Each week, more healthcare technology vendors add artificial intelligence enhancements to their products to optimize healthcare practice and provider efficiencies and personalize patient care. To that end, eClinicalWorks announced a series of artificial intelligence enhancements to its electronic health record products, including healow Genie – a fully integrated 24/7/365 contact center system – while athenahealth launched Ambient Notes into the athenaOne platform. 

To foster experimentation, athena designed Ambient Notes to enable its provider customers to access their choice of ambient documentation tools, like Suki and iScribe, without long-term commitments, the company said in an announcement Thursday.

Meanwhile, new tools from SmartDX can identify evidence and then leverage generative AI to create compelling appeal letters that may help them get paid faster and more accurately.

Athena to offer ambient tool choice

Ambient Notes, available in limited release for select athenahealth customers, will soon be available to all athenaOne customers in early 2025, the company said in a statement.

Integrated into clinical workflows, it offers flexibility and personalization for clinical note generation, supporting multiple AI-powered ambient models simultaneously. Practices and clinicians can switch seamlessly between models based on the individual needs and preferences, athena said.

Available models in the limited release are Suki AI, which uses generative AI to tackle tedious administrative tasks, including documentation, coding and answering questions, and supports 99 specialties, and iScribe AI from iScribeHealth, which uses ambient AI and an EHR integration aimed at reducing clicks when clinicians see patients.

With each model, clinicians will be able to activate ambient listening, conduct a visit and have AI-generated notes placed directly into the patient encounter for the clinician’s review without leaving athenaOne. 

The EHR vendor said additional models are expected to be added to Ambient Notes over time.

"Clinicians are constantly trying to balance demanding schedules and documentation burdens with a desire to deliver the best patient care and be fully present during every visit," said Paul Brient, athena's chief product officer, in a statement. "Our approach will give clinicians the unique flexibility and freedom to choose among leading ambient models that are best matched to the way they practice, regardless of what their colleagues select."

Dr. Lynn Joffe of DTC Family Health in Greenwood Village, Colorado, said Ambient Notes is making an impact on her practice. 

"Ambient Notes is already reducing our clinical documentation time, which is enhancing our provider-patient engagement during encounters," she said in a statement.

"As a busy practice with back-to-back appointments, we appreciate how easy it is to use without the need to toggle between systems, and how quickly and efficiently the solution documents notes without compromising accuracy."

Earlier this week, Affineon Health also announced that its clinical inbox technology, which can reduce provider time spent reviewing lab results, communicating with patients and automatically handling inbox "noise" is now available through athenahealth's marketplace.

eCW tackles more practice automation

Announced at the 2024 eClinicalWorks and healow National Conference this week in Grapevine, Texas, healow Genie uses natural language processing to answer patients' common questions and manage appointments, referrals, prescriptions and more for providers.

Whenever they need support, they can access Genie through voice call, text or chatbot.

eClinicalWorks, the largest cloud-based ambulatory EHR, said it also unveiled a series of AI tools that can help providers transform their operations. These include AI for Revenue Cycle Management, which the company said converts and auto-generates documents and also offers expanded information search capabilities, and value-based care scorecards driven by the eClinicalWorks CIPHER tool, which processes information from payers and EHRs through CommonWell and Carequality. 

The scorecards measure progress in meeting VBC goals. They bring quality, risk and coding metrics, and cost of care into one panel.

In addition, the company's Sunoh.ai medical scribe now supports Portuguese and Spanish.

"We believe that by working together and leveraging these groundbreaking AI enhancements, we can improve patient outcomes, reduce physician burnout and transform the patient experience," Girish Navani, CEO and cofounder of eClinicalWorks, said in a statement.

SmarterDx launches SmarterDenials

Using AI, SmarterDX, a hospital revenue technology company, said it has added more armament in the fight against payer denials.

The company said 15% of all claims are initially denied, and because denials have surged 20% in the last five years, hospitals spend more than $20 billion annually trying to overturn them.

SmarterDenials can help hospitals generate stronger clinical appeal letters by using AI – also leveraged by its SmarterPrebill platform – to identify needed evidence in the patient record and create comprehensive appeal letters with case-specific clinical evidence and coding references.

It can address complex denials, such as DRG downgrades and level-of-service disputes, when hospitals upload denied claims, according to the company.

Michael Gao, SmarterDx CEO and cofounder, said in a statement Monday the tool can help 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 have come at a better time," added Dr. Cam Patterson, CEO of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. "At UAMS, we've seen how rising denials adversely affect our bottom line, which ultimately impacts our ability to invest more in patient care. With AI, we can create strong appeals in a fraction of the time, which is a game-changer."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.