AI solutions take administrative and data-entry work off mental health providers’ plates – giving them more time and energy to connect with clients
Artificial intelligence (AI) is making waves across our business and online lives, and it’s having a major impact in health care. The promise of AI in community behavioral health could have a profound effect on providers’ ability to meet needs for mental health and substance use treatment across Washington.
Many behavioral health organizations have started to harness AI solutions for administrative tasks, such as clinical documentation, enabling mental health professionals to focus their efforts on the activities they report as more fulfilling – and that make a real impact on client care. As a result, several organizations statewide and across the U.S. have shown dramatic results in reducing administrative load and staff burnout, and improving operational and financial outcomes.
Use of sophisticated IT is also a pillar of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model, fueling the data reporting needs that allows providers to achieve and maintain certification, and provide population-level views of needs and outcomes. Robust integration of technology and automation, including AI, is essential to CCBHC adoption and success.
Why turn to AI?
The need for behavioral health has long been outpacing the resources available to providers, especially in community behavioral health settings. Burnout is a major factor in fueling high turnover rates, and administrative burden is a key driver. According to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, 93% of behavioral health workers experience burnout, and more than a third spend more of their time on administrative tasks than they do caring for patients and clients.
A common concern among those in the health care field is that AI will remove the humanity from client care. But as the results illustrate, these solutions largely take administrative and data-entry work off providers’ plates – giving them more time and energy to connect with individuals and families on a human level.
Read on for a roundup of case studies courtesy of Eleos and Lyssn, two major health care AI platforms supporting community behavioral health organizations.
Freeing provider attention to focus on clients
In 2023, GRAND Mental Health rolled out Eleos documentation automation. The software quickly made a meaningful difference to staff, reducing provider documentation time by more than 50%. Overall, the organization saved more than 400 hours of staff time in the first 6 months after implementation.
Lior Biran, a clinical psychologist who specializes in a form of therapy called ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), said the use of AI has allowed him to be more present and invested in his clients’ sessions. Biran described the automation technology as a form of self-supervision so he can gain a wider perspective into a session and into a client’s needs for better treatment outcomes – all without changing existing workflows.
“The knowledge that there is the ability for me to listen and process the session later makes me more cognizant,” Biran said. “I can go back to certain parts of the conversation and see where I started to drift, for example, or where I interrupted or didn’t pick up on something important in real time.”
Streamlining workflow while improving outcomes
Weber Human Services is a publicly funded behavioral health agency, primarily serving Medicaid clients. Weber clinicians began recording sessions using handheld digital recorders that sat on their desks in 2012. They would then upload the sessions to share them with supervisors for review. Clinical leaders learned that to truly measure sessions at scale and determine if the right treatments were being used, they would need more capacity and a far more efficient system.
After a successful pilot program, Lyssn was integrated into the Weber workflow. Weber uses a hybrid approach with AI feedback and analytics. Supervisors incorporate the AI report information when coding sessions and use the platform to provide more specific and nuanced guidance to clinicians. With AI assistance, Weber can better demonstrate the effective and consistent use of evidence-based practices, improved skill levels of clinicians, and better outcomes.
The full integration of Lyssn was particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which clinicians were able to record sessions using the telehealth functionality and receive feedback remotely with time-linked annotated transcripts.
Catching the 95% of documentation errors
Based on a sample of claims from 2019-2021, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services found that improper payments – caused by missing documentation, documentation errors, undercoding, and upcoding – totaled more than $98 billion.
A large national behavioral telehealth company was concerned about billing errors and the potential clawbacks these mistakes could lead to. To identify as many instances of non-compliance as possible, they turned to AI, specifically the Eleos Health platform.
In an analysis of more than 5,000 notes, Eleos technology was able to identify 95% of improper documentation and discovered that 38% of clinical notes contained costly errors. Using Eleos Health’s Compliance Automation solution, the company saved $70,000 in potential clawbacks.
Staff members noted that the platform also made their jobs easier. Compliance staff were able to triage notes with improper documentation rather than spending time reading both correct and incorrect notes. Clinicians liked the assistance in correcting their notes and making sure they were complete and correct the first time, as spending time correcting notes only adds to their administrative burden.
“A few months ago, I had the opportunity to discuss Eleos with three organizations that had implemented the system, all of whom spoke highly of their experience with it. They shared that, since adopting this technology, they’ve seen a positive impact on their staff’s satisfaction due to the enhanced support they’re receiving. They also noted significant increases in client engagement, which correlate to better outcomes. It was the culmination of these benefits that truly convinced me of the value that investing in this technology will bring to our team.” – Jodi Daly, CEO of Comprehensive Healthcare, a member organization of Fourfront Contributor
What’s next?
Considering the promise of AI to help boost the power of our community behavioral health workforce, Fourfront Contributor is urging state lawmakers to consider funding for community behavioral health providers to adopt these and other proven platforms. If you have questions about how AI and more robust technology can help Washington’s community behavioral health providers keep pace with our communities’ needs, reach out to us anytime.