Please Help Milk and Honey Survive and Serve

Co-organized

Jade Potter and Natasha Carr are organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Jade A. Brodersen.

Donation protected

With a heavy heart and putting aside my pride, I'm reaching out to my community and all those who support me to ask for help.

My name is Jade Potter and I am the owner and founder of Milk+Honey Lactation Services. For nearly 12 years, my dream has been to serve my community through empowering families and improve postpartum health outcomes. I have a special passion for health equity, to make sure that EVERY member of our community has the support and resources they need to reach their goals. This dream has expanded to include gynecology primary care services, which I will be honored to start providing to the Knoxville area in 2025.

I've known since after the birth of my first child that I wanted to create something much bigger than myself- and hopefully something that will outlive me and keep pouring into my community for generations to come. Milk+Honey is where this started and over the past year we have fought so hard to provide the care we know that our community needs. However, barriers with insurance reimbursement have put us in an unimaginable bind. We were the FIRST solo lactation practice in Tennessee to gain in-network status with all three Medicaid MCOs and despite working diligently with them to overcome billing problems, months of denied claims and delayed payments have caught up with us- all the while, business expenses increased to meet the demand of our patient population.

For transparency, I want to share the following information and propose what I plan to do with money donated through the GoFundMe:

I began the process of becoming a Medicaid provider in February 2023. I hired an amazing biller to help me with this process because I wanted to make sure everything was done correctly. I also worked closely with a financial advising team and by business coach to prepare for this big move.
To prepare for the increase in patient load, I used all of my business savings to secure larger office space, purchase furniture, 3 computers, a printer, and all other supplies needed.
Natasha was hired as a full-time employee at the end of May 2023 in hopes to begin seeing patients by the June 1 projection date given from TennCare.
By July, we were still fighting for our in-network status (6 months after starting the process) despite meeting ALL of the criteria that was outlined by each of the MCOs.
Due to a coding error by the TennCare provider website, my taxonomy code was categorized incorrectly so when we began submitting claims using the exact codes we were given, claims were being denied left and right.
It took THREE MONTHS to correct this payment issue, all the while, our patient load continued to multiply. We reached a point that we had a three week wait for an appointment, which is not acceptable in situations where babies are experiencing feeding problems.
I needed to hire three more employees to ensure operations were efficient and that patients were given the time they needed.
Having spent all my business' savings at this point, I stopped paying myself AND drained my personal family savings to pay my employees to keep providing care to our patients.
In November, I received a $20K small business loan through the 865 Opportunity Fund - which was helpful to make payroll for the month and pay down a few debts but it was gone quickly.
I decided to invest in a car to provide home visits for patients, hoping that it would not only improve care for our patients but also serve as an additional form of income for my business. While it has improved patient relationships, it has not helped with the income problems.
In January 2023, I saw 63 patients; By December 2023, we saw 186 patients; In the last 30 days (as of June 22, 2024) we have seen 227 patients... And that's with me only in the office once every few weeks because of my clinical schedule with nurse practitioner school. That is a 260% increase in 18 months.
Unfortunately, it cost me $226,168.88 over the past 18 months to accommodate this growth (i.e. payroll, taxes, larger office space, furniture, computers, patient communication platform, charting software, billing services, professional consulting services, etc. etc. etc.) all while not seeing a return financially for almost 5 months after we began billing for Medicaid patients. In order to cover these expenses while waiting on insurance reimbursement and fighting for denied claims, I had to take out two high-interest loans to cover expenses.
Additionally, TennCare does not allow us to bill for both the parent AND baby, despite the care involving two patients with their own charts, assessment, and careplans. We are also limited to 90 minutes; so if a family needs longer, we do not get paid for that time.
As the owner, I have not received a paycheck or any income to bring home to my family in well over a year.

I'm PROUD that 42% of our clients are covered by Medicaid plans. This is the work I've always wanted to do. Unfortunately, since we are the first to do it in our state, we were the guinea pigs to work out all the problems and it has had a devastating impact on my business. I'm not backed by a corporate medical system that can float the losses. All the working capital I had is gone, my family's savings are gone. I need help or Milk+Honey won't survive.

Providing equitable heath services to communities is not profitable... And that's okay, because profit is not the purpose. At the same time, we can't provide the care if the business isn't sustainable and our employees can't get paid. I am addressing this with TennCare, I spoke to all three MCOs this week in person and we are following up on billing procedures again next week because I won't quit.

Donation Cost Breakdown:

$30,000 will be used to pay down the high-interest loans
$15,000 will go toward ensuring payroll for my employees and restructuring our budget
$5,000 (or 10% if I don't meet my goal) of the money raised to donate to Tennessee Initiative for Equitable Health.

Thank you for reading my story and I appreciate any donation you're able to make. If you're not able, please share this with everyone you can to raise awareness about the barriers small health-related businesses face when trying to ensure that care is covered by insurance so that more people get the support they deserve.

These were our 2023 outcomes: