To hear health systems tell the story, artificial intelligence tools like ambient scribes are helping not only reduce doctor burnout, but also increasing payments from insurers that haven’t been compensating them properly. But on insurer earnings calls, the payers position themselves as white knights sounding the alarm on providers using AI to raise health care costs to an unsustainable level.
However, at least behind closed doors, both sides appear to agree that AI scribes are driving up health care costs.
“The investors, the health plans, and the providers, in private, were like, ‘OK, well, it’s quite clear scribes are increasing coding intensity. One hundred percent,’” said Caroline Pearson, executive director at the Peterson Health Technology Institute, describing a roundtable PHTI held earlier this year. The nonprofit institute, founded in 2023, evaluates the impact of new technologies on health care costs and quality.