How Large Language Models (LLMs) Will Revolutionize Healthcare Administration

Between 1975 and 2010, healthcare saw a 3200% increase in healthcare administrators compared to 150% physician growth within that period, according to a 2017 study. Much of this change can be attributed to physician health system consolidation, changes in regulations, public reporting requirements, and the 2009 HITECH Act that led to the mass adoption of electronic medical records, which, rather than leading to healthcare workforce reduction, increased the need for administrative help.

The future of healthcare administration

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a 32% growth in the employment of health administrators from 2020 to 2030, a rate dramatically higher than the average job growth for all occupations. 

Much of this growth can be credited to the baby boomers aging into Medicare and continuing to live active lifestyles, requiring more physicians and nurses to care for those patients. The current logic is the need for more healthcare administrators is necessary because the job outlook will expand due to the increased volumes of data, e.g., medical, operational, and financial data. As one senior vice president at a healthcare research organization stated more than 10 years ago, “At large hospitals, there are senior V.P.s, V.P.s of this, that, and the other.”

Since then, not much has changed — but the future is not predetermined, and with the innovation in artificial intelligence bringing large language models to use, healthcare organizations can reduce costs and improve efficiencies by adopting this technology.

How large language models (LLMs) can help

As healthcare organizations have grown and expanded over the past decade, healthcare financial, operational, and clinical reporting has become more complex. This requires hiring additional administrators, who spend hours working through request queues, preparing reports, and ensuring compliance with ever-changing government and internal company policies. Healthcare administrators require hefty six-figure salaries, health insurance, and PTO; they work only eight-hour workdays. For a fraction of the cost, healthcare organizations can invest in LLMs that work within minutes by analyzing large datasets and synthesizing insights to generate accurate financial reports that allow seeing how an independent provider part of a more extensive network of providers Medicare Advantage revenue has trended over the past quarter, a hospital executive to determine the nurse/patient staff ratio in a hospital and hospital floor, and analyzing clinical documentation to inform a physician of any documentation and compliance errors that would affect coding to reduce HCC recapture percentage among many other operational use cases.

Conclusion

LLMs represent a monumental shift in healthcare administration, particularly for finance and operations. By automating repetitive tasks, improving accuracy, and enabling data-driven decisions, LLMs promise to optimize processes, reduce costs, and free healthcare systems to focus on strategic goals. If adopted, the future of healthcare can be smarter, faster, and more efficient by reducing the administrative bureaucracy and bloat that comes with hiring additional healthcare administrators.

Photo: Carol Yepes, getty Images

This post appears through the MedCity Influencers program. Anyone can publish their perspective on business and innovation in healthcare on MedCity News through MedCity Influencers. Click here to find out how.