Using AI to improve healthcare finance: Revolutionizing revenue cycle management automation
According to Kaufman Hall, after several tumultuous years, hospital margins are finally stabilizing. With financial winds calming, it is a good time to evaluate long-term strategy, including how your organization could be using AI to improve healthcare finance operations.
It is clear this technology can revolutionize revenue cycle management automation. By adopting artificial intelligence, your team can improve efficiency and reduce healthcare revenue leakage.
Using AI to improve healthcare finance will improve care for all
The United States spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other country. In fact, according to the Commonwealth Fund, as a nation in 2021 we spent 17.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare.
Per capita healthcare spending in the United States was nearly two times higher than it was in Germany and four times higher than it was in South Korea.
Artificial intelligence can help reduce per capita healthcare spending. A 2023 Harvard University/McKinsey & Co. report found effectively deploying automation and analytics alone could eliminate $200 billion to $360 billion in U.S. healthcare spending. Hospitals could see savings between 4% to 11%, or between $60 billion and $120 billion each year, ‘Healthcare Dive’ reported.
Part of those savings would come from revenue cycle management automation.
A report published in Cost Effectiveness and Resource Allocation in November 2023 concluded using AI to improve healthcare systems could lead to broad-based benefits for all patients. “AI applications in healthcare management can help to close the gap between available resources and public healthcare demand,” the authors wrote.
How revenue cycle management automation reduces costs
There are many benefits to using artificial intelligence for revenue cycle management. These include:
Ensuring compliance with ever-changing healthcare rules and regulations;
Higher accuracy in data processing, including claim validation and submission;
Minimizing claim denials, identifying denial root causes, and increasing the efficiency of appeals processes;
Ensuring that bills are paid on time and by the right people;
Optimizing workflow and freeing up personnel to concentrate on functions that cannot be automated;
Allowing patients to be seen more quickly;
Reducing the time it takes to verify and credential clinicians; and
Enhancing patient satisfaction by providing more transparent and personalized billing experiences.
Artificial also can help identify trends, predict payment patterns, and optimize revenue collection strategies. What’s more, by analyzing CT scans and other digital data, AI can help physicians correctly identify what treatment a patient needs, and it can allow for patients to be in and out of care quicker.
On the precipice of revenue cycle management automation change
“Hospitals and health systems are standing on the precipice of change, actively seeking ways to leverage modern technologies to address complex business problems,” heralds a report published on the American College of Healthcare Executives’ website.
The report says two-thirds of providers are already using AI to transform healthcare in some way and “nearly all” expect to use artificial intelligence “within the next three years.”
If your team is not using artificial intelligence to transform billing, claims processing, and credentialing, you will be left behind and you will be leaving money on the table.
