Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / AI, Revenue Pressures, and New Growth Paths in Healthcare with Laura Dyrda

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AI, Revenue Pressures, and New Growth Paths in Healthcare with Laura Dyrda · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's health
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  care podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined
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  by chief content officer, at least the the
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  the co chief content officer,
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  Laura Dirda of Becker's health care. Just remarkable
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  leader and editor in chief.
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  Laura, we talked regularly about what stories you're
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  following closely.
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  I I saw a couple of stories that
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  you posted this morning around artificial intelligence, some
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  other things. But let me give the stage
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  to you. What are a couple of stories
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  that you're watching closely currently?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Scott.
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  And, you know, definitely a lot going on
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  in health care right now. And in terms
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  of artificial intelligence and and AI, you know,
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  changing the landscape so quickly, I think we
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  just wrapped up our Becker's sixteenth annual meeting
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  last week. So four days, hundreds of sessions,
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  and some of the most candid and forward
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  looking conversations that I've heard in health care
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  today happening all in one room. So we
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  had
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  around 900 speakers there and and really truly
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  learned a ton about the industry and how
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  they're thinking about,
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  the next couple of years, what they're planning
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  for, the urgency around getting AI right, but
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  then also figuring out additional revenue streams and
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  ways that they're going to fortify their organizations
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  for the future. So it was really fascinating
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  conversations, and I just had a couple of
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  themes that I wanted to
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  share out, that kept coming up over and
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  over again. But the first one that you
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  mentioned,
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  it was AI. It's really
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  you know, now so many hospitals and health
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  systems have incorporated artificial intelligence in one way,
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  shape, or form. So they're testing it. They're
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  piloting it. It's running at scale in some
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  ways. Hundreds of use cases across health care
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  from generative tools that are reshaping
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  the patient experience to some of the more
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  predictive analytics, ways that clinicians can use it
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  within clinical care as well as operations and
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  community resources. So the real wins, it sounds
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  like, are coming primarily on the revenue cycle
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  side, still looking at denial management, coding, and
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  automation, but AI was genuinely starting to reorient
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  some of the EHR around clinical experience rather
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  than a billing one.
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  And leaders are also sounding the alarm as
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  well because they're thinking through,
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  you know, how do we make sure that
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  the AI that we're incorporating into, our organizations
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  is gonna be useful, it's gonna be adopted
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  by our teams, it's gonna be something that,
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  you know, can provide real value versus ending
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  up shutoff or or in a graveyard in
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  a couple of years. And so that's something
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  they're really thinking heavily through and and trying
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  to understand and figure out what the strategy
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  is gonna be. And the other thing that
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  came up, that was really fascinating was AI
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  agents. I know several of the leaders talked
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  about trying to incorporate more agents and actually
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  creating builders
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  across their organizations and systems, not only in
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  IT, but in the clinical care and operations
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  in,
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  really any of the departments. They want folks
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  who are willing to understand and and take
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  the time to build agents that are gonna
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  be helpful for them. But by the same
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  token, you don't want a a bunch of
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  agents running around the organization and and,
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  not being monitored or governed in the right
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  way. So it's kind of this push pull
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  of, you know, how do we move fast
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  and really optimize the technology we have, but
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  also make sure that, you know, everything's aligned
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  and and people are using them the right
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  way so you're not putting yourself too much
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  at risk. So,
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  it was just fascinating. I know Jeff Gotney,
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  the CIO of, Rush, said they're really looking
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  at becoming an agent, forward organization. And so
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  what it takes to do that and the
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  governance and,
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  the innovation and the education of their teams
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  is is,
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  you know, a huge undertaking, but at the
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  same time, could be a make a big
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  difference for them going forward.
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  Fantastic. Fantastic.
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  And and talk about where do you see
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  people talking about
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  where AI will make a difference? Are there
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  areas you hear people talking about that they're
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  most confident will work out or or will
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  add value?
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  Absolutely. So I think, you know, the Ambient
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  technology notwithstanding, of course, you know, most health
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  systems and many hospitals now are piloting or
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  or have scaled out the Ambient technology for
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  their clinicians, which, you know, by and large,
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  it has been such a success,
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  to give clinicians time back in their day
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  to elevate their happiness and those kinds of
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  things. And so I think, you know, once
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  you find the right partner for your organization,
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  it it makes a ton of sense. But
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  beyond that, I'm really looking into the next
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  generation of what it could do,
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  to not only, you know, take information,
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  how AI could process on the clinical side,
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  you know, whether it's imaging and and help
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  make recommendations. Obviously, the clinician's still making the
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  final,
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  conversations and diagnoses and treatments, but the amount
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  of data that hospitals and health systems have,
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  you know, there's so much potential for
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  how AI can help them organize the data
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  and,
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  alerts them be more predictive. I think that's
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  a lot another thing we heard from a
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  ton of,
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  the c suite leaders, not only CIOs, but
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  across the board,
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  talking about how, you know, they're trying to
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  put get their data shop in the right
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  place and so that their data is
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  reliable enough to start creating some of these
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  larger models where they can,
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  become more predictive in the operational side. I
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  think, you know, the the department that's next
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  after revenue cycle and finance to really be
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  revolutionized by AI, it sounds like it is
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  gonna be HR and talent and and, the
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  people side of things because there's just a
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  lot of opportunities to automate more, to,
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  really become
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  smarter about how, you know, you're looking at
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  the HR operations. And so that was one
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  area that came up from a number of
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  folks that they're trying to do more with,
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  AI there. I think even have heard some
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  of the leaders talk about how, you know,
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  they're they're teaching their teams to develop with,
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  AI practice tough conversations,
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  you know, do coaching with some of the
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  the AI technologies so that they can build
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  up the right skills, and experience they need
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  in order to, become managers across the organization,
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  and then to to develop the job descriptions
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  to actually
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  put together the recruiting plans and and those
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  kinds of things. And so I think there's
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  a lot that's happening in the HR side.
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  And then, you know, from there,
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  a lot of possibilities on the clinical side
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  too. And you think about predictive analytics and
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  how you can become,
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  just a bit more smarter about how you're
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  looking at clinical care, alerts, and everything else
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  that are happening at the hospital, trying to
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  make sure clinical or chronic care patients are
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  doing what they need to do in order
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  to stay well. So a lot of excitement
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  around, you know, the possibilities with the technology.
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  It's just getting the the data in place
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  and then the systems in place to do
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  it, is gonna be the hard part.
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  No. Fantastic. And are other stories that you're
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  talking about,
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  that that you're thinking about?
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  Other stories that you're watching closely?
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  Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So I think the
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  other thing that, you know, I wanted to
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  point out is that, you know, there are
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  a lot of challenges that the leaders are
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  working through here still. So,
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  what's keeping them up at night and what
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  we heard from C suite executives is looking
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  at, of course, the reimbursement pressures, especially thinking
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  about Medicaid,
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  which isn't lighting up. And then to the
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  ACA enhanced premium tax credits are set to
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  expire. And so health systems are really still
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  planning on absorbing a lot of that hit
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  a lot more,
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  uninsured patients next year and the potential to
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  need to
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  absorb more of that. And so,
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  across the board, hospitals are thinking through, how
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  do I change my strategy? How am I
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  thinking about more outpatient,
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  more,
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  virtual technologies and and ways to bring patients
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  into the system? That was a a big
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  thing,
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  that we're hearing from leaders as well as,
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  you know I don't know if this is
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  surprising or not. Some folks might think it'll
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  be surprising. Some may not. But,
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  several folks, when asked how they're, you know,
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  looking at different services or revenue generators,
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  actually talked about wellness being something that they
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  wanted to dig deeper into, feeling like they
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  could,
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  bring additional revenue streams in from some of
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  the different testing or or wellness initiatives, and
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  and that was across the board from AMCs
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  to rural health care settings to community hospitals
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  and and systems. It's just
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  how they can become more part of that
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  continuum of care in the ways that,
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  they really felt like there's consumer demand for
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  more of the, wellness services. So it's not
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  just saying, you know, hey. We're offering this
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  free service to the community, but really saying,
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  you know, these are ways that in in
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  in different types of programs or initiatives or
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  things that that people actually wanna do and
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  are wanting to pay more for, that they
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  can bring into the hospital and, you know,
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  bring be more part of their programming going
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  forward. So, those are things that we heard
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  about,
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  in addition to figuring out ways that they
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  can look at their expertise and become more
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  consultative or,
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  you know, just anything that they can do
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  in order to,
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  bring in additional revenue, you know, nontraditional partnerships
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  and more is a huge focus for the
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  strategic leaders right now. So we're keeping an
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  eye on that, and we'll, you know,
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  definitely wanna make sure we're continuing to report
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  on it and how different people and and
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  systems are thinking about, you know, leadership, especially
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  amongst the uncertainty that's happening today because, you
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  know, a lot of different things happening. But
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  at the end of the day, being able
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  to provide great care and sustaining organizations for
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  the future is its top goal. So,
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  it's been interesting to hear about and just
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  exciting to see some of the innovations happening
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  in the field.
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  Thank you. Let me ask you. What are
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  you what are you most excited about when
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  you hear all this? What do you see
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  that you're most excited about?
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  Yeah. Yeah. Well, personally, I'm most excited about,
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  you know, the ways that
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  the current challenges,
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  both on the financial side as well as
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  the workforce
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  side are creating
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  additional
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  more
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  consumer focused access points for the health system,
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  but that's not only just for,
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  you know, the the patients that traditionally have
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  access. I mean, you know, those that wanna
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  use more virtual care through the apps or
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  through,
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  being able to more closely manage, you know,
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  the financials as well as, you know, their
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  care journey. But folks that traditionally haven't had
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  access to to care are getting,
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  new programs in in in the hospitals and
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  systems are thinking differently about how they wanna
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  go more upstream,
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  to really connect with them and, bring them
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  into the health care space as, you know,
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  patients, but as also as,
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  you know, team members and employees. I think
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  the number of hospitals and systems that have
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  done just some incredible work and made huge
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  investments in their pipeline programs for communities to
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  actually become more part of the,
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  hospital
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  and and really solve some of the challenges
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  there, not only from the economic side, but
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  also just the workforce side has been really
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  cool to see. So that's what I'm most
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  excited about. I was just looking at the
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  innovation there and how it becomes easier for,
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  you know, even myself as a a patient
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  and and a parent to,
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  access health care and do it more efficiently
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  and effectively,
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  see my records and,
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  you know, really get the right notifications and
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  experience. So it's a streamlined
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  streamlined thing, and and that's been just, like,
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  so incredibly helpful in validating, like, to see
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  the health care industry actually making some real
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  changes and headway there.
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  No. Fantastic. Laura, I wanna thank you as
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  always for joining us. You're a remarkable leader
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  in person.
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  Thank you so much for joining us on
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  the Becker's healthcare podcast. Thank you very much.
• 11:23
  Appreciate it. Thank you, Scott. It's always a
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  pleasure.