Report: AI Hospital Billing Added $942M in Costs

Is this helpful technology for physicians that requires an economic fix or just an automated revenue grab?

Published 4 days ago

Report: AI Hospital Billing Added $942M in Costs

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Above: A Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Michigan Building in Detroit, Mich., on July 21, 2012. Image credit: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

This is technology finally catching the clinical complexity that overworked physicians never had time to write down. The real culprit is a fee-for-service payment structure that rewards volume of codes instead of quality of outcomes, so blaming the software misses the point entirely. Move to bundled, episode-based payment and the same tools become care coordinators rather than revenue engines.

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Establishment-critical narrative

This is clearly a cash grab on the part of both hospitals and insurance companies. AI in health care was supposed to make this system more efficient, helping patients get healthier for a lower price, but instead it's helped hospitals boost diagnoses lists without treatment and insurers ignore those same lists. The health care industry cannot be allowed to turn patients into profitable data points without making them better.

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