Northwell Health to Use AI, NLP to Improve Revenue Cycle Management

Northwell Health has signed a ten-year agreement with an artificial intelligence company to improve its revenue cycle management processes through natural language processing.

The healthcare provider will leverage Clinithink’s CLiX technology to automate its revenue cycle activities and speed up document processing, including initial chart reviews.

“Even though we have an extensive revenue cycle management team, we know we cannot currently cover all our activity with manual chart review, especially in relation to identifying co-morbidities,” Gerard Brogan, MD, chief revenue officer of Northwell Health, stated in the press release.

“Northwell recognized the power of clinical NLP that we could use to assist our revenue cycle teams several years ago. Having carefully evaluated Clinithink, we have partnered with them to bring this automation process to our system in a strategic ten-year deal.”

Northwell Health will first deploy the revenue cycle management resource to aid in case management and reviews. According to the provider, the solution will help grow its revenue cycle review process without increasing staff costs. Additionally, the artificial intelligence company will support denials management and offer technology to improve other critical revenue cycle management processes, the press release said.

Through the deal, Northwell Health said it hopes to improve its revenue cycle management accuracy and, in turn, ensure that it continues to meet patient needs.

Northwell Health is the largest healthcare provider in New York State, with 22 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient facilities in its network. The provider employs over 16,000 physicians and offers more than 100 medical specialties to two million people across New York every year.

More and more health systems are turning to automation and artificial intelligence to improve their revenue cycle processes. According to experts, automation is a crucial component for expanding revenue cycle management.

From 2020 to 2021, revenue cycle automation adoption among hospitals increased by 12 percent, a survey from the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) found.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have been a driving force behind this increased adoption, as revenue cycle management leaders realized that automating workflows helped limit unnecessary in-person contact and made it easier to process check-ins for virtual care.

Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama saw improvements after automating its front- and back-end revenue cycle management processes. On the front-end, the health system implemented a patient self-service platform and automation for self-pay accounts that confirmed insurance eligibility at the point of service.

The automation assisted staff in gathering accurate initial information, which helped reduce claim denials. Additionally, the self-pay automation helped staff provide patients with cost estimates and collect payments upfront.

Experts have also found that automation can help boost revenue cycle key performance indicators, such as number of days in accounts receivable, aged accounts receivable, and initial denials rate.