From revenue cycle management to clinical documentation and data analytics, AI is beginning to touch nearly every corner of the ASC. Rather than overhauling operations overnight, centers are introducing automation in targeted ways that solve daily challenges and deliver measurable results.
Here’s how ASCs are quietly putting AI to work — and where the impact is being felt first:
1. Automation strengthens the revenue cycle: Revenue cycle automation is taking pressure off administrative teams. AI tools are now performing claim-denial follow-up, coding validation and front-end registration audits.
AI is offering relief for repetitive revenue cycle tasks. Automating front-end processes can prevent problems further down the revenue cycle.
The focus, leaders say, is on accuracy. Automation of billing, coding and claims submissions reduces administration cost and human error. It also helps with faster claims processing and reimbursement.
2. AI improves documentation and reimbursement: AI-driven transcription and virtual scribe tools are also taking root in ASCs. These systems help capture operative notes and link them directly to coding workflows — a once manual and error-prone process.
AI is also being used for documentation requirements, reimbursement claims and as a virtual scribe.
3. AI turns ASC data into real-time insight: Data analytics is one of the fastest-growing applications of AI in the ASC setting. Advanced analytic tools powered by machine learning are helping administrators transform raw operational data — like turnover times, case volumes and staffing trends — into real-time, actionable insights.
Tara Good-Young, CEO of PDI Surgery Center in Windsor, Calif., told Becker’s that refined AI analytics are improving both speed and clarity.
“Advanced data gathering and analytics utilizing refined AI will give facilities and providers more granular, meaningful insight from operational and functional data, faster,” she said, noting that these tools allow reports and performance reviews to occur “closer to real time,” reducing delays between identifying and solving issues.
4. AI boosts RCM performance without adding staff: ASCs are using AI to handle growing claim volumes and complex payer demands without expanding their teams.
Kathrynne Johns, CFO of Allegiance Mobile Health, told Becker’s she replaced new RCM hires with AI agents to manage core billing tasks.
“We added nine 911 contracts this year … with no extra headcount in RCM,” she said.
Automating eligibility checks, prior authorizations and payment posting raised her center’s first-month collection rate from single digits to over 20%— proof that AI can scale output even when staffing stays flat.
5. Supply chain and prior auth go digital: AI’s reach extends beyond the front office. Predictive models are helping supply teams forecast inventory needs and reduce waste. Outpatient leaders are pairing AI with value-analysis programs to drive efficiencies in ASC supply chains.
Similarly, automation is now streamlining prior authorizations — one of the most burdensome parts of ASC administration — balancing machine learning with human oversight.
AI in ASCs is not a futuristic overhaul; it’s an incremental advantage. From documentation to denials, analytics to supply chain, outpatient leaders are finding that automation delivers the one resource everyone needs most — time.
