The Role of AI-Powered Platforms in Automating Manual Healthcare Phone Calls to Enhance Communication Efficiency and Accessibility

Manual phone calls have long been important in healthcare administration. Providers must check insurance benefits, verify patient coverage, process prior authorizations, and clear up billing issues by talking with payors or patients. However, this way has many problems:

  • Time-Consuming Processes: Staff spend a lot of time on phone calls, often waiting on hold because Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are slow.
  • Costly Administrative Burden: Healthcare admin costs are still very high. This strains budgets and leaves less money for patient care.
  • Communication Barriers: Misunderstandings and delays in phone calls cause frustration for patients and staff. This can lead to poor experiences and delays in care.

These problems show why better ways are needed to handle admin phone calls. Busy medical offices want to improve staff work and patient satisfaction.

AI Platforms: Transforming Healthcare Phone Communications

Infinitus Systems created AI made to automate healthcare phone calls. It is the first AI tool built to manage the complex calls between payors, patients, and providers. Fast Company named Infinitus one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2025. Their AI fixes common problems with old phone systems and IVRs.

The system handles over 100 million minutes of healthcare calls. It supports hundreds of thousands of patients and providers after six years. This shows AI is being accepted and works in healthcare admin work.

How AI Improves Communication Efficiency

AI phone agents make tasks faster by automating calls like insurance checks, prior authorizations, and claim status questions. Benefits include:

  • Reducing Hold and Call Times: Old IVR systems have long wait times that cause delays and frustration. In 2024, Infinitus launched FastTrack, an AI helper that lets call staff skip IVRs. This cuts hold times and helps staff finish tasks faster. This improves call center speed and capacity.
  • Handling Complex Insurance Information: Knowing details like copay accumulators is important for correct patient cost estimates and therapy choices. About half of those with commercial insurance are affected by these features. Infinitus AI can spot these and help staff give accurate info to patients quickly.
  • Streamlining Patient Access to Care: By navigating insurance rules and checking benefits automatically, AI cuts admin delays. This helps patients get appointments, medications, or procedures sooner.
  • Integrations with Key Healthcare Systems: Infinitus works with partners to improve its tools. Their AI connects with Salesforce Life Sciences Cloud to help insurance checks and prior authorizations. It also uses SMART on FHIR standards to work inside common Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. This lets staff keep working without switching platforms.

Impact on Healthcare Staff and Patient Experience

Administrative tasks take a lot of staff time, limiting work with patients. AI takes over routine phone tasks so staff can focus on more important work like patient care and clinical decisions.

For patients, shorter waits and quick answers lead to better involvement, higher satisfaction, and fewer missed care chances. They do not have to stay on long phone waits or use confusing menus.

For medical practice leaders and IT managers, AI like Infinitus can lower costs, improve staff work, and let more patients get care. This is very important when budgets are tight.

AI and Workflow Automation in Medical Practices

Using AI to automate healthcare phone calls is part of a bigger move to automate workflows in healthcare admin. AI tools take care of repetitive communication tasks, saving staff time and improving accuracy.

Key Points for Workflow Automation Include:

  • Automated Verification and Authorization: Tasks like insurance checks and prior auth follow set rules. AI does these automatically with fast responses and fewer errors.
  • Data Accuracy and Real-Time Updates: AI links to payer databases and EHRs so patient info stays current. This reduces back-and-forth calls and delays caused by old or incomplete data.
  • Integration with Existing IT Infrastructure: Infinitus partners with Salesforce and uses SMART on FHIR apps to embed AI in popular healthcare software. This stops wasted time switching apps and doing manual data entry.
  • Scalability of Operations: AI systems help medical practices handle many calls efficiently, especially during busy times or low staff. Routine questions are answered by AI, while complex calls go to humans.
  • Cost Containment: Automating phone admin work cuts costs for staff and call center needs—important for care providers working with small budgets or value-based payment models.

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The Shift Toward a Proactive Healthcare System

Ankit Jain, co-founder of Infinitus, says their AI aims to change healthcare from reactive to proactive. Now, people call only when problems happen, often delayed by slow processes. AI helps communication happen sooner by:

  • Finding coverage problems or denials earlier.
  • Speeding up authorizations for special drugs or therapies.
  • Checking patient benefits before services, so patients avoid surprise bills.

This proactive way helps patients get care faster, promotes better health, and lowers staff and patient stress.

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Considerations for Medical Practice Administration

Medical practice leaders in the U.S. can benefit from AI phone automation tools. When choosing AI like Infinitus, they should think about:

  • Compatibility with Existing Systems: AI must work with current EHRs, management, and payer systems to avoid workflow problems.
  • Customizability: Each office has different communication needs. AI should be able to adjust to many insurance plans, call types, and patient groups.
  • Data Security and Compliance: The AI must follow HIPAA and other rules to keep patient info safe.
  • Staff Training and Change Management: Staff need training to use AI well as a helper, not a replacement.
  • Vendor Support and Continuous Improvement: Updates and good customer service keep AI useful as policies and rules change.

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Summary

Using AI platforms to automate manual healthcare phone calls fixes many long-standing problems in U.S. healthcare admin. By cutting hold times, making benefit checks easier, and speeding prior authorizations, AI tools like Infinitus improve staff work and patient access to care.

Admin tasks cost billions every year. These AI solutions help medical offices work better, reduce admin burdens, and move healthcare toward more timely patient management. As AI joins more healthcare IT systems, communication will get smoother, and patients and providers will have better experiences across the United States.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Infinitus and its relevance to healthcare AI agents?

Infinitus Systems is a company providing the first AI platform specifically built to automate manual healthcare phone calls, recognized as one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025. It uses AI to streamline communication between patients, providers, and payors, enhancing healthcare accessibility and efficiency.

How does Infinitus AI agents improve over traditional phone IVR systems?

Infinitus AI agents bypass traditional Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, reducing hold times and call complexity by automating phone calls and allowing healthcare staff to handle administrative tasks efficiently, leading to time savings and scalability.

What are the financial implications of administrative tasks in U.S. healthcare?

According to CAQH, the U.S. healthcare industry spends at least $82.7 billion annually on administrative tasks, including manual phone calls for data exchange between payors, providers, and patients, highlighting the need for automation like AI agents.

What is FastTrack and its role in healthcare call centers?

FastTrack is an enterprise-ready AI copilot introduced by Infinitus in 2024 that assists healthcare staff such as reimbursement specialists by bypassing tedious IVR systems and reducing hold times, enabling call centers to save time and serve more patients efficiently.

How do Infinitus AI agents handle complex phone calls?

Infinitus AI agents can manage intricate calls, such as determining if a copay accumulator or maximizer applies to a patient’s health plan or therapy. This impacts out-of-pocket costs significantly and addresses insurance plan complexities affecting about half of commercial insurance holders.

What partnerships has Infinitus formed to enhance AI agent capabilities?

Infinitus partnered with Salesforce to integrate AI agents into Salesforce Life Sciences Cloud for insurance benefit verification and prior authorizations, and developed a SMART on FHIR app to launch AI products directly from popular EHR systems, boosting workflow and accuracy.

How do AI agents shift healthcare care from reactive to proactive?

By automating administrative phone calls and improving communication efficiency, AI agents facilitate timely access to care and information exchange, helping shift healthcare from reactive responses to proactive patient management and care coordination.

What is the scale of Infinitus AI agent deployment and usage?

Over six years, Infinitus has processed more than 100 million minutes of phone calls, supporting hundreds of thousands of patients and providers, illustrating significant adoption and impact in healthcare communication automation.

How do AI agents impact healthcare staff workload and patient service?

AI agents reduce administrative burdens on healthcare staff by automating time-consuming phone calls and tasks, enabling staff to focus more on patient care while improving patient service through faster information retrieval and reduced waiting times.

Why is eliminating inefficiencies in healthcare communication important?

Inefficiencies such as manual calls and IVR delays create barriers to care, increase costs, and slow service. AI agents help eliminate these, ensuring critical healthcare information moves seamlessly among patients, providers, and payors, improving overall system effectiveness.