Artificial intelligence is helping physicians move the bar on clinical value -- Here's how

Clinical documentation is key to demonstrating value in outcomes-based medicine. Complete documentation helps to validate patient outcomes by reflecting the severity of a patient's medical condition, sharing key data with subsequent caregivers and optimizing claims processing and reimbursement. Although clinicians may think they are writing excellent clinical notes, physicians' unfamiliarity with ICD-10 coding often means their notes fail to meet heightened standards for specificity. When this happens, patient outcomes might not accurately reflect the quality of care provided, and may even negatively influence provider performance scores. "Once the final [patient] bill is established and sent out, that becomes what the rest of the world sees about the care you provided for that patient," Anthony Oliva, MD, vice president and CMO at Nuance, said during a discussion April 18 at Becker's Hospital Review's 8th Annual Meeting in Chicago.