To foster experimentation, athena designed Ambient Notes to allow its customers to access select ambient documentation tools, such as Suki and iScribe, without long-term commitments, the company said in a statement Thursday.
Meanwhile, SmartDX’s fresh tools can identify evidence and then employ generative AI to create compelling appeal letters that can assist them get paid faster and more accurately.
Athena offers a selection of ambient tools
Ambient Notes, available in a confined edition to select athenahealth customers, will soon be available to all athenaOne customers in early 2025, the company said in a statement.
Integrated with clinical processes, it provides flexibility and personalization of clinical note generation while supporting multiple AI-powered environmental models. Practices and physicians can seamlessly switch between models based on individual needs and preferences, athena said.
Circumscribed edition models available include Suki AI, which uses generative AI to solve tedious administrative tasks including documentation, coding and question answering, and supports 99 specialties, and iScribe AI with iScribeHealth, which uses ambient AI and EHR integration to reduce cliques when doctors meet with patients.
With each model, physicians will be able to enable ambient listening, conduct a visit, and place AI-generated notes directly on the patient’s encounter for physician review without leaving athenaOne.
The EHR vendor said additional models will be added to Ambient Notes over time.
“Clinicians are constantly trying to balance demanding schedules and documentation workloads with the desire to provide the best patient care and be fully present during every visit,” Paul Brient, chief product officer at athena, said in a statement. “Our approach will give clinicians exceptional flexibility and freedom to choose from leading environmental models that best suit the way they do their work, regardless of what their colleagues choose.”
Dr. Lynn Joffe of DTC Family Health in Greenwood Village, Colorado, has found Ambient Notes impactful in her practice.
“Ambient Notes is already reducing our clinical documentation time, which increases our physician and patient engagement during visits,” she said in a statement.
“Because we’re busy and need to make back-to-back appointments, we appreciate how easy it is to use without having to switch between systems, and how quickly and efficiently it documents notes without sacrificing accuracy.”
Earlier this week, Affineon Health also announced that its clinical inbox technology, which can reduce the time a physician spends reviewing lab results, communicating with patients and automatically handling “noise” in the inbox, is now available on the athenahealth marketplace .
eCW is concerned with greater automation of practice
Announced at eClinicalWorks 2024 and the national Healow conference this week in Grapevine, Texas, Healow Genie uses natural language processing to answer common patient questions and manage visits, referrals, prescriptions and more for providers.
Whenever they need support, they can access Genie via voice call, text message or chatbot.
Scorecards measure progress toward VBC goals. They combine quality, risk, coding and cost of care metrics in one dashboard.
Additionally, Sunoh.ai’s corporate medical scribe now supports Portuguese and Spanish.
“We believe that by working together and leveraging these breakthrough improvements in artificial intelligence, we can improve patient outcomes, reduce physician burnout, and transform the patient experience,” Girish Navani, CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks, said in a statement.
SmarterDx runs SmarterDenials
Using artificial intelligence, SmarterDX, a hospital revenue technology company, said it has added more resources to combat payer denials.
The company said 15% of all claims are initially denied, and as denials have increased 20% over the past five years, hospitals spend more than $20 billion a year trying to get them invalidated.
SmarterDenials can assist hospitals generate more effective appeals letters by using artificial intelligence – also used by the SmarterPrebill platform – to identify needed evidence in patient records and create comprehensive appeals that include case-specific clinical evidence and coding references.
According to the company, this can assist resolve convoluted denials such as DRG downgrades and service level disputes when hospitals submit denial requests.
Michael Gao, CEO and co-founder of SmarterDx, said in a statement Monday that the tool could assist hospitals “better respond to the rising tide of denials and secure the reimbursement they deserve” so they can focus on patient care.
“This couldn’t come at a better time,” added Dr. Cam Patterson, University of Arkansas Medical Sciences executive director. “At UAMS, we have seen increasing denial rates negatively impact our bottom line, which ultimately impacts our ability to invest more in patient care. With AI, we can create attractive offers in a fraction of the time, which is a game changer.”