athenahealth Expands Use of Artificial Intelligence to Cure Complexity for Practices, Providers, and Patients

Company deepens machine learning capabilities across athenaOne while deploying generative AI to improve practice performance and patient experience

athenahealth, a leading provider of network-enabled software and services for medical groups and health systems nationwide, today announced a range of new traditional and generative AI-driven capabilities across the company’s solutions. Available through athenaOne^® – athenahealth’s integrated, cloud-based suite of electronic health record (EHR), revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solutions – these features enable organizations to deliver exceptional patient care, reduce administrative burdens, and optimize revenue.

“For nearly a decade we have leveraged machine learning to continuously enhance athenaOne to deliver value to our customers and their patients, automating routine tasks, streamlining critical workflows, and removing administrative burdens,” said Paul Brient, chief product officer at athenahealth. “The business of medicine is far too complicated. We are focused on solving the pain points that rob providers and practices of time and revenue and divert their attention away from delivering the best possible care. Expanding generative AI capabilities across our services and solutions to complement our existing machine learning expertise will accelerate that time to value even further.”

athenahealth continues to build on the company’s decade-long leadership in leveraging machine learning to create value for more than 155,000 providers on the athenahealth nationwide network. athenahealth products are updated continually throughout the year, enabling the instant deployment of new features once tested. The following AI capabilities are currently in general availability:

Reduce Administrative Burden

This year, athenahealth enabled automated insurance selection to eliminate manual data entry and improve both accuracy and efficiency for front-desk staff. Patients or staff can upload an image of the patient's insurance card and athenaOne uses optical character recognition and advanced machine learning to instantly select an insurance package and confirm the patient’s eligibility. This feature is already delivering a 31% reduction in insurance-related claim holds across practices using the capability, saving practice staff more than 6,500 hours of administrative time in the last 12 months.

Simplify Patient Record Keeping and Mobile App Navigation

In 2023, athenahealth enabled voice navigation of the athenaOne mobile app, including enhancements to texting and photo capture tools, ordering efficiencies, and improved accessibility to unlock documentation and workflow efficiency.

Provide Clinical Support

Customers on the athenaOne platform benefit from the automated classification of inbound clinical documents. This feature ensures providers are served the most relevant clinical information at the point of care, without needing to sift through too much data. The athenaOne app will also now predict the most likely next action for a provider to take in response to an inbox item and suggest it as a “one-click” action at the top of the provider’s list.

athenahealth is also deploying multiple generative AI-powered capabilities that will be available to select athenahealth customers beginning this month. These include:

Patient Case Response Drafting

Providers on the athenaOne network respond to about four million patient cases each month and spend more than 35% of clinical inbox time managing patient case documents. Providers using athenaOne will soon have pre-drafted responses available for consideration, review, and editing. This capability will enhance productivity, without replacing the provider’s or practice’s expert judgment.

Patient Record Sharing Document Summarization

Today, athenahealth providers have access to millions of clinical records that follow patients as they move across the healthcare ecosystem. There are times when documents within these records are not labeled in an intuitive way. Newly deployed generative AI capabilities will summarize the labels on these documents intelligently so providers can quickly and easily find the document and the information that is most relevant at the point of care.

Identification of Missing Prior Authorization Information

As many as 10% of prior authorization tasks are sent back to providers due to missing clinical information, adding work and causing delays in getting authorization approvals. New capabilities embedded into athenaOne will identify missing or incorrect information before the prior authorization is submitted and suggest the correct inclusions to maximize the chances the authorization will be approved, saving time and reducing costs for practices, while improving patient experience.

Care Plan Summarization

Soon, athenahealth care managers will receive AI-generated “Huddle Reports” to prepare for weekly care meetings with providers. These reports help facilitate conversations between care managers and providers and are a critical tool to maintaining an open flow of information to improve patient care. Generating these reports automatically will streamline conversations between care managers and physicians, enabling clinicians to deliver more personalized care across the healthcare continuum. The time saved by care managers will allow them to provide individual care to a greater number of patients.

athenahealth delivers data-driven insights from across the company’s open, connected network of more than 155,000 providers serving nearly one-fourth of the U.S. population. Clinicians and staff utilizing athenahealth gain a more complete picture of patient care across the ecosystem while creating value for their organizations. athenahealth continuously develops new functionality across its portfolio, and automatically enables it for customers three times per year, ensuring that customers can keep up with industry change without burdensome or costly upgrades. Nearly half of the new features and enhancements in every product release stem directly from athenahealth’s award-winning voice of the customer program, ensuring the latest innovations are purpose-built to deliver value against a practice’s most critical pain points.

About athenahealth, Inc.

athenahealth strives to cure complexity and simplify the practice of healthcare. Our innovative technology includes electronic health records, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solutions that help healthcare providers, administrators, and practices eliminate friction for patients while getting paid efficiently. athenahealth partners with practices with purpose-built software backed by expertise to produce the insights needed to drive better clinical and financial outcomes. We’re inspired by our vision to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all. Learn more at athenahealth.com.

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