Health execs rank IT a top priority but demand AI returns: Bain
- About 95% of providers and payers rank health IT among their top five priorities.
- Bain & Company and KLAS Research surveyed 303 U.S. healthcare executives.
- 43% of acute care providers named revenue cycle management a top investment priority.
- Executives with formal AI return thresholds most often target 3.0 to 3.9 times.
MASSACHUSETTS, UNITED STATES — Nearly 95% of U.S. healthcare providers and payers rank software and digital technology among their top five strategic priorities, even as investors fret about a “SaaSpocalypse” in healthcare software.
Executives still plan to spend, but they now want tools tied to a specific use case, with measurable returns and a short time to value.
Providers put revenue cycle tools first
The findings come from a survey of 303 U.S. healthcare executives by Bain & Company and KLAS Research, Healthcare Dive reported.
Among acute care providers, 43% cited revenue cycle management (RCM) as a top investment priority, while 40% named patient access and engagement tools.
Independent physician groups said patient access and engagement and RCM tools were their top IT investment areas.
Over half of providers would prefer an electronic health record (EHR)-native tool with basic or partial functionality to a third-party solution for clinical tasks.
Payers focused on member care coordination and utilization management, care navigation, and claims processing and payment.
AI must now pay for itself
About 75% of providers described themselves as optimistic about artificial intelligence (AI), particularly for ambient documentation and chart summarization.
About 60% of payer executives said AI was meeting or exceeding their return on investment (ROI) expectations, including in call center operations.
Many organizations have no formal return threshold, but those that do most often target a return of 3.0 to 3.9 times the original investment.
“Much early adoption has been based on intuition and optimism, but as AI enters its next stage of maturity, there is a growing sense that the bill is coming due: ROI will become increasingly important to sustain investment,” the report authors wrote.
The report said nearly 80% of acute providers think generative AI advances will increase their EHR switching costs or have no impact, despite investor fears that AI could weaken incumbent software vendors.
Limited internal IT resources and conflicting priorities remain the main barriers to deploying technology, the authors found.
For hospital finance leaders, that gap between investment plans and internal capacity puts medical billing and claims work at the center of the ROI test.
Health systems short on IT staff can weigh healthcare outsourcing for RCM and call center workflows, comparing options among the top U.S. healthcare outsourcing companies before committing new budget.
Related news
- BCBSA links AI hospital coding to $942Mn in added costs · 30 Sep
- AI speeds prior auth but raises costs: PHTI · 16 Sep
- Revenue cycle management hits its boardroom moment · 8 Jul
Disclosure: Outsource Accelerator uses AI tools in the backend of its editorial workflow. Every article is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication.
Stay ahead in healthcare outsourcing. Join thousands of healthcare and business leaders who rely on Outsource Accelerator for the news, trends, and expert insights shaping medical BPO and the future of care delivery. Subscribe to our free newsletter and never miss an update.
