Since last summer, health insurers have been telling investors that hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence tools for medical coding and billing is driving up the cost of health care.
Insurers claim this emerging practice is hurting their bottom lines, and have been implementing programs to fight it and pay doctors less if they think the higher billing wasn’t justified. But until now, no insurers have publicly offered proof of AI-driven overbilling by hospitals.
Now, a new report from a data analysis firm associated with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association offers the the first possible evidence that AI coding may be behind insurers’ increased expenses, and that it may be driving up the cost of health care. The insurer claims AI-driven coding inflation could be the cause of $663 million in additional inpatient spending.
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