History

In September of 1990, MITC was established by John Graham, MITC CEO & Software Architect to provide software to organizations with employees providing services in multiple, often remote, locations. That original focus still drives everything MITC does today.

MITC created one of the first telephone timekeeping systems in the world. Very specialized hardware was required, as well as software. Telephone timekeeping had great appeal to the types of organizations MITC served. Graham explained how:

“In the early 1990’s I wrote an article for a trade magazine. I got over 60 phone calls asking where a telephone timekeeping system could be purchased. We released the first version at a convention. The interest was very strong and international. One day the Managing Director and Owner of a company in Auckland, New Zealand turned up in our office in Maryland, USA. That company is still a customer today”.

-John Graham, CEO and Software Architect

Over the past 30 years, MITC has grown to serve over 1,500 organizations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and USA. The software has expanded to a complete Workforce Management and Electronic Health Records solution, but remained modular and scalable so each customer can build their own solution to meet their own needs and budget.

MITC staff have visited with customers in every state of the USA and every country served internationally. Listening to customers has been key to growing MITC, according to Graham,

“You don’t create great software by being brilliant, you do it by listening to customers. One day a few years ago, the CFO of a larger customer with 1,000+ employees called me from New York City. He explained how a particular feature when staff clocked-out could really help. That feature was in the software within 30 days and has been very important in winning new business in New York in 2020”.

-John Graham, CEO and Software Architect

Agile development has been fundamental to our success and continued growth.

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Impact

Until 2020, the MITC team supported dozens of regional and national conferences, and visited hundreds of individual customers in the US annually. Getting to meet the customers served helps MITC learn how to enhance the software, and educate ourselves on the different challenges, opportunities, laws, and regulations customers are facing.

We love hearing about how a customer got started, evolved, and made an impact. Through working with customers, we have learned that you can’t stand still. You need to constantly plug yourself into each country and every state to stay on top of an ever-changing world.

From our business development team, to our software consultants, everyone at MITC understands how important the work that is done by agencies is. Agency Help Desk Team Lead, Justin Waldron said,

“It’s good to know that we are helping make their jobs easier so they can focus on helping the people that need the help, rather than having to worry about writing down paper timesheets and notes.”

-Justin Waldron, Director of Agency Services

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The MITC Team

Some of the MITC staff customers interact with today, have been with MITC for 20+ years. They truly are experts in the software and the needs of our customers.  Currently, the MITC Project Management team has around 100 new implementations or significant upgrades under progress. The Help Desk team responded to nearly 16,000 service requests in 2019, and live person support has been available 365×24 since 2017.

Over the years, MITC has invested significant time and resources into the employees that work here. Matthew Collis, Director of Help Desk Services said,

“I appreciate how much this company invests in people, taking them from an entry-level position and challenging them to do more. More than anything, I appreciate the people I get to work with. They make it easy to show up every day and some of my best friends I met at MITC”.

-Matthew Collis, Director of Help Desk Services

MITC has created a community of people who trust and rely on each other every day to reach a common goal. The employees here at MITC love the company atmosphere. Collis said,

“Being on a first name basis with everyone, including the CEO is rare and at this point, something I wouldn’t ever want to go without”.

-Matthew Collis, Director of Help Desk Services

To the customers who have been with us for the past 30 years, and to those who have joined us recently – thank you! You have helped shape MITC into the successful company and software it is today. Here’s to the next 30!

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A recent snapshot survey conducted by five Illinois provider associations -The Arc, Community Behavioral Healthcare Association, Illinois Association For Behavioral Health, Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, and The Institute on Public Policy For People With Disabilities – of clinic-based and residential provider organizations includes information on how providers are adjusting pay, payrolls, and operations during the emergency.

• 5% of the organizations had already laid off staff members
• 20% of the organizations had increased hourly staff reimbursement

The rate increases for hourly staff were implemented using a wide range of criteria. Responding executives reported hourly increases between $1.00 – $5.00 per hour, and $20 per day incentive payments. Some organizations were providing overtime pay for all hours worked, or double pay for staff in residential settings and/or those working residents who tested positive for COVID-19. Some were using lump sum bonuses.

The pay increases reflect the stress and fear of the risks of providing residential services for consumers with disabilities.

Executives across the country, running these critical residences, are using a variety of approaches to keep their services going. One example is using empty hotels to house consumers who test positive for COVID-19. Remedies Renewing Lives, which offers substance use disorder treatment, and runs a 62-bed domestic violence shelter in Rockford, Illinois, is one of several health care and shelter organizations partnering with the local housing authority to put people suspected of having the virus or diagnosed with it in hotel rooms to contain the virus.

This “hoteling option” can also be used for overflow at local shelters, and treatment facilities, said Gary Halbach, chief executive officer of Remedies Renewing Lives. And while it hasn’t yet been needed, it’s a relief to know it’s there, “because it’s a question of when it’s going to be needed, not if,” he added. “It’s like the Wild West and it changes every day.”

This has also been a successful tactic for the Hazelden-Betty Ford Foundation, which instituted a requirement that all consumers have a “fever discharge plan” identifying a person (not public transportation) who will pick them up if they spike a fever and must be discharged. Everyone who comes onto a Hazelden-Betty Ford campus gets a temperature reading.

“That fever discharge plan is key to us staying open,” said Mark G. Mishek, the nonprofit’s president and chief executive officer. In January, when news of an outbreak was first heard, the organization started asking people during intake about whether they had traveled to China. Hazelden-Betty Ford team members started taking everyone’s temperature on each campus a month ago, and moved all of its outpatient treatment to virtual two weeks ago. To learn more about how agencies manage hazard pay and other differentials, download the Guide to Payroll Rules Used by Agencies ebook or the myAttendance fact sheet.

In 2019, several CEO’s at different agencies in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania asked me essentially the same question:

 “Why don’t you have an EHR?”

I gave the same answer I have given for many years.

“Agency Workforce Management is about Time & Attendance, Documentation, Scheduling, Payroll Integration, Billing, HR, Training – everything about managing staff. Anyway, there are lots of good EHR products out there. What’s wrong with what you have?”

The answer I got surprised me:

“Our EHR is fine but it does too much; It’s too expensive and complicated. We need something straightforward and inexpensive – why don’t you make us something?”

So that’s what we have done!

At ANCOR in late April, MITC will unveil Client Profiles – the latest addition to Agency Workforce Management!

When MITC contacted providers late last year to float the idea, we got a positive response. Many providers applied to join an Early Adopter Program, ten of which have been selected. These providers will collaborate with MITC and work directly with our agency software developers once a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is created. This will help MITC ensure v.1, due for general release in June 2020 and v.2, due for release in October 2020, are closely aligned with agency needs and priced right. During 2020, MITC will commit agile software development resources to respond rapidly to provider needs with the goal of wrapping up the bulk of the development by the end of quarter 3 2020.

Three developers in the USA will be working on this project. They have a lot of experience in creating great software for agencies, and we know they will do as good a job as they did with mySchedules in 2018-2019.

Because of all the activity associated with EVV, MITC was reluctant to make this investment at this point in time. However, MITC’s market research found that many of the providers most effected by EVV were exactly the sort of providers who could benefit from “EHR light”. MITC has hired additional staff to provide extra support services for EVV.

We don’t intend to go head-to-head with full service EHR products. Client Profiles will be designed for providers managing HCBS and Day and Vocational programs whose EHR needs are more limited than providers managing ICF’s, large group homes, or intensive supported living programs.

We will also price position Client Profiles in the “cheap and cheerful” range: straightforward to use, functional, and relatively inexpensive compared to other, more complex EHR systems.

Hopefully, along with existing applications like myCommunications and Documentation, Client Profiles will prove to be of value to many agencies. All of here at MITC are excited to find out.

John Graham
MITC CEO and Software Architect

A growing number of companies are helping workers gain access to payroll advances and loans, reflecting concern over the impact money problems are having on productivity levels and worker retention.

Employers, including Walmart Inc., have recently added these services. The aim is to help cash-strapped employees, many with damaged credit, cover unexpected expenses without resorting to high-cost debt.

“Employers have woken up to the fact that a majority of workers are having a lot of trouble simply getting by, never mind getting ahead,” said Sophie Raseman, head of financial solutions at Brightside, a company Comcast Corp. co-founded that provides financial guidance to workers and is testing payroll loans with some corporate clients.

Workers typically access the services online. The payroll-advance programs generally give employees the option to accelerate a portion of their next paycheck for a fee that often amounts to a few dollars. The loans are typically a couple thousand dollars, and are repaid through automatic payroll deductions over a few months to a year or longer. Approval and interest rates, generally 6% to 36%, often depend on factors including a borrower’s credit score.

Because the services deduct repayments from workers’ paychecks before the money goes to their bank accounts, default rates tend to be low.

According to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey of 250 employers last year, 12% offer accelerated pay. The same percentage offer short-term loans repaid through payroll deductions. Another 4% and 6% plan to add the services, respectively.

Companies, meanwhile, are responding to data that indicate American workers are financially stressed. While incomes have been stagnant for many, expenses for items including health care and education have risen.

Employers are concerned about the impact on productivity and turnover. Research by Todd Baker, a senior fellow at Columbia University’s Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy, looked at 16 companies in the U.K. that offered payroll loans and found that borrowers had, on average, an annualized attrition rate 28% lower than the rate for all employees.

Mary Haynes, chief executive of Nazareth Home, which runs long-term-care facilities in Louisville, KY, said the company began offering accelerated paychecks through PayActiv Inc. two years ago after realizing many of its staff were incurring late fees and using payday loans. PayActiv works with 500 employers, including Walmart.

Of Nazareth’s 400 employees, 338 are enrolled in PayActiv and 280 use it regularly, Ms. Haynes said.

The benefit attracts workers and saves Nazareth money, Ms. Haynes said, by “practically eliminating” its use of a staffing agency some workers preferred because the agency provided access to paycheck advances.

Typically, payday loans charge $15 for every $100 borrowed. Bank overdraft fees often cost about $35. In contrast, PayActiv charges $5 per pay period when an employee uses the service, which also includes financial counseling and online bill payments.

Some point out that a $5 fee can equate to a high annualized percentage rate on a small short-term loan.

Robyn McGuffin, a medication technician at Nazareth Home, says PayActiv has helped her avoid late and overdraft fees of as much as $80 a month.

Ms. McGuffin, 36 years old, says she typically uses PayActiv once or twice per pay period, generally for bills due before her next paycheck arrives. The Louisville resident also used it to buy a new car battery and cover her fiancé’s share of the household expenses when he was temporarily out of work due to a medical emergency.

Some employers pair loans or accelerated paychecks with online tools to help workers budget, reduce debt and amass emergency savings.

Walmart introduced salary advances in late 2017. It has seen employees rely less on payday loans and bank overdrafts, said David Hoke, who oversees health and well-being.

Employees pay $6 a month to use PayActiv. It is embedded in an app called Even, which also includes a budgeting service that nudges users to save surpluses. Walmart covers the cost for one month per quarter and caps the amount workers can accelerate at 50% of pay. Of the company’s 1.4 million workers, 380,000 are frequent app users, Mr. Hoke said.

For those in need of larger sums, some employers offer loan services that typically advance as much as $5,000, with repayments deducted from workers’ paychecks over four months to a couple years.

Lender Kashable approves “more than 60%” of applicants, said co-CEO Einat Steklov. It considers factors including job tenure and credit scores.

The average user has a subprime credit score and pays an annual interest rate of about 20%, Ms. Steklov said. Kashable’s default rate is 5%. Borrowers who leave their jobs before repaying in full generally switch to automated bank transfers.

Learn more about how Agency Workforce Management can integrate with advanced pay software by reading our ebook.