From performing surgery to sterilizing rooms, robots have made their healthcare debut. Not all healthcare robots have physical forms, though.
Some of the most valuable are bits of intelligent, self-learning software code known as software ‘bots. These bots can go behind the scenes to bridge gaps between two or more systems, gathering data, performing high volume, repeatable functions, and handing off data to another system for additional processing, to fill in a spreadsheet or appear on a computer screen. Their work is known as robotic process automation (RPA).
RPA and software bots can eliminate rote and repetitive yet time-consuming and often error-prone manual steps in a wide range of healthcare’s administrative and clinical processes. Further, through machine learning, bots learn as they are exposed to data so they can manage more complex tasks. In addition to saving providers time and money, RPA can also help them deliver better patient experiences, make caregivers more effective and free employees to focus on higher value tasks and innovation.
Leading providers already are benefiting from RPA in these key areas:
• Revenue cycle management. Providers are deploying bots for accounts receivable follow up and exception-based workflow management. For example, providers can set dollar amount thresholds on claims so that bots automatically follow up on lower value claims and route more complex, higher value claims to experienced AR professionals. Combining bots and skilled professionals helps ensure greater productivity, reduced collection costs and increased cash flow.
In patient-facing activities, RPA can help improve cash collections by streamlining insurance and benefits verification and estimating patient financial responsibility. Bots do this by querying payer systems through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These automated bot queries greatly reduce calls from front office employees to payers, so patients get answers faster, increasing their satisfaction. RPA also supports self-service options so patients may track and manage their payment programs.
RPA also frees administrative employees from work that uses only a fraction of their skills. Finance employees can create new business units, such as dedicated recovery and credit management units, while patient-facing staff have more time for financial counseling. Job satisfaction improves, while attrition rates go down.
• Care coordination. RPA is fast becoming a prerequisite to effective care coordination because of the increasing amount of digital data available from patient wearables and in-home monitoring devices. Many chronic conditions can now be monitored via device, analytics and RPA, from congestive heart failure, COPD and diabetes to asthma and medical adherence. A central platform may collect that data, including blood pressure, glucose test results, weight, physical activity; analyze it; then use a bot to push an alert to a caregiver. Bots may deliver coaching tips and reminders to stable patients, giving coordinators more time for higher quality interactions with higher-risk patients. Bots also can capture data from coordination systems and automate reporting and compliance functions, reducing paperwork and manual data entry.
The combination of software bots and experienced, skilled care coordinators enables providers to offer care management to a wider range of patients while helping to ensure the most at-risk patients get more of the personalized, “high touch” attention caregivers are trained to deliver. RPA accomplishes this while reducing costs and improving patient and clinician satisfaction.
Getting Started with Software Bots
Many RPA solutions can be deployed in less than two months. Some RPA solutions are available on a business outcomes-based pricing model, where providers don’t pay until the bots deliver agreed-on benefits. To avoid having a proliferation of bots and vendors, it’s critical for providers to take time to create an automation strategy that sets priorities for functions to automate, aligning these with provider goals. The CIO must be involved to help evaluate vendor offerings and to provide guidance about the systems and data with which software bots may interact. The COO also should understand how processes will change with the bots.
With RPA, healthcare providers are deploying proven, mature technology many industries already use to process thousands of transactions. Software bots lack physical form but their benefits – from reduced costs to enhanced patient care to improved employee satisfaction – are real and measurable. That makes RPA an excellent prescription for processes with numerous pain points.