Earlier this week Dr. Bob Wachter, the Chair of Medicine at UCSF and author of New York Times bestseller The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age, shared a discussion with Dr. Muthu Alagappan, Medical Director at , to explore tested strategies for using AI and automation to get the most out of your EHR data and, as a result, thrive in the post-EHR era. A recording of the discussion can be viewed here.

UnitedHealth's information and technology-enabled health services subsidiary Optum -- a nonprofit physician group that operates 30 medical practices offering primary care, more than 50 specialties, plus imaging, lab, and pharmacy services to the Boston area -- is set to acquire Massachusetts-based Atrius Health, according to The Boston Globe and reported at HealthcareFinancenews.com. Meanwhile, Ensemble Health Partners announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted three additional patents to the company for its innovative automation technology -- that brings the total of Ensemble-approved patents to five.

Brandon Sim, the chief technology officer and chief operating officer at, a tech-powered healthcare management company, says the time to fully implement artificial intelligence and machine learning is now. From Healthcare Finance: "Especially because recent CMS regulations are going to force electronic health record companies to share their data in a more reasonably accessible fashion," Sim said. "Just the sheer amount of data that is being collected – the rise of alternative sources of data like remote patient monitoring and wearable devices – make it a very natural fit for using machine learning and AI methods in healthcare."

An excellent article by Giri Rajaiah, Executive Leader and Vice President for Global Healthcare and Life Sciences at DISYS, takes a look at how automation is absolutely essential to any healthcare organization that wants to remain relevant in today's -- and tomorrow's -- healthcare ecosystem. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought the immense pressure the U.S. healthcare system is under into sharp focus. Recent dynamics are compounded by the industry’s efforts to adopt newer ways of working and digitizing patient records, while implementing automation throughout their business processes to increase overall efficiency and productivity.

Are you ready for the wave of changes coming to healthcare? As is to be expected when a new administration takes over in Washington, the first 100 days of President Biden’s presidency are likely to bring a number of changes for employer-sponsored health and welfare plans, says Debra Hoffman and Stephanie B. Vasconcellos of Mayer Brown in their blog at Lexology.com.

Without a doubt, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, and other technologies are streamlining the revenue cycle management and healthcare payments industries in many different ways. Roni Boker, OrboGraph product manager notes: "Market need still exists, and organizations are now having to move faster than ever with new work environments as a means to implement greater controls on their data and assist with compliance and resiliency."

We have receive a tremendous amount of positive feedback from our recent #OrboZone launch, with a countless number of clients, partners, and industry experts raving about their "experience." But what is #OrboZone? It's dynamic content that combines high-impact videos, visual galleries, energizing music, and entertaining activities for your WFH environment.

No one has to tell you the revenue cycle automation process is complex, and getting more so every year. That's why it'll come as no surprise that Healthcare Finance News is reporting that about 30% of health systems and hospitals are unable to manage their revenue cycle automation efforts without at least two vendors. The numbers were gathered via the Healthcare Financial Management Association's Pulse Survey program, fielded between May 19, 2020 and June 22, 2020 among 587 chief financial officers and revenue cycle leaders at various health systems.

Artificial intelligence is already playing a significant role in worldwide healthcare, but Michael Spencer, editor in chief at The Last Futurist, is here to assure you that we haven't seen anything yet: The complexity and rise of data in healthcare means that artificial intelligence will increasingly be applied within the field. Several types of AI are already being employed by payers and providers of care and life sciences companies. AI is also starting to be used in pharma drug combinations and exploratory combinations and will drive a new era of biotechnology.

With COVID-19 vaccines being administered across the globe, the healthcare payments industry -- like the world population in general -- is feeling cautiously optimistic as 2021 begins. The industry faced many challenges throughout 2020, but healthcare technology companies stepped up and transformed the pandemic into an opportunity to innovate, calling the pandemic a "catalyst" to accelerate the digital transformation for healthcare. Matt Hawkins, CEO of Waystar, provides predictions for healthcare payments in the new year in an article posted on Modern Healthcare.

We have seen the banking and payments industries recover from the challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic with a resurgence of checks and sustained volumes of other payments. With this recovery, banks and financial institutions can now refocus on automation and fraud prevention projects which have been delayed while the economy recovers.

To say 2020 will long be remembered as a challenging year for the healthcare industry is almost comical in its understatement. The strain put on all levels of the system, from front-line care all the way through collection and revenue cycle, has been incredible. Then comes this news out of Virginia via Healthcare Finance News: Newport News, Virginia-based Riverside Health System is coming out of 2020 able to say that it had one of its most improved collection, performance and revenue cycle years to date.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the ways healthcare organizations -- in particular healthcare RCM -- operate, as many businesses shut down office locations and move to remote environments to ensure employee safety and to slow the spread of the virus. While this has altered the way RCM operates from a physical location standpoint, the pandemic has also had an interesting effect when it comes to technology.

PatientEngagementHIT.com examines the growth of patients consumerism and its impact on the healthcare industry. "Consumerism in healthcare regularly tops the list of C-suite priorities, with most organizations knowing they need to adapt to new patient behaviors to survive in a competitive industry. Health IT developers, healthcare payers, and policymakers alike are also working to acclimate to a world where the patient is also the medical consumer."

With healthcare organizations seeing lower volumes of patients for routine and elective procedures, the industry is having to withstand massive losses. While healthcare revenue for each organization depends on many factors, the American Hospital Association (AHA) reports that hospital operating margins are still down 28% year-to-date compared to 2019.

As we noted in our Check & Fraud recap earlier this week, the ORBOIMPACT VIRTUAL CONFERENCE, our two-day online event -- which covered Healthcare Payments on Thursday, October 29, and Banking & Payments on Friday, October 30 -- was a huge success! Industry speakers coupled with OrboGraph experts focused on AI innovation and payment strategy helped drive strong attendance, while innovative polling encouraged attendee participation and interaction.

The healthcare market anticipated some turbulent times, speculating about what uncertain future was in store while the Coronavirus was "spinning up." For example, John Talaga, executive vice president and general manager, healthcare at Flywire, predicted that at least some of Flywire’s healthcare clients might face a 30 percent revenue shortfall this year. In a story at pymts.com, Mr Talaga was happy to admit he was a bit too pessimistic.

Group, and Studer Education, recently released research results that reveal how COVID-19 is shifting the priorities of Healthcare industry executives (you can download their study here without having to provide any information).

Hopefully you've already registered for the ORBOIMPACT VIRTUAL CONFERENCE scheduled for October 29th and 30th. If not, what are you waiting for? ORBOIMPACT will explore AI innovation in the fields of check payments, check fraud, and healthcare remittance automation. The event is FREE and is accepting a limited number of virtual attendees , so register today if you haven't already! Check out our star-studded lineup of speakers!

Artificial Intelligence has made waves in a stunning variety of businesses, and Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management is certainly no exception. Over the past year, we have covered many different angles in our Modernizing RCM with AI and our OrboNation Healthcare Blog, including:

More than ever before, the healthcare industry is forced to maintain spartan budgets -- even as an unprecedented pandemic puts stress on all aspects of the industry. In a HIMSS20 digital presentation, Mark Morsch, vice president of technology at Optum360, cited data indicating a huge hole in efficiency -- as much as $200 billion in administrative waste due to inefficient revenue cycle practices.

Having already announced our client and partner virtual technology conference in late September, OrboGraph has completed it’s speaker line-up for the ORBOIMPACT conference for the afternoons of October 29th and 30th (see agenda here). Day 1 (Thursday, Oct. 29): Healthcare Payments Sessions Day #1 is highlighted by Keynote speaker Mr. Michael Manna at 12:15 PM ET.  During the…

It’s a safe bet to say that making a … safe bet during an unprecedented pandemic is not the easiest thing in the world. All the same, Becker’s Health IT got 20 healthcare executives and leaders to commit to posterity one health IT industry prediction for the next five years, and the answers are interesting,…

In a little over a month, OrboGraph will host the ORBOIMPACT Virtual Conference: AI Innovation for Check Payments, Check Fraud, and Healthcare Remittance Automation.

Revenue Cycle of the Future...something we have heard on several occasions. But what does it actually look like? In a recent article, HealthLeaders highlights a roundtable discussion sponsored by our friends at Waystar, bringing together a group of leaders in revenue cycle management to gather their thoughts on what they believe is important for the revenue cycle of the future.

Alpha Health recently released results of a national survey designed to examine and assess the impact of COVID-19 on revenue cycle operations at health systems and hospitals across the U.S. The survey was fielded between May 19, 2020 and June 22, 2020 among 587 chief financial officers and revenue cycle leaders at hospitals and health systems across the United States. The survey has a confidence level of 95 percent with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

A common misconception, especially in revenue cycle management (RCM), is that automating processes by integrating technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies will replace employees and eliminate jobs. This perception can be traced all the way back to when machines replaced labor in many manufacturing jobs like the automotive industry and is continually being fueled by the media with the story lines such as AI-powered trucks will replace truck drivers.

Technology just keeps getting better and better, right? Not always. A recent survey of health IT leaders reveals that they are most often unhappy with their electronic health record (EHR) packages. Healthcare IT Today reports on a survey 108 healthcare leaders about their use of analytics platforms. It starts out with some fairly positive data: 90% of these organizations reported using the analytics in their EHRs.

The New Yorker Magazine takes a close look (via Clifford Marks, an emergency-medicine resident at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) at how primary care practices and physicians are taking it on the chin due to the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

To the layman, much of the language in the AI space can be mystifying, particularly in deep learning. Take for example one of the core elements; the node. A deep learning node is "a computational unit that has one or more weighted input connections, a transfer function that combines the inputs in some way, and an output connection. Nodes are then organized into layers to comprise a network."

A new podcast at PYMNTS.com features a conversation with Jennifer Barker, Managing Director and Head of Wholesale Payments Product Delivery at JPMorgan Chase & Co., on the topic of business resiliency in this unprecedented pandemic environment.

In an environment challenged by Coronavirus, the already significant problem of healthcare fraud is more harmful than ever. Blue Cross Blue Shield reports: The National Heath Care Anti-Fraud Association estimates conservatively that health care fraud costs the nation about $68 billion annually — about 3 percent of the nation’s $2.26 trillion in health care spending.…

RevCycleIntelligence.com cites a Commonwealth Fund study that shows outpatient visits for more than 50,000 providers declined by nearly 60 percent in mid-March when COVID-19 began to take hold, and the volumes have remained low through mid-April. Stay-at-home orders, of course, had much to do with the sharp downturn. Similarly, hospital visits also saw a substantial…

Moving from “big data” to “wide data” Visualization of data through DataOps and technology Data Visualization benefits for the Revenue Cycle Management In the digital world, we are seeing tremendous growth and robustness of data being collected through various systems, particularly in healthcare. According to a recent press release from Gartner: By 2020, most data and…

As the COVID-19 pandemic hopefully continues to subside — and the general population becomes more and more used to social distancing and appropriate use of facemasks — companies that had sent their employees home to work are beginning cautious steps toward bringing a portion of them back to the office. Cerner, for example, has begun…

In addition to disrupting the lives of nearly every person across the globe, the novel coronavirus has utterly upended physicians’ practices, according to a recent article at RevCycleIntelligence. A survey conducted April 10 to 13 by the Primary Care Collaborative and The Larry A. Green Center found that half of primary care practices are unsure…

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the labor landscape. With mandated shutdowns across the country for non-essential businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19, we’ve seen a shift toward working remotely, AKA “work-from-home.” Although official statistics are not readily available, according to Netskope – a provider of cloud security services for Fortune 100 companies –…

In the era of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s more important than ever for revenue cycle management to operate at maximum efficiency. Many practices are facing economic uncertainty and cannot afford any additional fiscal leakage. Indeed, as recently reported by Healthcare Finance News, waste and inefficiency can be a killer in this environment. How much waste…

The world continues its effort to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic. Governments have issued stay-at-home orders and have temporarily closed locations of nonessential businesses. PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released survey results that indicate pessimism among CFOs of healthcare organizations and other major companies regarding the impact COVID-19 will have on their bottom lines. As reported…

OrboNation readers are well aware of the value Artificial Intelligence has in Revenue Cycle Management. Still, as reported by RevCycleIntelligence.com, a recent Black Book survey of C-suite executives found less than half (44 percent) of healthcare organizations already use AI in some form or another. On the other hand, 88 percent anticipate widespread implementation within…

In response to the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, the United Arab Emirates have called upon insurers to streamline payments to stressed healthcare providers. As reported in The International Travel and Health Journal, outpatient visits spiked in early February. Now, timely — or even early — release of funds is vital in order to keep these facilities…

If you are a revenue cycle management professional, then you are most likely familiar with the Council of Affordable Quality Healthcare or CAQH — a non-profit alliance and leader in creating shared initiatives to streamline the business of healthcare. CAQH is at it again, actively tweeting to distribute findings from its 2019 CAQH Index on…

One of the primary topics scheduled to be covered at this year’s HIMSS20 was — no surprise – the use of Artificial Intelligence in modern healthcare administration. However, the “surprise” came a week ago when HIMSS20 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic — a wise move given the emerging nature of this worldwide medical…

A key component in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic appeared on March 13, as a new CPT® code — 87635 — streamlining novel coronavirus testing offered by hospitals, health systems, and laboratories in the United States. The American Medical Association provides details on utilizing the new CPT ® code: The full CPT code description…

Pymnts.com’s Karen Webster interviews Ingo Money CEO Drew Edwards about the world of instant disbursements, and whether their popularity heralds the possibility of eliminating checks in the healthcare spectrum. Their primary conjecture: At the dawn of a new decade, healthcare stands poised to embrace digital payments. Mr. Edwards states that when customers are given a…