Medical Billing Teams Offload Phone-Based Work to AI-Powered Virtual Agents

 

Burstable, out-of-the box solution delivers operational efficiency within a philosophy of human-agent teaming.

Anyone who works in healthcare’s back office knows all too well how much time and effort it takes providers to get paid for their services. The process is complex, labor-intensive and fraught with inefficiencies, which is why Outbound AI has set its sights on using the superpowers of conversational and generative artificial intelligence to remove administrative burdens across the healthcare revenue cycle.

According to Jonathan Wiggs, the company’s co-founder and CTO, medical billing teams can easily spend up to two-thirds of their day on the phone with payers, but with Outbound AI, they’re able to offload much of that work to AI-powered virtual agents.

These agents are expertly trained to navigate payers’ interactive voice response (IVR) systems and secure information needed for claim status, eligibility and benefits verifications, prior authorizations, and more. They’re able to wait on hold and even speak with human representatives when needed. Through use of Open AI’s GPT, they’re also able to produce high-quality narrative summaries of every call and transaction.

Importantly, the AI-powered virtual agents continuously operate at peak capacity 100% of the time. They never get tired or take breaks. Outbound AI’s customers can access however many virtual agents are needed at any specific time, allowing them to effectively handle fluctuating volumes of work from one day to the next. In tech speak, this is referred to as “burstable.”

With labor costs increasing and labor shortages at an all-time high, this type of companion AI workforce is an ideal solution for any size organization involved in revenue cycle management. All of Outbound AI’s automations are “out of the box” meaning that the company does not need to train their models on a one-off, customer-by-customer basis, which makes implementation and go-live processes very straightforward. 

And crucially, as Wiggs explains, “This is all delivered within a philosophy of human-agent teaming. We are not aiming to replace human talent, but rather, to augment it.” 

As stated at the company’s website, Outbound AI is on a mission to elevate the human work experience in healthcare. “By leveraging AI, we’re restoring people’s ability to be more strategic and get more high-value work done,” says Wiggs.