Are AI Scribes Reducing Friction Between Clinical, RCM Teams?

For revenue cycle leaders, a new study on AI scribes offers a promising, if imperfect, tool to combat both clinician burnout and internal friction that threaten financial stability.

Ambient documentation technology (ADT) that uses artificial intelligence to draft clinical notes was associated with a significant reduction in clinician burnout and improved well-being, according to a new study of more than 1,400 clinicians at Mass General Brigham (MGB) and Emory Healthcare.

Results, published in JAMA Network Open, also suggest that ADT could be a powerful tool as providers are increasingly forced to grapple with rising volumes of claim denials, which are often rooted in clinical documentation gaps.

At MGB, the number of clinicians reporting burnout fell from 50.6% to 29.4% after 42 days of using ADT. Meanwhile, at Emory, the number of clinicians who reported that documentation processes had a positive impact on their well-being increased from 1.6% at baseline to 32.3% after 60 days of using ADT.

For revenue cycle leaders, results suggest that investments in AI scribes can help to improve satisfaction and deliver financial benefits through more accurate and robust documentation.

Addressing Friction in Rev Cycle-Clinical Relationships

Clinician burnout can threaten health systems’ financial stability by leading to higher turnover, increased recruitment costs, and lower productivity. Clinical documentation has also emerged as a point of tension between revenue cycle and clinical teams. About a third of revenue cycle leaders recently surveyed by HFMA said collaboration with clinicians on prior authorization processes created friction between the two sides.

ADT could help to reduce this friction and ease staffing concerns.

Some health systems are already leveraging AI to improve documentation with promising results. AdventHealth, for example, is using an AI-powered platform to bridge the gap between its clinical and revenue cycle teams. The tool helps the CDI team identify and prioritize records with the greatest opportunity for improved reimbursement and quality metrics. The result has been a more efficient physician query process and a reduction in "discharged not final billed" days, accelerating the system's cash flow.

The recent study also points to downstream benefits. One clinician noted that the AI-drafted assessment and plan were "often more complete than what I would have documented." This improved level of detail, captured automatically, could translate to more accurate coding, better justification for medical necessity, and a lower risk of claim denials.

A Promising, Imperfect Solution

While ADT is promising, it is not perfect. The study found that fewer than half of the clinicians at both institutions used ADT for 50% or more of their visits. There were also indications that it was less useful for certain specialties, like pediatrics and psychiatry, which have unique documentation requirements. Some users also noted that while the AI-generated text was helpful, it could be "superfluous, leading to bulky notes" that required significant editing.

Despite these limitations, the study's conclusion is overwhelmingly positive. Clinicians found the technology "exceptionally helpful," with one user stating that it has the potential to "fundamentally [change] the experience of being a physician."

While the study's authors caution that the low survey response rates may mean the results represent a best-case scenario from more enthusiastic early adopters, reported improvements are difficult to ignore. As health systems try new tools to address clinician burnout and the onslaught of payer denials, ADT is emerging as one of the most promising tools available for improving both the work lives of clinicians and the operational health of organizations.