With the rising prominence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), professionals across a wide range of fields are questioning the impact this revolutionary technology may have on their respective industries. One area where AI has been frequently applied is revenue cycle management (RCM), as AI has increasingly gained prominence in the healthcare finance sector. RCM companies adopting AI have enjoyed greater efficiency and accuracy, and decreased overhead costs. However, adopting AI in healthcare also raises questions about the value of human relationships and partnerships. The following will examine the benefits and drawbacks of utilizing AI in medical billing, as well as the importance of striking an effective balance between automation and human interaction to harness the full potential of this revolutionary technology.
AI can be very beneficial in the field of revenue cycle management. RCM often revolves around coding, one area where AI is particularly effective. Healthcare IT Today reports that “around 80% of medical bills contain errors, which hurts the patient and provider.” AI can help streamline medical claims processing, reduce errors, and detect fraudulent claims. In this sense, AI can be useful in enhancing the integrity of the medical group by reducing fraudulent and inaccurate claims. Automation also further accelerates the timeline of the revenue cycle, ensuring medical practitioners have ample time to focus on their practice. This efficiency can help medical practitioners receive payments more promptly, which benefits the practice’s overall health. Further, AI can significantly reduce the overhead costs of a medical practice. By automating more routine tasks, a medical group’s need for administrative labor decreases. According to Healthcare Finance News, “there is $9.8 billion in potential savings through automation in the revenue cycle.” Automation in revenue cycle management cuts down on unnecessary costs, thus benefiting the finances of the medical practice. With these savings, medical practitioners can redirect resources into innovation, expansion, and patient care. These savings benefit the provider, as money is spent furthering the practice’s goals rather than being tied up in administrative tasks. Automation also can decrease staff burnout, as it takes care of more tedious tasks, leaving staff to focus on delivering quality patient care. These efficiencies can benefit the overall well-being of the healthcare industry, with consulting firm McKinsey estimating that “deploying automation and analytics alone could eliminate $200 billion to $360 billion of spending in U.S. healthcare.” On top of the potential cost savings, AI can predict and analyze market trends and risks. This analysis can help medical billing groups make informed recommendations about the practice’s finances, allowing each group to be better informed about their finances and make decisions that put them in a better fiscal position. AI’s analysis tools can also optimize the practice’s pricing and enhance the overall financial performance of the medical group. Given the power of this new technology, it is no wonder that many medical billing groups are considering utilizing AI to support their financial management needs.
While many leaders in the medical billing field endorse the use of automation, others are opposed to its integration into healthcare. They argue that relying too heavily on AI can reduce patient engagement and the quality of interactions with medical staff. Personalization is crucial to healthcare, and automation has the potential to move activities like medical billing further away from that personalized experience. Medical billing must be individualized to the practice to succeed, and automated financial tools may not translate into personalized, tailored financial solutions. Furthermore, implementing AI into a revenue cycle management system requires a significant investment in infrastructure and staff training. Consulting group McKinsey writes that skill gaps regarding employees’ comfort with automation can “slow or outright halt technology implementation.” Unless medical billing groups are willing to properly train and invest in staff who understand how to integrate automation into medical billing, the initial investment is often too high to justify the return. Without this investment, companies integrating AI risk employees not utilizing the technology to its fullest potential. If employees are instructed to implement AI but are not adequately trained on how to do so, the firm’s overall productivity has the potential to stagnate. Furthermore, some argue that handling patient data with AI raises data security and privacy concerns. In this sense, it is necessary to ensure patient data security is strictly regulated when dealing with AI.
Medical billing groups must create a proper balance between AI and human interaction to maximize the benefits of deploying this level of automation. This balance means developing a task allocation, ensuring that certain areas are automated while others are not. AI should enhance human qualities, not replace them, so allocating tasks must also reflect the service standards of the practice. Further, organizations must invest in the necessary training for employees to work with and oversee artificial intelligence systems effectively. When implementing AI, the system works best “in a setting where the talent involved has the time and expertise to be effective” (McKinsey). Due to the expense of attaining and training this talent, medical groups often find it in their best interest to outsource to a medical billing service that has already incurred the high fixed cost of training industry experts to implement increasingly complex AI programs efficiently. When done correctly, partnering with a third-party RCM expert can lead to more quality patient interactions. By using AI to optimize administrative and billing tasks, medical practitioners can dedicate their time and attention to their patients’ needs.
With an increasing number of medical groups turning to AI, organizations must consider the balance between AI and human interaction. While AI can undoubtedly increase efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness, it remains imperative to prioritize human relationships to provide quality patient care. Neglecting human relationships in favor of automation risks compromising the customization that patients expect from practitioners and practices demand from RCM partners. By balancing AI and human relationships, revenue cycle management groups can create hybrid AI/human solution models to deliver the highest-caliber services to clients.