How SMS automation helped FreshClaim get its work-life balance back

Melbourne-based FreshClaim handles the administrative side of medical billing. Medical clinics and doctors’ offices supply patient information, and the FreshClaim team communicate with the patient and the insurance company, sending billing information, invoicing patients for care that isn’t covered, and following up on late payments. They send many of these messages via SMS because it’s quick and accessible, with higher response rates than email.

However, as FreshClaim grew, SMS became harder to handle. Team members originally messaged patients from their personal phones, which caused several issues. Writing messages and pasting in patient details was slow and fiddly, and using personal phones made it hard to separate work and home life. Dedicated team members would see a response from a patient and feel obliged to respond – even late at night or on weekends.

“We started off just with the mobiles,” explains Operations Manager Courtney Walker. “Quite quickly we realised that you don’t have any off time when it’s coming to your own personal mobile.”

When FreshClaim merged with another billing business, taking on more patients and providers, the pressure increased. The other business did have a separate SMS system, but it was clunky and difficult, with no ability to change or personalise messages.

FreshClaim needed a way to send messages to patients that didn’t rely on personal phones, acted as a central reference point for patient information, and kept patient data safe and secure. Sinch SMS automation* was the answer.

“We really did need a system,” says Courtney. “One, to have evidence of what we were doing, but two, just to separate that work and personal life that we’d started to blur.”

FreshClaim approached Sinch just a few months ago, looking for an SMS solution that could move SMS off personal phones and give the team more visibility over patient messages. Courtney planned to integrate Sinch with the FreshClaim CRM system early in 2026, but started using the web portal as an interim solution. As Courtney explains, it’s already working better than expected.

“I love the web portal. You can see exactly what the SMS looks like before you send it,” she says. “It’s very handy for our workflow.”

Instead of copying and pasting messages to patients – risking errors every time – staff can now use templates and send messages straight from the portal. This makes mistakes less likely and gives the whole team visibility of all patients. Before, each team member took responsibility for separate patients, which could make it difficult to see what had been sent and whether a patient had responded.

“Recently, we had a situation where one of the girls was off on leave. When she was doing messaging herself, I had no idea where she was up to or which patients had responded,” Courtney explains. “This way, it means that I can jump in and help her out.”

While the team has only been using the Sinch platform for a few months, Courtney says they’re already seeing some clear benefits. Team members can now send messages in seconds through the web portal, which adds up to significant time savings.

“Per text message we’re sending, it is easily 75% quicker than doing it on the phones,” she explains.

It’s had a positive effect on response times. Team members can see questions from patients in the portal and respond immediately. For example, if a patient sends a question about their out-of-pocket amount or whether their invoice has been paid, a staff member can jump in and reply. In a business dealing with health services and time-sensitive queries, this is a major upside.

FreshClaim now has a dedicated SMS number, so all messages come from the same source. In a world of scam messages, this is a plus, helping patients feel that they’re communicating with a known, trusted provider.

“We’ve set up the option to have the permanent number for the same continuity,” explains Courtney. “It looks a lot better than getting three different messages from different mobile numbers.”

While every business welcomes time savings and security features, the biggest benefit for FreshClaim is the ability to separate work life and personal time. With SMS off personal phones, staff aren’t tempted to respond to patients after hours or over weekends, which helps them switch off from work and avoid burnout.

“We’re extremely happy with the time efficiency, but more happy with the separation from work life that we’ve been able to implement.”

As new Sinch users, the FreshClaim team are still finding their way around the system. While the web portal is working well, they’re planning to use the Sinch API to integrate with their CRM in the new year. This will show SMS information alongside other patient history, for a full, accessible record of each patient. They’ll also be able to include invoice links in messages, so patients can simply click through to pay.

Next, Courtney is considering using Sinch to contact FreshClaim’s other group of customers – medical clinics and doctors. The team uses HubSpot to communicate with doctors at the moment, but messages can get lost or ignored in the inbox. By integrating with HubSpot, they could add SMS for sales campaigns and reminder messages.

“There’s definitely going to be potential next year for a lot of growth,” says Courtney. “Like integrating our system and HubSpot to help automate and get information out to doctors or patients.”

It’s about finding more ways to make life easier for FreshClaim’s people and patients.