Nine questions to ask any vendor who says "AI-powered"

Ask what the software does, on which accounts, and who does the rest. A vendor that uses AI well can answer in a sentence and show you on a screen. A vendor that is hiding behind it will change the subject.

I build software for a living, and I think the progress in AI over the last few years is remarkable. We use it every day. I also think most of what gets said about it in revenue cycle marketing is somewhere between vague and untrue.

That leaves you with a problem. Every vendor's website says the same thing, and you have no way to tell which of them has built something useful. These nine questions are how I'd find out.

What it does

1. What, specifically, does the AI decide? "It prioritizes accounts by likelihood of payment" is an answer. "It optimizes your revenue cycle" is not.
2. Can you show me that on a real screen, now? Not a slide. Not an animation. The thing itself, with test data.
3. What did you do before you had it? If the honest answer is "the same thing, with rules and a spreadsheet", that's fine. It tells you the AI is an improvement on a working process, not a substitute for one.

What it doesn't do

4. Who picks up the phone when a patient calls back? This is the one that ends most conversations. Software can send a text. A confused patient with a $2,000 bill needs a person.
5. Who writes and files the appeal? A model can draft a letter. Somebody has to attach the right records, send it to the right address, and track the deadline.
6. How many people work my accounts, and where are they? A vendor that says "the AI just does it all" either has people it isn't mentioning or isn't doing the work.

What happens when it's wrong

7. How often is it wrong, and how do you know? Every model makes mistakes. A serious vendor measures them and can tell you the number.
8. What happens to an account it gets wrong? Does a person review it? Does the patient get a letter they shouldn't have?
9. If I turned the AI off tomorrow, what would I lose? The best answer is specific and modest: "We'd be slower at sorting, and we'd miss some coverage we currently catch."

Our own answers

It would be unfair to ask these and not answer them. Our software sorts accounts by what is most likely to resolve them, flags coverage that was never billed, and spots denials that were resubmitted without fixing the cause. People explain bills to patients, file appeals, and sit down with our clients every month. If we turned the software off, we would be slower and we would miss things. We would still do the work.

None of that is a slogan. It is a list, and we will show you any line of it.

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