How IntelyCare Cut Errors to Near Zero Across 25,000 I-9s with Fountain

IntelyCare runs a nationwide per-diem marketplace that matches nurses, LPNs, RNs, and CNAs, whom it calls IntelyPros, with healthcare facilities. Every new IntelyPro needs a compliant I-9 before working a shift, and IntelyCare onboards that clinical workforce at high volume across many states. Fountain’s I-9 Center, with built-in E-Verify and the Candidate AI Agent, replaced a manual, call-heavy process with one that runs largely on its own. I-9 interventions are now close to zero, and the team handles the same volume with a fraction of the staff.

The Challenge: Manual I-9s and Constant Calls

IntelyCare’s onboarding team was buried in I-9 work. Applicants couldn’t fix problems on their own, so every issue became a phone call.

“There was a lot of things that the applicant couldn’t do for themselves,” says Lauren Shaw, Senior Onboarding Specialist at IntelyCare. “They would have to call us, and we would have to internally kind of solve the problem for them. So there was a lot of call volume for the I-9 process, a lot of manual effort internally going into solving the issues with that.”

“Before Fountain, we were spending easily more than 50% of the day on I-9 issues,” Lauren says.

Errors were common too. “Somewhere between two and 5% of all I-9s previously had to have some intervention, either talking them through how to complete it, fixing an error,” says Brandon Cooks, Senior Director of Credentialing, Compliance, and Onboarding.

The difficulty also cost IntelyCare candidates. “I-9 used to be a significant fall off rate just because [of] the burden of completing it,” Brandon says.

The Turning Point: Compliance Built Into the Platform

With Fountain, the rules that govern the I-9 live inside the product instead of in the team’s heads.

“Fountain takes the rules issued by the Department of Homeland Security and puts them into the solution,” Brandon says. “I’m not worried about an audit, because I know we have all the steps. Fountain is an authorized E-Verify technology provider.”

That matters for a workforce spread across many states. “With the ever changing compliance or requirements, state to state, state audits or new facility requirements, something comes in, we can make that really effective,” Brandon says.

“Fountain has definitely made us feel more secure in how compliant the I-9s are,” Lauren adds. “It’s just really made the process so that you don’t have to think about it. Everything is automatically there.”

From Manual Intervention to Near Zero: I-9s on Autopilot

Fountain sends each I-9 directly through E-Verify and handles exceptions such as tentative nonconfirmations (TNCs) and photo matches inside the platform. The team doesn’t see an applicant until the work is done.

“Because the I-9 is sent directly through E-Verify, we don’t have to manually handle the I-9 and then manually send it,” Lauren says. “People are able to continue through the onboarding process without us having to even lay eyes on that applicant until they’ve submitted all their documents, their I-9 is completed, and then they get to us.”

“At least 80% of the time, by the time the I-9 gets to us, it’s completely done. E-Verify completed, employment authorized, all of that,” she says.

“Now we’re down to closer to zero,” Brandon says of I-9 interventions. “We don’t have to fix errors. We don’t have questions. We don’t have intervention.”

With Fountain, IntelyCare has:

• Cut I-9s needing manual intervention from 2–5% to near zero
• Reduced I-9 completion time from 3 days to less than one day
• Doubled its I-9 completion rate
• Processed about 25,000 I-9s
• Handled the same volume with 15% of the staff

“Since we’ve started with Fountain, we’ve processed about 25,000 I-9s. Which, when I saw that number, I thought was crazy because I certainly haven’t spent a lot of time on 25,000 I-9s,” Lauren says. “There’s very little time spent kind of managing and monitoring because so much of it is automatic.”

Faster I-9s, Fewer Drop-Offs

Fountain’s mobile, self-serve I-9 lets applicants move quickly and fix their own mistakes.

“The mobile experience of Fountain and the I-9 has made it faster for our candidates,” Brandon says.

“Before Fountain, it would take multiple days to complete it,” Lauren says. “Based on what we see with Fountain now, it’s less than a day for people to be able to submit and have the I-9 go through E-Verify to a completed state.”

Self-service keeps applicants from stalling. “If somebody wants to change their authorized rep for the Section 2, if they entered their information wrong, they’re able to do that themselves and not have to reach out to us,” Lauren says. “I would say the completion rate from before to after Fountain has definitely doubled.”

Real-Time Answers With the Candidate AI Agent

Fountain’s Candidate AI Agent answers applicants’ questions the moment they come up, so far fewer reach the team. The number of questions needing a person has dropped by at least 90%.

“There’s no ticket, there’s no delay. You can talk real time,” Brandon says. “We have lots of AI chats a month, close to 1,000 that are successfully responded to. And if they need to get to us, they can. But most of the time, the chatbot takes care of it.”

“I think it’s been able to answer a lot of the frequent questions that come up from people consistently in a way that people feel comfortable continuing with the I-9 and not giving up on it completely,” Lauren says.

Doing More With 15% of the Staff

With I-9s largely running themselves, IntelyCare handles the same volume with a fraction of the team. “We’re doing the same volume with 15% of the staff now,” Brandon says.

The time saved goes into growth. “We were really stuck in a pattern of, you know, clicking buttons and just responding to things instead of being proactive, and now we have more time to be more proactive and think of things that would help the business grow,” Lauren says.

One example is clinicians who go dormant and later want to return. “We didn’t really have a good system for that before, and now we’ve been able actually through Fountain to build an entirely different flow from our regular onboarding flow, just for people who are coming back to be reactivated with us,” Lauren says.

For Brandon, the change is about people as much as productivity. “This tool has empowered my staff to learn new things, to expand their career opportunities, to be better at their jobs, rather than just answering questions about a government form.”

The Results: The Easy Button for I-9s

IntelyCare’s I-9 process has gone from a daily source of calls, errors, and drop-offs to one that runs largely on its own. Interventions are close to zero, I-9s finish in under a day, completion rates have doubled, and a much smaller team handles the same volume with confidence in compliance.

“The I-9 solution that Fountain has is the easiest,” Brandon says. “It is the easy button, per se.”

“The thing about Fountain that I really love is the I-9 is the best I have had in my work in the 18 years in the industry.”