Cerner Partnership Leverages AI for Revenue Cycle Automation

Cerner aims to help members achieve revenue cycle automation by providing access to an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform through a collaboration with AKASA.

“We’re excited to team up with AKASA to accelerate the adoption of advanced automation within the revenue cycle,” Steven Colucci, vice president of revenue cycle at Cerner, said in the press release. “Through our work together, our goal is to enable providers to more easily access and benefit from advanced AI-powered revenue cycle workflow automation.” 

The partnership will allow Cerner customers to use AKASA’s AI-based Unified Automation platform to automate revenue cycle tasks.

Through the platform, healthcare providers will be able to automate eligibility checks and denials. The system will check eligibility using information from insurance cards, amend eligibility-related denials, and automatically re-submit corrected claims, the press release said.

In addition, the platform will automate authorization tasks, including identifying authorization requirements, initiating requests, checking statuses, and notifying payers of inpatient admissions.

The system will also assist in claims processing. Providers can use the platform to receive status information for outstanding claims and make any corrections needed before submitting claims to clearinghouses and payers.

“As health system leaders are faced with unprecedented staffing challenges, AI and automation are quickly becoming the only options to continue delivering a first-class experience for their patients,” Malinka Walaliyadde, chief executive officer and co-founder of AKASA, stated in the press release.

According to the companies, the AI-driven platform will help prevent burnout among healthcare staff by taking on complex workflows and optimizing operations.

Maintaining a successful revenue cycle is critical to health system operations and patient experiences. With proper revenue cycle management, patients are more likely to receive full benefits from their eligible insurance coverage and less likely to receive inaccurate or surprise medical bills.

Physicians are also likely to receive reimbursement quicker when their revenue cycle tasks and workflows are efficient.

In 2019, provider organizations using Cerner for revenue cycle management reported positive experiences with the vendor despite seeing few tangible solution improvements.

The vendor announced a new patient accounting product in October 2021, aiming to improve consumer-oriented care and advance enterprise-wide management. Cerner RevElate system is an application program interface (API) and allows clients to integrate third parties to complete revenue cycle tasks.

Cerner said its collaboration with AKASA will help further revenue cycle automation among its clients.

According to revenue cycle leaders, transitioning to automation is key as revenue cycle management expands. Automating tasks may also relieve staffing shortages and heavy workloads as healthcare finance leaders struggle to fill revenue cycle management positions.