditions
Activities
HealthWell Foundation provides financial assistance to patients with life-threatening, chronic or rare diseases.
Program Type
Financial Assistance for Patients with Medical Conditions
Beneficiaries Served
People with illnesses;People living in poverty
Program Geography
United States
Time Period of Data
1/1/2017 to 12/31/2017
Outcomes: Changes in the lives of those served by a nonprofit. They can be caused by the nonprofit.
Costs: The money spent by a nonprofit and its partners and beneficiaries.
Impact: Outcome caused by a nonprofit relative to its cost.
Cost-effectiveness: A judgment as to whether the cost was a good use of resources to cause the outcome.
Outcome Metric
Increase in income for a patient with medical conditions
Outcome Data Source
Ratings are based on data the nonprofit itself collects on its work. We use the most recent year with sufficient data. Typically, this data allows us to calculate direct changes in participants' lives, such as increased income.
Method for Attributing Outcomes
We don't know if the observed changes were caused by the nonprofit's program or something else happening at the same time (e.g., a participant got a raise). To determine causation, we take the outcomes we observe and subtract an estimate of the outcomes that would have happened even without the program (i.e., counterfactual outcomes).
We estimate the dollar amount of financial assistance attributable to the nonprofit by comparing the financial assistance given by the nonprofit to the financial assistance that would have been provided in the absence of the nonprofit (the “counterfactual”). In this case, we estimate the counterfactual to be zero based on two assumptions. First, we assume there is functionally no upper limit to the amount of cash transfers that continue to be valuable to patients as they are far from reaching the point of diminishing marginal returns, such that aid provided by one nonprofit does not displace aid provided by another. Second, we assume that nonprofits work independently and do not coordinate the provision of aid to the same patient. As a result, all aid provided by the nonprofit to patients with medical conditions can be directly attributable to the nonprofit.
Cost Data Source
After estimating the program's outcomes, we need to determine how much it cost to achieve those outcomes. All monetary costs are counted, whether they are borne by a nonprofit service deliverer or by the nonprofit’s public and private partners.
Cost Calculation
$243,372,268 program costs + $0 partner costs + $0 beneficiary costs = $243,372,268 total costs
We calculate impact, defined as the change in outcomes attributable to a program divided by the cost to achieve those outcomes.
Impact Calculation
$243,372,268 total costs / 236,290,414 of financial assistance provided = roughly $3,100 provides $3,000 in financial assistance to a patient in need.
Benchmark for Rating
Impact & Results scores of financial assistance to patients programs are based on income generated relative to cost. Programs receive an Impact & Results score of 100 if they increase income for a recipient by more than $1.50 for every $1 spent and a score of 80 if income increases by more than $0.85 for every $1 spent. If a nonprofit reports impact but doesn't meet the benchmark for cost-effectiveness, it earns a score of 65.
Determination
Highly cost-effective
HealthWell Foundation reported its three largest programs on its FY 2020 Form 990 as:
Spent in most recent FY
Percent of program expenses
Multiple Myeloma - Medicare Access - Provided deductible, coinsurance, copayment and premium assistance to 26,020 eligible Medicare patients receiving treatment for Multiple Myeloma.
Spent in most recent FY
Percent of program expenses
Multiple Sclerosis - Medicare Access - Provided deductible, coinsurance, copayment and premium assistance to 11,018 eligible patients receiving treatment for Multiple Sclerosis.
Spent in most recent FY
Percent of program expenses
Pulmonary Fibrosis - Provided deductible, coinsurance, copayment and premium assistance to 8,015 eligible patients being treated for Pulmonary Fibrosis.
HealthWell Foundation has earned a 100% for the Culture & Community beacon. See the metrics below for more information.
This beacon provides an assessment of the organization's culture and connectedness to the community it serves.
Learn more
100% of beacon score
This organization reported that it is collecting feedback from the constituents and/or communities it serves. Charity Navigator believes nonprofit organizations that engage in inclusive practices, such as collecting feedback from the people and communities they serve, may be more effective.
Who are the people you serve with your mission? Describe briefly.
Underinsured patients with chronic or life-altering diseases.
How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Suggestion box/email
How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
With whom does your organization share the feedback you got from the people you serve?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners
How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship with them or shifted power - over decisions, resources, rules or in other ways - to them?
We use the feedback from the patients to better understand their needs and find ways to better serve them.
What challenges does your organization face in collecting feedback from the people you serve?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Briefly describe a recent change that your organization made in response to feedback from the people you serve.
Launched a Spanish language application, expanded content on our Español page, and created a new version of our Disease Funds list in Spanish. Completed an organizational restructuring to reflect the patient journey to ensure frontline staff have a support system of subject matter experts. Streamlined multiple processes with a focus on providing a compassionate, compliant, and completely satisfactory experience for those we serve.
This organization has not provided information regarding the Equity Practices it is presently implementing. As such, the organization has not earned a score on this metric. Charity Navigator believes nonprofit organizations implementing effective equity policies and practices can enhance a nonprofit's decision-making, staff motivation, innovation, and effectiveness.
HealthWell Foundation has earned a 100% for the Leadership & Adaptability beacon. See the metrics below for more information.
This beacon provides an assessment of the organization's leadership capacity, strategic thinking and planning, and ability to innovate or respond to changes in constituent demand/need or other relevant social and economic conditions to achieve the organization's mission.
Learn more
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization's mission
HELP ELIGIBLE PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OR LIFE-ALTERING DISEASES AFFORD THEIR MEDICAL TREATMENTS.
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking through articulating the organization’s vision.
To ensure that no patient goes without health care because they cannot afford it.
Source: Nonprofit submitted responses
The nonprofit organization presents evidence of strategic thinking and goal setting through sharing their most important strategic goals.
Goal One: Expand HealthWell's viability and sustainability by helping patients in new disease areas and with new areas of copayment assistance
Goal Type: New program(s) based on observed changes in needs among our constituencies/communities served.
Goal Two: Assist the maximum number of patients each year with their cost-sharing obligations based on available funding
Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.
Goal Three: Achieve and maintain efficient operations to maximize the proportion of each donated dollar going directly to patients
Goal Type: Focus on core programs to achieve mission and scale back on programs not seen as core.
The nonprofit provides evidence of investment in leadership development
Staff has been sent to virtual and live conferences to better understand what other individuals are doing within their specific fields to be successful.
The nonprofit provides evidence of leadership through focusing externally and mobilizing resources for the mission.
Strategic Partnerships
Thought Leadership
Raising Awareness
We have staff who present at conferences as experts in their field. We also work with other organizations to promote the availability of our funds through different media channels.
The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year.
We are proud to have launched three COVID-19 relief funds to assist individuals with Ancillary Costs, Insurance Premium Payments, and mental health for frontline workers. These funds were self-funded by HealthWell because we saw a need in the community and acted. We also were able to migrate our staff to remote operations without impacting the services we provide to our grant recipients.
Impact & Results
Accountability & Finance
Culture & Community
Leadership & Adaptability
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