Hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence tools as they submit insurance claims led to an additional $942 million in healthcare spending over a two-year period, according to an analysis by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
The BCBSA analysis found “a sharp increase in patients being documented as having complex conditions,” but argued there is a “clear disconnect between [medical] coding and treatment,” as there’s “no evidence of corresponding change in care delivered.”
The New York Times pointed the analysis as just the latest sign that AI is contributing to an increase in healthcare costs. While battles between hospitals and insurers over treatments and payments are nothing new, the NYT said the use of AI on both sides seems to be making it worse.
You’re getting downvoted by the never AI faction of Lemmy, but I think this is a solid use for AI in medicine. Human doctors have limited mental capacity and increasingly limited time allowed with each patient. Using AI to assist, not replace, practitioners with handling complex cases and identifying rare diseases is extremely beneficial. Complex cases significantly increase the likelihood of insufficient or improper treatment and rare diseases often take years or even decades to be diagnosed.
Limited time is HUGE for them. I just went to an appointment and the doctor rushed off after getting half of my symptoms noted lol. I cant read medical papers so having to digest 100’s of pages of them wasnt happening even if i did i cant interpret half the data correctly. AI worked well here. They kick ass tasks where everything is published online and the hard part is just reading it all. So far medicine, law, and accounting have all just been fantastic use of the service.