How digital tools connect physicians and patients for better care
Fundamentally, the healthcare journey is based on a partnership between a patient and a physician. Though there are many supporting cast members along the way, these two parties must work together to reach a health goal.
Together, they try to first understand the source of the problem and once identified, work to either treat the underlying condition or symptoms. This process can be complicated and frustrating, moving from (1) assessment to (2) intervention, and sometimes back again, repeatedly.
The accuracy of the assessments and the effectiveness of the identified interventions have historically defined the ‘quality’ of healthcare. Physicians are well educated, trained, and supported by a massive industry of diagnostic, medical device, and pharmaceutical companies equipping them with tools.
Reimbursements depend heavily on accurate medical coding. Medical coding can be a nightmare with all the modifiers and the use of improper codes and/or modifiers will lead to delays or even denied payments. The cost of review and resubmission of the bill causes enormous expenses in time and overhead.
The proper codes can be developed from the electronic health record read by the artificial intelligence application. The time saved is enormous since the EHR does not have to be read by a person and translated to the practice management system.
The learning curve is very steep for insurance billers. The use of machine learning has a place in making the task much easier. The beauty of machine learning is that it can be 'taught' daily by tracking billing procedures by skilled personnel in real-time.
But, if 2020 and a global pandemic have taught us anything, it’s that we have a lot of gaps in our healthcare system, much of which begins with how we perform foundational administrative tasks like documentation and coding.
No one pretends this part of the job is their favorite. In fact, these administrative activities are a leading cause for physician burnout, which was at 42% before the pandemic.
Despite those troubling numbers, we are in a really exciting time within the industry, where computational resources are catching up with all of the healthcare data that’s been accumulating. That means we will be seeing more and more technologies that will reduce the administrative burden and enable providers and clinical staff to get back to the reason they went into medicine in the first place: treating patients.
