AI voice agents used to handle simple billing questions or basic appointment scheduling. But now, the technology can do much more. Cedar’s AI voice agent, Kora, is an example of this change. It answers patient billing calls for big healthcare providers like ApolloMD, which works with 138 hospitals and manages over 4 million patient visits each year in the U.S.
Kora uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) to understand complex medical billing questions. About 97% of patient calls to Cedar’s healthcare clients ask about things other than payments. They want help with co-payments, deductibles, itemized charges, and financial assistance programs. Kora gives relevant and natural answers without making patients wait on hold.
By the end of the year, ApolloMD expects Kora to handle about 30% of their patient billing calls alone. This change helps reduce the workload for call center staff, who are often overworked due to fewer employees and tight budgets. Dugan Winkie, Head of Commercial Strategy at Cedar, says that AI agents take care of low-value tasks. This allows human staff to focus on harder cases. This method makes call centers work better and lowers costs.
Kora can also notice a patient’s mood and tone during calls. If a problem is too complicated or emotional, Kora can transfer the call to a live employee smoothly. This helps keep patient trust and satisfaction when talking about financial issues.
Patients often find medical bills confusing. They struggle to deal with many groups like providers, insurers, and financial help programs. AI voice agents help by giving clear and quick financial advice. They work all day and night without making patients wait. Agents like Kora provide support for questions about bills, payment options, and financial aid immediately.
One important advantage is accessibility. Kora speaks many languages and helps different patient groups across the U.S. This promotes equal access to billing help. The agent also connects with healthcare data systems. This helps patients handle complex financial matters without needing to call several departments.
Amy Katnik, Chief Operating Officer at ApolloMD, says that patients want to pay bills but need easy, stress-free ways to do it. AI voice agents guide patients calmly through payments and connect them to financial aid programs. Kora uses Twilio’s Voice API and Stripe’s payment system for secure phone payments, including Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). This reduces unpaid bills by using funds that often go unused or lost every year.
AI voice agents do more than improve patient billing. They are part of bigger plans to automate work in healthcare organizations. Automation cuts down on manual work, uses resources better, and makes operations run more smoothly. This is important since administrative costs are rising.
Cedar’s Kora works with communication and payment platforms like Twilio and Stripe. This allows Kora not just to answer billing questions but also to take payments safely on the phone. Kora can handle complex payments with FSAs and HSAs. By automating payments and questions, healthcare providers get smoother financial processes with fewer missed payments.
AI voice agents also help call centers manage call volumes better. Billing calls often spike, which can make staffing and budgets hard to manage. By automating up to 30% of these calls, Kora lowers the chance of staff being overwhelmed and patients waiting too long during busy times.
The AI can track calls and financial data to predict future problems and needs. This helps billing departments focus on urgent or difficult issues and assign the right human staff. The AI acts as a first filter, quickly handling routine questions and passing tougher cases to specialists.
This kind of automation helps medical practice leaders control overhead costs, keep patients happy, and follow healthcare rules.
Technology that handles patient information must follow privacy laws and healthcare rules. Cedar’s Kora uses HIPAA-compliant security to protect all patient interactions and payment data.
Healthcare providers face growing security concerns. AI voice systems need strict access controls, encrypted communication, and clear data policies. Companies like Cedar make sure patients’ privacy comes first to build trust.
This strong security is important since Kora supports many languages and helps different patient groups across the U.S. It lowers barriers to help while keeping data safe.
AI voice agents are moving from simple question-answer tools to full digital concierges. Cedar’s plan for Kora shows this change by aiming to help patients through all parts of their healthcare financial journey, not just billing questions.
Future digital concierges will give personalized financial advice. This could include checking eligibility for insurance and financial aid, making custom payment plans, and reaching out to patients about bills and payment deadlines. They will connect with health records and billing systems to give advice that fits each patient based on their history.
Besides helping patients, AI concierges will assist healthcare staff. They will use data to predict workloads and prioritize important calls. Studies show AI and humans working together raise customer satisfaction by over 60% and reduce employee turnover. Staff spend less time on routine tasks and more on real patient care.
AI concierges also work well in other fields like finance, retail, and hotels. Studies show AI concierges increase customer satisfaction by about 25% and cut service costs by 40%. This suggests healthcare finance can get similar results by using AI concierge systems.
Medical practice leaders face challenges handling many billing calls while keeping costs in check. AI voice agents like Kora offer useful solutions.
Experiences from partners like ApolloMD, which serves millions of patients and many hospitals, show big benefits. Their COO Amy Katnik says AI voice systems help patients manage payments more smoothly, even with complex bills.
Healthcare groups planning to use AI voice agents should work with partners experienced in HIPAA-compliant AI. They should also introduce new systems gradually so staff and patients can get used to them.
New technology trends will shape how AI voice agents grow in healthcare finance in the coming years:
As these changes happen, healthcare finance teams in the U.S. will rely more on digital concierges to make patient communication smoother, improve money management, and reduce paperwork.
Medical practices that want to stay efficient and patient-friendly in a complex financial world should think about using AI voice agents. These tools not only solve administrative problems but also help make the patient financial experience better.
Cedar’s AI voice agent, Kora, automates patient billing calls for healthcare providers, answering billing questions, explaining charges, identifying payment options, and connecting patients with financial assistance, all in a conversational, human-like manner.
Kora reduces friction by eliminating hold times, providing 24/7 support, understanding natural language and sentiment, supporting multiple languages, and giving personalized financial pathways to help patients manage payments effectively.
Kora tackles staffing shortages, irregular call volumes, and rising administrative costs by automating billing inquiries, thus improving call center efficiency and enabling staff to focus on complex tasks.
Kora integrates with various healthcare ecosystem vendors to provide accurate information and help patients navigate complicated billing issues that often span providers and payers.
Kora is developed with HIPAA-compliant privacy and security safeguards ensuring patient data protection during billing interactions.
Kora can detect sentiment and tone in interactions, allowing it to respond empathetically and escalate to a live agent when necessary, enhancing patient experience.
ApolloMD reports reduced hold times, improved patient satisfaction, and expects around 30% of billing calls to be handled autonomously by Kora by year-end.
By collaborating with Twilio and Stripe, Cedar enables secure phone payments, including management of FSAs and HSAs, helping patients maximize their available financial resources.
Cedar aims to evolve Kora into a digital concierge navigating the entire healthcare financial journey, offering personalized financial assistance, eligibility assessments, and supporting call center staff with predictive data.
AI voice agents reduce reliance on costly call centers, handle high call volumes efficiently, improve patient satisfaction through empathetic engagement, and enable healthcare staff to focus on complex, high-value interactions.
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