Only five percent of U.S. healthcare providers currently have RPA investments in place today, but global consultancy Gartner predicts that number will rise to 50 percent in the next three years. The Stamford, Conn.-based company said the coronavirus pandemic has forced the healthcare industry to optimize costs and resources and RPA will be one way to do that.
“Cost optimization is a consistently recurring theme among healthcare providers,” said Dr. Anurag Gupta, research vice president at Gartner. “The money that RPA saves by not having to spend as much on an unreformed process translates into cash that is available for front-end clinical functions, which is especially important while healthcare organizations combat the Covid-19 crisis.”
Healthcare providers are utilizing the technology for non-vertical-specific tasks, such as staffing an IT help desk as well as critical vertical-specific tasks, such as physician credentialing or verifying insurance eligibility.