I often say that my mission is to recenter the patient-clinician relationship as the heart of healthcare. What do I mean by that? I want clinicians to be able to focus more of their time on caring for and interacting with patients. And I want hospitals and other healthcare systems to have more resources to invest in the delivery of the highest-quality care.
Too many barriers are getting in the way of this critical relationship. Here are three of the biggest barriers and how hospitals and healthcare systems can start knocking them down, without having to wait for government policy changes or insurance industry reforms.
Administrative Burdens
Some physicians spend up to 50% of their time on administrative tasks. Even during patient exams, they must divert their attention (as much as 37% of their time) to entering data on a computer screen. This not only interferes with the clinician-patient relationship but also can lead to clinician burnout. My internist told me that he might retire early because, as he put it, “I didn’t go to medical school to hang out with a computer.
Solution: Healthcare systems can adjust their EHR systems and adopt other technologies — with a lot of input from clinicians — to eliminate unnecessary steps and clicks. In addition, a recent development offers the potential for even greater gains: the ability to use AI to automatically listen to, capture, and process the patient-clinician encounter, freeing the clinician almost completely from the computer screen during examinations.
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Prior Authorizations
These requirements were based on some good intentions, but they’ve grown out of control. Recent studies estimate that hospitals spend $10 billion annually on the prior authorization process and almost $20 billion to appeal denials. In one study, nearly 80% of physicians surveyed reported that issues with the prior authorization process “sometimes” or “often” lead patients to abandon treatment.
Solution: Modernize and automate the prior authorization process to speed up turnaround time. According to the 2023 CAQH Index Report, the U.S. healthcare industry could save more than $18 billion a year by transitioning to fully electronic transactions. Doing so will reduce complexity for hospitals, healthcare systems, clinicians and patients, alleviating the headache of paperwork and the stress of billing issues.
Impediments to investing in patient care
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The growth in administrative costs takes away money that healthcare systems could invest in care or use to reduce what they charge for care. The rise of for-profit healthcare complicates this issue further. Private equity firms, according to some sources, now own or operate more than 450 hospitals. Some pursue profits in ways that may lower the quality of care.
Solution: Counteract the growth in costs and the for-profit pressures for austerity by achieving operational efficiencies that free up funds for patient care. By reducing administrative overhead — through automating billing, streamlining workflows, and leveraging technology — healthcare systems can redirect those savings toward hiring more staff, upgrading facilities, improving access to care, or reducing prices.
I know these types of administrative changes can have a big impact, because I’ve seen the results firsthand, helping healthcare clients implement them for the past 20 years. The heart of healthcare has weakened, but we can still revive it. Let’s not wait around for someone else to act.
