Highmark Well being has partnered with healthcare AI firm Abridge to roll out its ambient scientific documentation platform and co-develop a previous authorization resolution, the businesses introduced Tuesday.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Highmark Well being is the mum or dad firm of Highmark, a well being insurer with greater than 7 million members, and Allegheny Well being Community, a well being system with 14 hospitals. Abridge, additionally based mostly in Pittsburgh, affords an AI platform that goals to enhance affected person outcomes and cut back administrative burdens for suppliers.
By the partnership, Abridge’s ambient scientific intelligence platform shall be built-in at Allegheny Well being Community workplace areas and hospitals. The platform takes patient-clinician conversations and turns them into scientific notes. After gaining consent from the affected person, conversations are recorded utilizing a telephone or pc. Scientific notes are created in actual time throughout the clinician’s workflow, and the clinician is ready to evaluate and edit the notes earlier than including them to the affected person’s EHR.
Utilizing this expertise reduces the period of time clinicians need to spend taking notes and permits them to spend extra time with sufferers, in keeping with the businesses. The implementation of Abridge’s ambient expertise will begin at outpatient areas, however will ultimately be deployed throughout all the well being system.
Highmark Well being and Abridge are additionally working collectively on constructing a brand new prior authorization expertise. Throughout affected person visits, the expertise will determine when prior authorization is required and ask the clinician to fill in lacking info for the authorization earlier than the affected person leaves the room.
“The platform will mechanically generate the request with the entire info required for approval in real-time,” an Abridge spokesperson advised MedCity Information. “Abridge’s Linked Proof structure permits the clinician to seamlessly confirm every thing within the AI generated word and request the supply transcript and audio from the dialog, to allow them to make certain info is correct and complete.”
This builds on Highmark Well being’s Gold Carding program, which awards gold playing cards to practices and physicians with a confirmed monitor report of excessive prior authorization approval charges. As soon as gold carded, physicians solely must submit a prenotification to schedule providers, and approval is granted instantly. Highmark Well being additionally affords an Energetic Gold Carding program, by which Highmark works straight with clinicians, providing teaching to assist them submit correct and clinically acceptable requests.
“Whereas these [gold carding] initiatives can enhance prior authorizations occurring on the level of care post-encounter, Abridge’s expertise prompts clinicians for vital info throughout affected person visits, resulting in quicker approvals and fewer denials, which finally helps sufferers preserve continuity of care,” stated Richard Clarke, PhD, SVP, chief analytics officer of Highmark Well being, in an electronic mail.
In the end, this partnership between Highmark Well being and Abridge goals to enhance well being outcomes and make care extra reasonably priced, Clarke added.
“Sufferers can have extra face time with their docs because of the ambient scribe expertise that we’re adopting at [Allegheny Health Network],” he stated. “Comply with-up care shall be accepted extra effectively by the prior-auth resolution. Because the collaboration matures, we are going to search for different methods to creatively deploy AI instruments and options inside our current workflows, and all through the care continuum.”
Photograph: Abridge and Highmark Well being
