Hospital executives concerned with cost increases and the conversion to electronic health records (EHRs) are turning to technology initiatives including RPA to face those challenges. Nearly 70 percent of hospital and healthcare CFOs expect their IT budgets to increase in the next 12 months, according to Chicago-based consultancy Navigant.
Large providers are already implementing RPA, the report noted. Twenty-five percent of health systems polled said they are implementing advanced health IT, including RPA. And, moving forward, 87 percent of health care executives said they’re focused on technology-related capabilities to “drive future revenue cycle improvements.” Among heath system executives, 15 percent specifically called out RPA. None did so in 2018.
“New technologies leveraging RPA, artificial intelligence, and machine learning have unlocked significant opportunities to reach previously unattainable levels of revenue cycle performance,” said Navigant Director Kent Ritter. “As we’ve learned with EHR implementations, there are no silver bullets. These tools are not ‘plug and play,’ and the ability to integrate operational and technical expertise remains key to provider success.”