Implementing AI for revenue cycle management (RCM) can feel like walking a tightrope. After all, RCM is the lifeblood of clinical practices. Failure here means claims pile up and cash flow stops. One organization decided to move ahead and is now able to scale their practice without having to add hard-to-find billing resources.
Healthcare IT Today sat down with Robert DeLuca, EHR Innovation Administrator at MedFlorida Medical Centers. We explored the realities of deploying eClinicalWorks AI tools, particularly for RCM, and how getting it right benefits both clinicians and the billing team.
Key Takeaways
- AI is a Growth Engine: AI in the revenue cycle is about scaling a practice efficiently. By speeding up the billing process, practices can confidently expand locations and add new providers without straining their existing administrative infrastructure.
- Nip Claim Rejections in the Bud: The best time to fix a claim is before it ever leaves the exam room. Point-of-care AI that prompts clinicians to correct insufficient documentation immediately eliminates the time-wasting back-and-forth with the billing department.
- Ambient Listening is a Powerful Recruiting Weapon: Ambient AI scribes have evolved from a simple documentation aid into a non-negotiable recruiting asset. Recognized widely by clinicians as a way to reduce charting fatigue, AI scribes are now seen as a must-have.
AI is a Growth Engine
For DeLuca, Implementing automation is fundamentally about increasing capacity and not about cutting staff. MedFlorida wanted to expand and he understood that their internal administrative workflows needed to keep pace. DeLuca believed that AI could provide the efficiency that they needed to scale.
“Our goal with AI for billing was to make it more efficient so that we can take on more and grow,” DeLuca stated. MedFlorida successfully implement eClinicalWorks’ RCM AI. With it, the organization can manage a higher volume of claims smoothly without the need to add billing staff who are increasingly difficult to hire and retain.
Nip Claim Rejections in the Bud
A rejected claim is a massive drain on resources. It creates a frustrating loop between the billing department and the provider. Catching documentation errors at the point of care changes the entire dynamic.
With eClinicalWorks’ RCM AI, the system alerts a clinician that information may be missing in order to bill properly. By prompting immediately, the fix takes seconds, without any back-and-forth with the billing team.
“It’s hard to quantify exactly, but you can imagine how much time that is saved,” explained DeLuca. “Had that claim been submitted, it may have been rejected or the billing department may have caught it. In either case, they would have to send that progress note back to the clinician to fix it. With eClinicalWorks the clinicians knows to fix it in the moment.”
That simple prompt eliminates the claim reject-fix loop that is universally despised.
Ambient Listening is a Powerful Recruiting Weapon
Clinicians documenting late into the night benefits no one. Introducing ambient listening tools directly targets this “pajama time”, keeping providers focused on patients instead of screens.
The technology is so effective that it has become a core part of the hiring pitch and a retention tool. “I know for a fact that when clinicians leave our practice, wherever they’re going, they’re looking for ambient listening because they’ve had it here,” observed DeLuca. “They’re addicted to it, and they don’t they don’t want a workflow without it,”
DeLuca firmly believes that if you are not offering these tools, you are losing top talent to practices that do.
The Bottom Line for Health IT Leaders
For DeLuca and MedFlorida, eClinicalWorks’ RCM AI is tool that enables growth and expansion. By eliminating time-consuming loops in their RCM process, the team has increased their capacity without adding people. They realized similar benefits with AI scribe technology. Seeing AI as a growth enabler is powerful reframe for MedFlorida leadership and for them, AI has quickly become a baseline for running a modern, competitive practice.
What Healthcare IT Leaders Are Asking
How does AI reduce claim rejections in healthcare? AI reduces claim rejections by analyzing documentation at the point of care and prompting clinicians to correct missing or mismatched information before the progress note is finalized – a key feature of eClinicalWorks’ RCM AI. This proactive approach ensures the billing department receives a clean claim. It stops the cycle of returning notes to busy providers for revisions.
How does AI help a billing department scale? The primary function of AI in the revenue cycle is to increase efficiency. By automating repetitive tasks and catching errors early, current billing teams can process a larger volume of claims. This allows practices to grow and add new providers while maintaining a smooth administrative workflow.
Why are AI scribes important for recruiting clinicians? AI scribes, like Sunoh.ai, are important for recruiting because clinicians are actively seeking workplaces that prioritize their well-being. Tools that automatically draft clinical notes save hours of administrative work and significantly reduce burnout. Providers who have experienced this workflow consider it a necessity and will choose practices that offer it over those that do not.
Learn more about MedFlorida Medical Centers at https://medflorida.com/
Learn more about eClinicalWorks at https://www.eclinicalworks.com/
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