There does not seem to be a moment in any given day where Artificial Intelligence does not find its way into a conversation. You can hardly turn a corner without someone telling you how AI will change the world for the better and improve every aspect of modern life. Either that, or they are telling you how AI will ruin our lives, taking over every aspect of the jobs we love. I can recall reading about the “Singularity” back in the early 2000s, that moment when the growth of technology passes the theoretical tipping point and takes on its own course that can no longer be controlled. It certainly paints an interesting possible future state for all of us and is both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. The first time I held my daughter in my arms was both terrifying and exhilarating, but it had a hint of magic to it that only humanity can bring!
In our industry there has been quite a bit of conversation around AI and the implications to healthcare at large and more specifically to Precertification, Care Management and Chronic Condition Management. I have seen companies and government organizations highlighting how they will automate 80% or more of these processes. I have seen other organizations trying to leverage the fear around automated denials to showcase how they are different and distance themselves from the AI paradigm. The approaches could not be more different and yet, neither extreme is fully embracing what we believe is the potential and the promise of AI.
One of my favorite stories from Hines’ 38 years of helping people navigate the complexities of the healthcare system is that of a gentleman we will call Hank. Hank was a cancer patient and spent over a year fighting with the disease. His wife, who we will call Greta was there by his side every step of the way. Our case manager Karla helped Hank navigate his treatments and would take calls from him on a regular basis at all times of day just to catch up on his favorite recipe or latest event with his family. As Hank’s situation deteriorated, Karla established strong ties with Greta and when Hank ultimately lost his fight, Greta invited our nurse, her new friend Karla to the funeral. Karla went to his funeral to pay her respect to the man she had grown to know over the prior years and said her farewells. What marked her most about this was that Greta introduced Karla to every person at the funeral as Hank’s friend, not his Nurse, not his Case Manager, his Friend!
AI can give us the ability to have more of those types of impacts, to touch more lives and make peoples difficult journeys perhaps a little easier. Hines will be embracing AI to allow us to do more of what we love and what our customers appreciate about us. We will use AI not to deny care, but to help our nurses find ways to get people the best care for their specific situation. AI has the potential to make us more efficient by streamlining the mundane tasks that take us away from these opportunities. We have numerous projects on the go, all with the goal of giving our staff more time to interact with your members in a meaningful way. AI will play a pivotal role in these projects and will fundamentally change the way we go about our day, but it will not change the way we care for your members, it will let us do more of that!
From reading and summarizing information, providing a critical double check to important questions, decision support for complex issues, to streamlining the way we document, these projects are all looking to leverage AI to make us more efficient at what we do, so we can spend more time with your members. Hines is the human touch to an otherwise very clinical process, AI will support that but cannot replace that human aspect. You have our commitment, AI will never make a decision that impacts your members, it will simply allow us to have more time to spend with your members so the decisions can be reached and communicated by our staff.
Regards,
Steve McClung
Chief Executive Officer
Hines & Associates, Inc.
