Frequently asked questions about Olive at Becker’s HIT + Revenue
October 16, 2020
We’re back at Olive HQ after an amazing few days at Becker’s HIT + Revenue Cycle Conference, and we have to say, this was our favorite year yet. We had the chance to talk to over 300 leading healthcare executives at the Olive booth, and we’ve compiled a list of frequently asked questions to help you better understand how Olive is transforming the future of healthcare with AI.
Q: Will AI take healthcare jobs?
One ongoing conversation about the implementation of AI stems from the fear and trepidation about whether or not AI will take human jobs. But that’s not what AI should be doing at all – AI is automating the robotic tasks bogging down our most inundated industries, so humans can focus on more meaningful, human-centric initiatives such as patient care. For example, in healthcare today, workers spend more time in front of screens than they do in front of patients – a real problem that AI can effectively solve.
At Olive, we’ve already seen the workforce landscape fundamentally changing in the 500+ hospitals Olive is deployed at, because AI and automation are being used to supplement the work that human employees don’t have time to get to. We call it “Shiftwork” because it’s the trajectory through which our jobs as human employees will evolve over time to more meaningful tasks with the assistance of AI. For instance, at one hospital that hired Olive, employees that previously spent their days checking claim status now work on quality assurance and other tasks that are more suited for a human.
Q: How does Olive go beyond RPA? How/where is AI actually used?
An AI-powered digital workforce goes beyond traditional RPA in 3 very important ways:
- Not all automations a digital employee does can be performed by a RPA or a human – in many cases, a digital employee uses AI-powered deep learning techniques to accomplish far more complex tasks.
- Unlike a static RPA bot, a digital workforce can learn, adapt to change their work based on new intelligence.
- A digital employee interacts with managers to provide business intelligence and recommendations on improved ways to handle tasks, so they continue to generate value long after deployment.
As you begin your journey with AI, starting with workflows that leverage less complex technologies such as Robotic Process Automation and Computer Vision provides value and return on investment quickly and helps lay a solid foundation for your long-term AI strategy. That’s because, while RPA can quickly and accurately process large volumes of data, AI-powered digital employees layer artificial cognition on top of an automation, using that data to make decisions or take action with cognitive “thinking” involved.
To learn more about how Olive goes beyond RPA, read CEO Sean Lane’s perspective on the topic here.
Q: How do you think about vendor selection?
Going live with your first AI or automation project should be a step towards a longer-term AI strategy. And in a time when nearly every technology vendor is touting AI-enabled products and pilot programs, it can be difficult to determine which vendor is invested in your organization’s long-term success. As you go into the implementation process, work with your vendor’s team to ensure all stakeholders understand the technology and level of commitment and engagement required for successful custom development of your AI technology.
Here are just a few of the key questions to ask potential vendors to help you take an impact-driven approach to AI implementation:
- How much experience does the vendor(s) have in health systems or in healthcare?
- What is their approach for putting healthcare data security first?
- What is their previous experience as a partner and trusted advisor?
No two healthcare organizations are the same. And because the challenges healthcare workers face are unique – like complex software integrations, overburdened staff, shrinking margins and increasingly strict security and compliance requirements – the industry needs an AI solution made specifically for them. Read more about what to look for in the right AI & automation vendor in this full article.
Q: What are your primary use cases? How many hospitals are you deployed in?
Olive is deployed and working across enterprises in over 500 healthcare organizations, handling tasks that are high-volume and error-prone. Although Olive has deep experience and expertise in the revenue cycle, she frequently works in information technology (IT), supply chain, human resources and more! Here are just a few of Olive’s common roles:
- Benefit & Verification Discovery
- Prior Authorization Management
- Denial & Rejection Management
- Vendor Contract Management
- Invoice Processing
- Inventory Management
- Periodic Reporting
To learn more about Olive, visit Our Solution.
Q: How do you price?
Olive is the only healthcare-specific artificial intelligence solution sold as a service (AIaaS) – that means one annual subscription price and an all-in-one approach to increased efficiency and improved revenue. The simplest way to think of Olive is as a digital employee – she earns an annual salary, completes a defined and pre-agreed upon job, and is expected to not only perform, but excel.
We created AIaaS because we think the current purchasing model for AI is broken. Before AIaaS, if an organization wanted to use AI to automate something, they had to worry about licensing fees, software purchases, consultants, integrators, implementation costs, support, maintenance – not to mention the internal resources needed to manage it. And if the software they’re automating changes, or if business rules change, the customer is on the hook to pay more money to consultants and integrators to get everything working again, making it difficult to calculate the true cost and ROI of AI investments they’re considering.
Q: How much involvement from my internal resources is required?
Even when implementing a new software could be extremely beneficial in the long run, the resources required can sometimes be shocking. That’s why Olive is ushering in a new approach to technology integration – one that significantly lessens the burden on employees and resources across all departments.
When you hire Olive, our team at Olive HQ will work with you to identify the scope of work and jobs that she will complete (taking lessons from all the other Olives we have deployed at healthcare organizations similar to yours). Next, our team will train her across those processes, ensuring she’s fully functional before she starts full-time. Once live, she works autonomously to manage her ongoing responsibilities, automating routine, high-volume, error-prone tasks. Because an organization’s commitment to this work is critical to Olive’s success, during this process, there are normally 2-4 stakeholders being kept in the loop on Olive’s progress as 4-8 subject matter experts help inform the work that Olive will be taking over.
Q: Can I have those Olive socks?
Sorry, the Olive merch isn’t for sale… yet.