Deploying Bots in Healthcare to Find Revenue Cycle Improvements

Doing more with less has been a business mantra for decades. Healthcare leaders have implemented flex scheduling and job sharing, streamlined workflows, committed to process improvement techniques such as Lean, hired retirees, gained efficiencies from remote work ... and the list goes on. Each tactic has yielded productivity improvements, yet the need to do more with less continues. Postpandemic challenges include staff recruitment and retention, labor inflation, and dwindling margins, all of which must be addressed while maintaining corporate cultures. The journey with bots described here started in this dynamic environment, and the work has not been single-threaded. The organization featured here-an integrated delivery network-has digital front-door and back-end robotic process automation (RPA) projects underway. The digital front-door initiative supports patient self-registration and automates authorizations and insurance verification processes. The back-end patient financial services RPA project replaces and enhances existing technology. Revenue cycle as a multidepartment function is leadership's poster child for RPA, and the revenue cycle team is tasked to demonstrate the value of the technology. This article covers the initial steps and lessons learned in the process.