AI holds major promise for healthcare — particularly for independent ASCs and physician practices whose smaller teams may face significant administrative and regulatory burdens in their day-to-day.
Brian Bizub, CEO of Raleigh (N.C) Orthopaedic Clinic, recently joined Becker’s to discuss the things he has found to be green flags in a potential AI vendor.
Strong, collaborative partnerships
For Mr. Bizub, finding a vendor that focuses on relationship building was essential. In his current AI partnership, he is able to reach out to c-suite level executives directly to discuss products.
“I like relationships,” Mr. Bizub said. “I don’t like widget sellers. I want you to know a little bit about my business, I want to know a little bit about [their] business and [their] adaptability to change — because as we know, healthcare changes basically every day.”
He also said that the collaborative aspect of this relationship means that the vendor goes above and beyond when troubleshooting issues and working through issues with clinicians during implementation.
“As we were working through it, one of the physicians was really struggling a bit, and he was kind of our champion,” he said. The vendor responded by flying out from California to work with the physician the following day — a huge green flag for Mr. Bizub.
“I didn’t even have to ask for it. It would’ve eventually been an ask, but I didn’t have to,” he said. “She came here, figured out what the issue was and she was able to translate it to the developers and programmers.”
Seamlessness and interoperability
The ability of an AI platform to be customizable to an individual practices’ needs while also being as much of a ‘one-stop shop’ as possible is key for ASCs, Mr. Bizub said. ASCs and other independent practices are frequently offered AI platforms and similar technologies that only address one aspect of the clinical or administrative side of the practice. Being truly end-to-end and interoperable should set these technologies apart.
Mr. Bizub’s AI partner offered a platform that is tailored to his orthopedic practice’s needs, including the ability to evaluate and match different procedural codes, producing bills and automatically following up with insurance claims, leaving no detail untouched.
“I can’t employ enough people to check on a $100 million company’s claims every 30 days,” Mr. Bizub said. “There’s no ROI at all. They have the scheduling, the intake, the EMR system, the revenue cycle management, claims management … appeals are automatically written through an AI agent.”
Favorable contracts
Mr. Bizub said that too often, AI companies will offer a one-year contract, only to increase prices upon renewal as their products move out of beta testing and their true value is more recognized.
In his new partnership, a price escalation after one year is built into the language, a seemingly small but important thing to note for Mr. Bizub.
“I don’t know a company out there that is so confident in their product, they’re willing to lose a large client in 12 months,” he said.
