I speak with infusion leaders every day—from major health systems to independent infusion practices—and the same challenge comes up time and again: speed and efficiency with the intake and prior authorization process. Intake and prior authorization workflows are complex, and as providers look to expand capacity, they need a solution to help automate the process.
Everyone feels the same tension: the volume and complexity of infusion care keeps accelerating, but healthcare’s back office is still buried in manual work—faxes, spreadsheets, and rekeyed data. It’s clear that infusion doesn’t have a demand problem; we have a capacity problem.
Turning Intake Authorization Paperwork into Progress with AI
AI-powered workflow automation offers a new path forward. At Plenful, we’re building technology that removes the manual, error-prone steps that slow down care coordination, giving infusion teams time back to focus on patients.
Our AI-powered Intake Authorization Management Suite helps infusion teams automate the most time-consuming parts of their workflow: intake processing, benefits verification, prior authorization, and claims reconciliation.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways AI is making a difference:
Patient Intake Workflows
Using intelligent document processing (IDP) powered by large vision models (LVMs), Plenful reads and understands complex referral packets—faxed forms, handwritten notes, multi-page PDFs—and extracts key data instantly into our centralized platform, as well as into the infusion center’s EHR via Plenful integrations. This effort cuts down the time otherwise spent manually re-keying data to seconds, and improves overall accuracy by reducing the chance for human error or typos.
Plenful then runs real-time benefits eligibility checks and surfaces plan rules to inform prior authorization requirements.
Prior Authorization Workflows
Instead of hunting for evidence to satisfy the payor’s utilization criteria in the EHR or faxed packets, Plenful’s large language models (LLMs) handle the heavy lifting with confidence. The platform pre-fills prior authorization forms, matches required documents, and routes each task to the right team member in real time, transforming what used to be hours of manual effort and coordination into minutes of streamlined precision.
What This Looks Like From End-to-End
For example, when an infusion referral arrives, Plenful automatically reads and extracts all data off the faxed packet (or directly from the EHR), verifies benefits in real-time, and populates the payor-specific prior authorization form. It then alerts the correct teammates to submit or review via our task management queue, and upon submitting the PA, Plenful tracks the approval status through completion. These AI-powered capabilities not only reduce manual admin time by >75%, but also improve accuracy, leading to a reduction in denials.
Plenful meets every organization where they are. Whether you’re a national infusion provider or a regional health system infusion team, the platform is configurable to your specific workflows. Plenful’s AI fine-tunes with increased experience from users, adapting and improving over time to unlock even more value.
What We’re Seeing From Our Customers: 4x Capacity Gains Without Adding Headcount
Demand for infusion therapy is rising rapidly and shows no signs of slowing. Analysts project 7–11% annual growth in U.S. infusion services through 2030, driven by the expansion of specialty biologics and biosimilars, the aging population, and a steady increase in chronic disease prevalence. The same number of intake coordinators are now managing exponentially higher referral and documentation volumes.
We’ve reached the point where infusion teams will have to explore AI to meet the rising demands. The workload isn’t slowing down, and adding more staff isn’t a sustainable answer.
The good news is, we’re already seeing what’s possible: infusion teams at Renown Health and BioMatrix Specialty Infusion Pharmacy have adopted Plenful’s intake authorization capabilities and are seeing transformative results: 4x increase in team capacity without adding headcount, and a 75% reduction in manual processing time. These gains translate directly into increased throughput, faster therapy starts, and stronger margins.
As Lee Curbow, Chief Technology Officer at BioMatrix, shared:
“Plenful’s solution has been business critical for us. Since partnering with Plenful, our team’s capacity has grown 4x, allowing us to focus on patient care instead of drowning in paperwork. We’ve continued to expand our use of the platform this year and look forward to realizing even more operational efficiencies, which will directly translate to improved margins and our ability to serve more patients effectively. Plenful isn’t just another tech vendor trying to ‘disrupt’ with shiny AI tech; they understand what we deal with every day and have built something that actually uplevels our operations.”
Let’s Stay Connected
Infusion teams are under more pressure than ever, but there’s a real path forward. AI and automation advancements are already helping organizations reclaim time, increase capacity, and take control of their intake authorization workflows.
If you’d like to see what this looks like in practice, I’d love to connect. Learn more about how Plenful is partnering with infusion teams to streamline and strengthen their operations at Plenful.com, or drop me a note on LinkedIn.
