😏 Chatty Future

Good morning! 

Welcome to Healthcare AI News, your weekly dose of the latest developments and headlines in the world of healthcare AI.

In this issue, we explore Conversational AI, is it the next big thing in Health Insurance? A smart move on tax day, Why privacy is at risk as HIPAA fails to keep pace with digital health, and Sam Altman hits the road to hype OpenAI

Be sure to read on to see this week's Top headlines, Industry, Tech, and M&A news. 

Let's dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

• Should Insurers care about ChatGPT? (Read more)

• Promising new AI can detect early signs of lung cancer that doctors can't see (Read more)

• Public health must diversify which data ‘count’ in AI algorithms (Read more)

• Whoops, Samsung workers accidentally leaked trade secrets via ChatGPT (Read more)

• Cerner Enviza collaborates with FDA to develop innovative AI tools for drug safety and real-world evidence studies (Read more)

• A smart move on tax day: Sign up for health insurance using your state's tax forms (Read more)

• SAS & Duke Health announce intended collaboration to build the AI-driven digital health care system of the future (Read more)

• How generative AI and ChatGPT are shaping the contact center (Read more)

• ADM taps Brightseed’s AI platform to drive innovation with precision health outcomes for consumers (Read more)

💡 Keep reading to catchup on Industry, Tech & Deal flow

THE FEATURE

Is Conversational AI The Next Big Thing In Health Insurance?

The increased availability and accessibility of AI applications are driving solutions to manage variable workloads and human resource challenges in the insurance industry. 

While healthcare systems were struggling to find enough staff during the pandemic, lesser-known challenges came into play on the payer side. The sheer volume of inquiries and questions coming in on a daily basis became extremely difficult to manage. This situation perfectly illustrates one use case for conversational AI programs, often called chatbots, that are being increasingly utilized in the health insurance sector to perform customer service tasks and other learned functions.

The Evolution of Chatbots in Health Insurance

• Informational chatbots have been around for a while. They are typically a one-sided support communication that appears in the form of helpful pop-ups and notifications to help guide customers. These are a type of AI, but they are a basic version that is a precursor of more sophisticated types available today. Typically, as one navigates a website, these chat messages will pop up to answer frequently asked questions or to offer more detailed information on a topic.

• Conversational chatbots and newer conversational AI apps provide responses based on the user’s conversation. These AI bots have different levels of maturity and responsiveness, depending on how sophisticated they are. A simple chatbot might offer canned responses to common questions but refer the customer to a human representative for everything else. A more sophisticated chatbot can delve deeper than that, replying to follow-up questions and picking up context. This allows for more than pre-built answers. The more mature the chatbot, the more it processes the conversation as a whole, rather than processing isolated sentences and phrases.

• Generative AI Chat: As AI has matured and added functions like natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) to further understand human communication and intent, generative AI has emerged. 2023 has seen an explosion in new conversational technology like ChatGPT that has opened up a world of possibilities for healthcare. This is the new frontier of conversational AI. Imagine how effective conversational AI could be as it learns more from customer behavior over time. With interactive chat features, conversational AI can ask iterative questions and learn from the conversations.

• Prescriptive Chatbots are built to help provide actual therapeutic healthcare solutions, supporting preventative care efforts by insurance plans. These chatbots can be used to remind customers of scheduled appointments, provide medication reminders, flu-shot information, and to help manage chronic disease symptoms with evidence-based prompts. Several applications are available to help support mental health through therapeutic conversation – which may prove to be an intervention that helps manage higher-risk patients by intervening before mental health crises occur.

By the Numbers

• AI chatbots are predicted to create savings of $2 billion each year in the health insurance industry.

• China’s largest insurance company, ZhongAn Tech, fields 97% of its customer service interactions with AI bots, and only the most complex inquiries are relayed to human representatives.

• Research by insurers such as Premera Blue Cross into member experience is finding that more people are very comfortable engaging with technology solutions versus talking to a person.

• AI chatbots can overcome language barriers by communicating in customers preferred language.

• Today, approximately 84% of total healthcare costs are related to chronic conditions. Healthcare AI startups are now using predictive modeling to analyze medical records and recommend healthcare prior to a hospital or ED event. Chatbots can help harvest information from customers and also influence health decisions.

The growth of conversational AI is exponential. Consider Moore’s Law – an observation that computational power doubles roughly every 2 years. If you consider where we are right now with AI, and where we can be in 2,4 – even 10 years? It boggles the mind and is difficult to imagine the possibilities of a Chat GPT that is 32 times more powerful in a decade.

With so much more data to draw from, coupled with vast computing power, health insurance is only one industry that will be revolutionized. Common jobs like insurance agents, claims processors, and reviewers may be replaced or look quite different in the future.

At this point in time, the ROI is apparent for various conversational AI use cases in health insurance. Increasing numbers of insurers are likely to utilize chatbots for routine tasks – as well as increasingly complex prescriptive care initiatives. The future is exciting and poised for all types of new innovations that benefit payers and patients alike. 

INDUSTRY NEWS

• Microsoft, hospital group use court order to disrupt ransomware attacks aimed at health sector (Read more)

• The White House protecting access to medication abortion  (Read more)

• AI/ML Innovations introduces "Health Coach" - a personalized AI-powered health advisor (Read more)

• Privacy is at risk as HIPAA fails to keep pace with digital health (Read more)

• McKinsey Report 'The individual health insurance market in 2023' (Read more)

• Patientory launches Blockchain app enabling patients to earn money for their health data (Read more)

• Boston Children's Hospital hiring AI prompt engineer for ChatGPT (Read more)

• Mayo Clinic and Atropos Health demonstrate how to employ AI in Healthcare (Read more)

• How UPMC is bringing AI into patient care (Read more)

• New web platform launched by the ACMA to empower Healthcare providers in reporting unethical practices by pharma reps and medical science liaisons (Read more)

• Microsoft adds new cloud features for Healthcare Payers and accelerates AI capabilities (Read more)

TECH NEWS

• Bain & Company report Healthcare IT: Two very different half years (Read more)

• Cognizant and Microsoft collaborate to bring Microsoft cloud-based technology solutions to the Healthcare market (Read more)

• Salesforce brings HIPAA-compliant Commerce cloud capabilities and AI features to Healthcare and Life Science companies (Read more)

• How real-time data management is revolutionizing Healthcare (Read more)

• Back from the dead, IBM’s Watson AI is alive and Re-Emerging (Read more)

• As critics circle, Sam Altman hits the road to hype OpenAI (Read more)

• McKinsey & Company report, cybersecurity for the IoT: How trust can unlock value (Read more)

• Data gets real, where seeing is believing & paving the way for business change (Read more)

• Novel technique uses clinical data to predict disease risk (Read more)

• Is there a place for crypto in Healthcare? (Read more)

• KLAS: Approaches to moving Epic in the cloud 2023 (Read more)

DEAL FLOW

• WeightWatchers surges on obesity-drug related deal, new Wall Street bull (Read more)

• Availity to acquire utilization management solution and business unit from Olive (Read more)

• Aetna and Oshi collaborate to provide virtual care for digestive disorders (Read more)

• UnitedHealth Group acquires New York based physician group (Read more)

• Recuro Health closes $47 Million series B financing led by ARCH venture partners, advancing innovative virtual-first care service (Read more)

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