Specialty care is entering a period of rapid transformation driven by shifting care settings, workforce pressures and the growing influence of artificial intelligence and automation. During a Feb. 25 Becker’s Healthcare webinar sponsored by NextGen Healthcare, Sri Velamoor, president and CEO of NextGen Healthcare, joined Becker’s Healthcare’s Brian Zimmerman to discuss how specialty practices are navigating these changes and what leaders should prioritize in the years ahead.
Below are several key themes from the conversation.
The shift toward outpatient specialty care is accelerating
Specialty care demand continues to rise as medical science advances and treatment becomes more targeted. At the same time, where care is delivered is changing rapidly.
Over the past decade, inpatient volumes have declined while outpatient volumes have grown significantly, reflecting a broad migration of services away from hospitals. In some areas, such as joint replacement, procedures that were once overwhelmingly inpatient are now commonly performed in outpatient settings.
That shift is reshaping the competitive landscape. Independent specialty practices, ambulatory surgery centers and multispecialty outpatient groups are expanding as policymakers and payers increasingly encourage care outside hospital walls.
Against that backdrop, many specialty groups are evaluating their strategic path — whether to remain independent, partner with private equity, or align with a health system. The right approach varies by specialty and market, but leaders must weigh the agility and autonomy of independence against the capital and infrastructure available through larger organizations.
AI is beginning to reshape the practice of medicine — not just the business
While much innovation in healthcare has historically focused on the business side of medicine, Velamoor said the next wave of change is occurring inside clinical workflows themselves.
AI-powered technologies are beginning to transform nearly every step of the patient journey — from scheduling and intake to documentation and follow-up care.
For example, digital intake tools now allow patients to complete forms and scheduling tasks on their own devices before arriving at an appointment. Automation can manage prior authorizations, waitlists and check-in processes that once required extensive staff involvement.
Inside the exam room, ambient AI tools can document physician-patient conversations in real time, generate clinical notes and populate fields within the electronic health record. In some cases, medications, orders and billing documentation can be generated automatically following the encounter.
This shift represents more than incremental efficiency gains. Instead of optimizing existing workflows, practices are increasingly reconsidering whether those workflows are necessary at all.
“It’s no longer about reducing clicks,” Velamoor said during the discussion. “It’s about reimagining the entire experience.”
Technology adoption can relieve workforce pressures
Staffing shortages remain one of the biggest operational challenges facing specialty practices. Many organizations struggle to recruit and retain administrative staff while physicians face growing documentation burdens.
Automation and AI tools can help relieve both pressures.
Ambient documentation systems, for example, can free up 45 minutes to two hours of physician time per day by automating note-taking and documentation tasks. Practices may use that additional capacity to see more patients or reduce physician burnout.
Similarly, digital patient engagement tools can reduce administrative workloads by automating appointment reminders and communication with patients. In one example shared during the webinar, a practice saved about 80 hours per month in outbound calls by using automated messaging to confirm appointments and reduce no-show rates.
These operational improvements can have measurable financial impact as well. Missed appointments alone can cost practices tens of thousands of dollars annually.
The rise of “agentic AI” will automate entire workflows
Healthcare organizations are also beginning to move beyond basic automation toward more advanced “agentic” AI systems that can take action across multiple steps in a workflow.
Instead of simply transcribing a physician’s conversation with a patient, an AI system might interpret the encounter, populate the appropriate fields in the EHR, trigger review workflows for clinicians and initiate revenue cycle processes such as coding and charge capture.
This next generation of technology could also reshape revenue cycle management. As payers increasingly deploy AI to review and adjudicate claims, providers will need comparable capabilities to submit clean claims, predict denials and respond to payer decisions quickly.
Without that level of automation, practices risk falling behind in what Velamoor described as a growing “battle of the bots” between payer and provider systems.
Successful technology adoption requires leadership and focus
Despite the promise of these tools, many healthcare organizations struggle to scale technology initiatives. According to Velamoor, three factors consistently separate successful implementations from stalled pilots: leadership commitment, organizational capability and clear measurement of results.
Practices that succeed typically begin with a focused pilot — selecting a specific workflow, deploying the technology with a small group of clinicians and measuring performance before and after implementation.
When clinicians see tangible improvements in their daily work, adoption tends to follow quickly.
For organizations unsure where to begin, Velamoor recommended starting with one of three areas: improving patient engagement, increasing operational efficiency or strengthening revenue cycle performance.
“Pick one workflow, pick one small group, and prove the value,” he said. “Momentum builds from there.”
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