Hospitals and medical groups are under historic workforce strain. Nearly one in three staff are now non-clinical, and despite billions spent on recruitment and retention, turnover continues to increase. Much of the strain comes from manual, phone-based work: scheduling procedures, verifying benefits, managing waitlists, and securing prior authorizations.
To relieve the burden, a Northeast gastroenterology group with more than 100 providers implemented Prosper AI’s voice AI platform to take on the highest-volume front-desk calls. The practice began with scheduling and waitlist management, two call types that consistently tied up staff hours, while planning expansion into benefits and claims in the months ahead.
Within weeks, the practice reduced call backlogs and freed staff to focus on patient-facing needs. Today, Prosper’s AI agents handle more than half of the group’s front-desk call volume for scheduling and waitlists, helping patients access appointments faster and easing burnout among staff.
“Prosper has redefined how our call center runs by simplifying processes, shortening patient wait times, and boosting efficiency,” said the group’s COO.
The challenges seen in gastroenterology are echoed across many specialties. OB/GYN groups face heavy prior-authorization volumes for procedures such as imaging and surgeries. Cardiology practices deal with constant eligibility checks and pre-visit scheduling coordination. And across health systems, payor hold times for benefits verification continue to erode staff capacity. These pressures are structural — adding more people has not solved them — and contribute directly to rising costs and worsening access.
That is why automation is moving from pilot to core operations. By starting with the highest-volume, repetitive calls, organizations can see results quickly, then expand into more complex workflows. For specialty groups, the impact is twofold: patients get faster access to care, and staff are freed to focus on higher-value work that requires clinical or personal judgment.
Prosper AI’s platform already automates the full spectrum of phone-based administrative workflows, from scheduling and waitlist management to benefits verification, claims follow-ups, and prior authorizations. Many organizations begin with the highest-volume calls, then expand quickly into other areas once they see the impact. Each step helps chip away at the $450 billion that U.S. healthcare spends annually on administration — much of it still tied up on the phone.
As workforce shortages persist, the organizations that embrace structural change rather than incremental hiring will be best positioned to thrive. By automating repetitive call workflows, specialty groups and health systems can regain capacity, improve access, and reduce burnout without adding headcount.
